A educação ambiental na universidade: um estudo nos cursos da área das ciências sociais aplicadas nas Instituições de Ensino Superior Públicas (IES) no Paraná

Abstract

This research is in the field of environmental education at the university and its main goal was to analyze the integration of the environmental dimension in professional training from the courses in the applied social sciences area at public state universities in the state of Paraná. This is a qualitative study which used the method of documentary analysis and case study. The documentary research data were collected from the analysis of the Institutional Development Plan ( IDP ) and the Institutional Political Pedagogical Project ( IPPP), from the six universities selected for the study. Therefore, the analysis focused on curricular matrices and summaries of the selected courses: courses in Business Administration, Accounting Sciences, Economic Sciences, Social Work and Executive Secretariat. The case study was developed at the Universidade Estadual do Centro-Oeste - UNICENTRO closely with the Applied Social Sciences sector, integrating the five courses previously described. For the data collection of the case study, it was used a structured interview - along with the department heads and teachers, and a questionnaire - which was applied to the academic students. The collected data were subjected to discourse analysis, and grouped based on the following categories of analysis: Environmental Education in the university context ; Environmental Education in the course of Applied Social Sciences and Environmental Education in the perception of the researcher subjects. Among the main results of this study, it can be inferred that the university has not recognized yet the need for environmental education in all areas as well as the interfaces and communication between the sciences. Specifically on the area of Applied Social Science, despite incorporating socio-environmental discussion in the process of the training of the future professionals, the discussions are over the social aspects, which makes the space for the Environmental Education still incipient. It was evident that the interest in incorporating environmental discussion in the courses was motivated by the teachers themselves, having no relation with institutional or government guidelines or regulations. The results suggest that the environmental debate is more present in teaching, which induces a lack of research and out-of-class activities in the area. Overall, the research demonstrates the need to direct more attention to environmental issues leaving aside paradigms, fragmented concepts and utilitarian view, emerging to a process of change in which the complexity of environmental issues and their multidimensional approach are the foundations of the educational processes.