Educação ambiental e consumerismo em unidades de ensino fundamental de Viçosa-MG

Abstract

The environmental issue is one of the main concerns of the modern society, and for this reason, triggers a series of initiatives in the sense of reversing the present situation of the degradation of natural resources and harmful consequences to life on Earth. One of those initiatives is the environmental education that 1st and 2nd grade schools are trying to implement, in order to develop conscious citizens and committed with the main concerns of the society. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of that initiative. With this in mind, the objective of this study was to diagnose how the primary and secondary schools in the city of Viçosa-MG, are causing a change in the consumption standard of their students, making them assume the so called environmental consumerism. In this study, 8th grade students from the urban area of Viçosa of primary public (municipal and state) and private schools were interviewed in relation to environmentally correct consumption of products. The objective was to evaluate the influence of the environmental variable on a product purchase decision; to identify the motives that revented them from assuming an environmentally correct attitude; and to propose leverage points for improving environmental education for increasing environmental awareness towards consumerism. The main results obtained were the following: most students (61%) confirmed not to participate in project of Environmental Education according to the National Curricular Parameters. The students feel capable of a great contribution to environmental themes related to garbage or waste and conservation in the school and the city. However, most of them have inadequate behavior with practices related to garbage, not placing it in appropriate sites; and towards reusing food and paper, a significant number affirmed they never or rarely do it. The majority of the students declared they take long showers (80,56%) and leave more than one domestic appliance on at the same time (70,42%). Regarding water, 63,80% of the interviewees, sometimes or always, consume water excessively. Thus, it may be inferred that the projects of environmental education being developed in the primary schools in the city of Viçosa-MG have been more discursive and theoretical than practical, besides not being providing the expected change in the consumption standard and not adopting the environmental consumerism. In fact, what is realized is that the students express contradictions between an “another” that degrades the environment and a “we” that should be conscious, stopping them from identifying themselves as environmental predatory subjects. The great challenge of the dissonance between theory and practice that the Environmental Education has faced may be broken the moment that the projects become simple, objective and adjusted to the student’s home-school-community daily experience. Projects should be developed in an interdisciplinary way, with a theoretical substantiation on the part of the instructors and the rupture with the Cartesian model of education, making space for questioning and reflection, which are characteristics of Environmental Education.