Environmental education and management of São Paulo State conservation units: articulation of knowledge in the construction of learning communities

• Grant number: 19/19528-1
• Support Opportunities: BIOTA-FAPESP Program - Regular Research Grants
• Start date: June 01, 2020
• End date: May 31, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Education - Specific topics in Education
• Agreement: Secretaria de Meio Ambiente, Infraestrutura e Logística - Fundação Florestal
• Principal Investigator: Rosana Louro Ferreira Silva
• Grantee: Rosana Louro Ferreira Silva
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: ADRIANA NEVES DA SILVA ; Beatriz Vieira Freire ; Carmen Lúcia Melges Elias Gattás ; Denise de La Corte Bacci Toledo ; Natalia Pirani Ghilardi-Lopes ; Vanessa Puerta Veruli
• Associated scholarship(s): 20/10609-6 - Systematizing environmental education knowledge and production in protected areas, BP.TT

Abstract

As goals 1, 17 and 19 of the Aichi Goals depend primarily on a society that proposes to participate in discussions and decisions related to biodiversity andsocial and environmental sustainability, making it necessary to discuss and dialogue onknowledge of the relationship between scientific knowledge on biodiversity withcultural diversity of local communities. In this sense, a research in EE offers ways toengage the public with environmental issues through participatory action, one of thecharacteristics of critical EE, to assist in monitoring subjects for changes in values andattitudes. From references on participatory teacher education, environmental education,educomunication and social learning, changes were found in the constitution of learningcommunities, whose structure is formed by a group of people who are using a commonlearning objective, in a dialogue dynamic, to solve a problem of concern or to build acommon project. The main objective of the project is to investigate the collaborativeconstruction of environmental education plans and practices, as well as to offer thedissemination of this knowledge among units, entities and actors, with subsidiary viewsas management to subsidize the management teams of the conservation unit in theireducational activities and social and environmental relations aimed at the conservationand sustainable use of biodiversity. A research is based on quantitative and qualitativeapproaches (mixed method), originated from initial research questions. The maininstruments we will use will be the productions of the different social actors (videos,environmental education plans, social and environmental mapping, records of trainingactions, among others), questionnaires, interviews and focus groups. Perform statisticalanalysis of data using the SPSS and NVivo software as a tool. Evaluative questionnaireswill also be used in the process of training teachers and environmental monitors. Basedon the first data analysis we will seek to strengthen relations with the managementteams of four conservation units that agree to participate in this investigation and thatrepresent substantial social and environmental problems in agreement with our actionframeworks. The project aims to follow the construction and implementation of the EEplans in these four conservation units. In a later stage we will use focus groups todiscuss partial results with the management team and to build innovative trainingprocesses and environmental education plans in the conservation units. The expectedresults are in accordance with the described references to involve the local communityin the management of the conservation unit, encouraging a more active participation inthe management council and in the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversityactions. Some tools will be prioritized, such as educommunication (film and othermedia production), citizen science (theme of bee decline and biodiversity management),and teacher training (chain action in schools around determined conservation unit,causing sense of belonging and generating community participation in the conservationunit management council). The results will be made available continuously during theproject, as it will be developed in partnership with the community/participants involvedin the project, through the dissemination of training courses and workshops, videoproduction, partnership with the management council of the conservation unit,preparation of teaching material to support the training of teachers and environmentalmonitors and preparation of books at the end of the project. Therefore, we hope that theresearch will provide subsidies for other conservation units to improve theirenvironmental education plans and implement or replicate the training of monitors andteachers, involving the local community according to the reality of the state park, using social learning. (AU)