A formação de professores na área de educação ambiental : tendências da produção científica em eventos nacionais

Abstract

The aim of this research is to understand the profile and trends of the scientific production related to the theme of teacher education in the field of environmental education (EE), in a temporal cut from 2001 to 2017, by analyzing the publications in three Brazilian national events: Working Group 22 - Environmental Education of the National Association for Research and Graduate Studies in Education (ANPEd), Working Group 6 - Society, Environment and Education, Meetings of the National Association for Research and Graduate Studies in Environment and Society (ANPPAS) ) and Environmental Education Research Meetings (EPEAs). The methodological course of the research attends to three moments: 1) selection of the data of the national events from a database constructed previously and maintained by the research group; 2) record the data in an editor of spreadsheets to organize and systematize the specific information collected; 3) data analysis through statistical and interpretive tools. For that, we used Descriptive Statistics Analysis (AED) and Statistical Implication Analysis (ASI) to support the description, summarization and interpretation of the data, indicating possible non-linear relations or implications between variables defined "a priori". In a complementary way, we also used hermeneutics to understand the meanings present in the abstracts and / or full texts, which allowed us to construct interpretations referring to the thematic and methodological focuses of the scientific production under analysis. The results suggest that the scientific production related to teacher training in the field of EE is still under development, accounting for about 15% of the total EA production in the events; in this part of the scientific production of the area, there is a dominance of Empirical Researches, which add almost 90% of the total, with main thematic focuses in Teaching Practices (approximately 35%) and Conceptions and Senses (about 20%), followed by low expressivity. Because it is a field in formation, the theoretical-methodological frameworks follow the same diverse trend, establishing different combinations among each other, such as a mosaic in which theories and methodologies are apparently juxtaposed without conflict. In the background, theoretical-methodological perspectives based on Teaching Knowledge (85%) dominate, to which are added other perspectives such as Freirean and curricular approaches, mainly. Our analysis also revealed that the Northeast Region has been contributing systematically to this area, which is a strong point to highlight. In general, the analysis indicates that teacher training, so dear to the field of educational research, requires more attention from researchers in environmental education, as well as maturation of its thematic and theoretical-methodological lines as guides for new research in the field. In particular, the importance of investing in theoretical research and trend analysis is highlighted.