Education against the catastrophe
Climate emergency demands pedagogical adjustments in Brazilian basic education; IG thesis proposes pathways.
In the face of the global climate emergency, the formation of conscious and active citizens becomes fundamental. In Brazil, basic education is the starting point for this, as it is the foundation for the country's human, social, and economic development. But how, then, can we promote Climate Change Education (CCE) in the context of Brazilian basic education? This was the starting point of the thesis defended by Daniela Resende de Faria in the postgraduate program in Teaching and History of Earth Sciences at the Institute of Geosciences (IG) of Unicamp.
The researcher sought to understand, within the Brazilian context, the state of the art of CME (Climate, Transcendental, and Civic Education), a field that aims to teach, reflect on, and act upon the causes, consequences, and solutions related to the climate crisis, forming citizens capable of understanding the problem and actively participating in its mitigation and adaptation. To this end, Faria dedicated herself to analyzing proposals for promoting CME present in official documents that guide basic education, developing didactic proposals, and conducting interviews with 65 active teachers in basic education from various parts of Brazil.
The research results indicated the presence of three fundamental pillars: student-centered critical education; interdisciplinary approaches; and the students' real-life context. The researcher identified that the lack of resources and clear guidelines to promote EMC (Education for Citizens and Morals) is a significant obstacle to teaching the subject. "We realized that the difficulties range from a lack of guidance in materials and normative documents to a lack of didactic and pedagogical resources," comments Faria.
The investigation demonstrated that, for Moral and Civic Education (MCE) to cease being a one-off topic addressed only in certain subjects or on specific dates, a profound pedagogical restructuring is necessary. Despite the growing presence of the topic in the National Common Curriculum Base (BNCC) and other guiding documents, the research revealed a chasm between what is advocated and what is actually practiced in the classroom.
Daniela has worked with classes from 6th grade to the 3rd year of high school, in addition to working as a teacher trainer for basic education. She knows the reality of classrooms well and understands that many educators feel unprepared or overwhelmed to address such a complex, interdisciplinary, and often politically sensitive topic. "I've always encountered this difficulty in teaching about climate change. This is a very complex subject that must be addressed in an interdisciplinary way," she explains.
The solution found by the researcher was the use of games related to the theme, developed by herself and well received by her students. “I realized that these games worked very well for my classes. So, I started to wonder if they wouldn't work for other colleagues as well,” she says. During the writing of her thesis, it became clear that the game was a resource that would be successful if associated with issues of context, interdisciplinarity, and student-centered methodology. On its own, the material would be just another game.
“There needs to be a lot of work done in the classroom; there needs to be infrastructure at the school and a range of actions carried out together so that the game can provide all the answers it can,” explains the thesis advisor and researcher at the Center for Meteorological and Climatic Research Applied to Agriculture (Cepagri), Priscila Coltri. She says that the Center has been receiving visits from schools for many years and it has been noticeable that there are doubts about how to approach issues related to climate change in classrooms.
“When Daniela conducted these interviews with the teachers, one of the points identified was the difficulty in finding or understanding actions that could be taken within the classroom,” explains Coltri. That's how the idea of using a profile on the social network Instagram came about — @getting_into_the_mood — to promote scientific dissemination of the topic and contribute to teachers seeking accessible and well-referenced material. Daniela then began making games, pedagogical sequences, and scientific articles, among other types of materials, available on her profile to facilitate classroom dynamics and easily adapt to the students' context. The resource can also be used by anyone interested in the subject.
The researcher points out that it is the children and adolescents currently in basic education who will be making decisions in the future and will need a solid foundation. In this sense, she states: “It is very important that educators are able to promote climate change education that leads students to critical reflection in light of their context, their territory, and their community. That they become capable of critically examining and understanding that concept, reflecting on it, engaging in dialogue with others, and then making more informed decisions, not just palliative ones.”