Female protagonism in facing of extreme climatic and meteorological events: case study with women educator

• Grant number: 23/03674-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: July 01, 2023
• End date: September 30, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Interdisciplinary Subjects
• Principal Investigator: Sonia Regina da Cal Seixas
• Grantee: Amasa Ferreira Carvalho
• Supervisor: Maria Antonia Pereira de Resende Pedroso de Lima
• Host Institution: Núcleo de Estudos e Pesquisas Ambientais (NEPAM). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Portugal
• Associated to the scholarship: 20/16085-9 - Female protagonism in facing of extreme climatic and meteorological events: case study with women educator, BP.DR

Abstract

Extreme weather events are one of the biggest challenges faced by contemporary society. Despite their environmental nature, such as floods, landslides, and droughts, they are part of a much more complex social problem. They affect ecological systems and unequally impact populations, such as women. The importance of listening to women emerges from their social roles as mothers, heads of households, community leaders, and teachers. Although there are discussions about gender and climate change, there is a lack of integrated studies that aggregate women's experiences and adaptive capacities in the educational field. In this way, studying women educators, especially in the context of climate change, becomes so important, because they, in addition to their social roles, have knowledge from their academic background that can allow them to discuss the topic in the classroom. The main research project, therefore, is a case study with a qualitative approach focusing on women educators who work in public schools located in areas at risk of flooding in two cities in the State of São Paulo: Atibaia and Caraguatatuba. These cities are significant from a socio-environmental and economic point of view, in addition to historically facing extreme weather events, such as floods and heavy rains. This research aims to analyze how women educators work based on their pedagogical strategies used in the context of extreme weather events in the cities studied. It has three specific objectives: 1) to identify how women educators work with extreme weather events in the classroom and what materials they use; 2) to investigate these women's responses about mitigation and adaptation in their schools and cities; and 3) to identify what they propose to be done on the issue of extreme weather events in education in their cities. Field research took place from February to May 2022. 102 female educators were interviewed. In the selection of the interviewees, the non-probabilistic sampling process was used and for the analysis, the content analysis technique is being used. All interviews were recorded, and transcribed and are being analyzed using the NVivo 10 software. Based on the data already analyzed, the average age of the interviewees is 41 years old and the average time working in education is 17.5 years. 71% of them reported having experienced situations of extreme weather events at some point in their lives. As preliminary results, all the interviewed women educators answered that climate changes are already happening and their experiences with periods of flooding in their cities corroborate meteorological data from annual and daily precipitation time series. 92% of respondents listed mitigation and adaptation responses to climate change. In addition, 71.2% of the interviewees mentioned educational proposals to face the climate crisis. Although the qualitative analysis is still being carried out, it can be considered that women educators are protagonists in local actions that dialogue with global proposals such as those of the 2030 Agenda.Keywords: Women; education; climate crisis. (AU)