The environmental perception of teachers in a public school in the city of Upanema-RN

Abstract

In the last centuries, especially after the Industrial Revolution, the relationship between man and nature have caused damage to planetary ecosystems. This environmental issue requires changes in the values and productive way of life of the current human civilization. However, the construction of a planetary ecological mentality may occur through the implementation of environmental education, which disseminates new values and contributes to overcoming the destructive environmental perceptions that predominate among social actors in the contemporary world. Therefore, the objective of this article is to identify and describe the environmental perceptions of teachers at a public elementary school in the city of Upanema-RN. For this, an questionnaire was applied with four teachers from this educational establishment, and we analyzed the responses based on the theoretical and methodological references of critical environmental education. In view of this, we realized that among teachers, concepts and values predominate on the environmental theme, which is focused on a very reductionist and disciplinary conception of the environment. This limitation results in the practice of environmental education practices from conservative currents, which hide the relationships of domination between man and nature, and contribute to the perpetuation of the consumer society and its destructive logic, which leads humanity to a serious civilizing catastrophe since the misuse natural resources, the form of production and the waste generated.