Environmental educative experiences in rural area: systematization and construction of research questions from actions developed in rural schools of Araras (SP)

• Grant number: 10/00620-0
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: August 01, 2010
• End date: July 31, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Agronomy - Rural Extension
• Principal Investigator: Rodolfo Antônio de Figueiredo
• Grantee: Rodolfo Antônio de Figueiredo
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Agrárias (CCA). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). Araras , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The environmental education is a pedagogical practice which action is directed toward the relations established between individuals, society and nature. The research in this area, therefore, can be focusing in the action properly said or in the educative process in itself. The research project considered here is aimed to investigate the environmental educative actions developed in the six existing rural schools in Araras (SP), systemize and analyze them in their theoretical and political referentials, in order to understand the pedagogical options of the teachers in such actions, as well as their impacts in the agricultural communities. The rural school is an important space of construction of knowledge and practical experiences for the rural children and the actions undertaken in this space reflect in their families and communities. The construction of research questions from practical educative actions is justified for the possibility to bring reflections on the social relevance of the research and the educative environmental action, beyond making possible a participative knowledge construction through the valuation of what already was done. The methodology employed is qualitative, and in the different phases of the research the techniques of socio-environmental participative diagnosis, environmental perception, systematization of experiences, and analysis of meanings through hermeneutic phenomenology will be used. The result expected with the use of these procedures is the generation of a deepened understanding of the environmental actions in the rural schools and their motivations, what after be critically analyzed will allow the proposal of new research questions in the area of rural environmental popular education for the region. (AU)