A educação ambiental como processo inicial na constituição de escolas sustentáveis: o caso da Escola Municipal de Educação Infantil e Ensino Fundamental Maria Cândido de Oliveira.

Abstract

The establishment of Sustainable Schools in public education, once it is present in the MEC (Brazilian Ministry of Education) official guidelines, represents to the educators a challenge to the teaching practice. Environmental Education in school contributes to the formation of people in the perspective of human and environmental sustainability, and forming ecological individuals is one of the educational goals in this century. This paper aimed to understand Environmental Education as a mediating pedagogical process in the construction of Sustainable Schools. The research was carried out in a public school in the countryside of Paraíba state from October 2014 to July 2015. The collaborative action-research was adopted as a methodological strategy. Observations, documental analyses, use of interview and fulfillment of lectures as well as pedagogical workshops mediated by cross-sectional themes regarding the environmental issues were accomplished. The workshops involved didactic modalities, such as: lectures, classes based on dialogue, practices of Environmental Education with production of posters and contextualized studies. As results, the environmental issues were part of the Pedagogical Political Project. We perceived, thus, that the teachers are willing to contribute to ecological practices whose focus is on sustainability. The students got involved and demonstrated motivation and endeavor. We noticed that the implementation of activities in regard to taking care of the school environment provides a sustainable profile, and its effectiveness becomes viable. Educational practices and the establishment of a sustainable school are responsibility of the community and the educators involved in a qualified formation of basic education