Do lixo à lição: uma caminhada por saberes ecológicos em minha formação e prática docente

Abstract

This text is the result of a narrative journey and presents the process of constructing my knowledge throughout my doctoral studies. I sought to understand, through a narrative approach, how experiences with waste recycling and environmental awareness in teacher education were shaped by an extension project, analyzing their contributions to reflection on sustainability, investigating the learning and perceptions involved, and reflecting on the connection between community outreach, teaching, and research in strengthening environmental pedagogical practice. The research developed from actions carried out during and after the university community outreach project. "Once upon a time there was trash: workshops with reusable material,” conducted at the Federal University of Uberlândia (UFU), which constituted my field of research. Qualitative in nature (Ely, Vinz, Anzul, & Downing, 2005), the study is grounded in Experience Theory (Dewey, 1976), with a theoretical and methodological approach of Narrative Inquiry (Clandinin; Connelly, 2011), assuming an autobiographical configuration in which lived experiences became material for investigation and understanding. This personal trajectory, embedded in a broader movement of constructing meaning and knowledge in language, led me to understand the theme of waste and consumption, as well as to analyze socio-environmental inequalities. This journey allowed me to recognize that the issue of waste is deeply intertwined with racial and structural problems and the invisibility of racialized groups (Ferdinand, 2022), marginalized groups (Acosta, 2016), and indigenous peoples (Krenak, 2020). By analyzing the inconsistencies present in my own practice, I understood that teacher education (Morin, 2000; Freire, 1987, 1996) requires a continuous reflective stance. This movement led me to realize that environmental issues and global problems reflect the strength of capitalism as well as the contradictions of proposed sustainable development as a global goal. The thesis allowed me to recognize and value ecological knowledge as a form of practical, relational, and ethical knowledge, manifested in sensitive listening, in the care with what is considered disposable, and in the pursuit of sustainable practices, in resistance to the dominant logic of disposability and consumption.