Environmental Education and educational public policy: an interdisciplinary approach from the perspective of social intervention from the 'Ocupe a Praça' project (São Paulo, SP, Brazil)

Abstract

Environmental Education (EA) arouses, among various social actors, the discussion about who are responsible for caring for the environment. In this sense, many schools carry out activities in this area and try to build, along with their students, concepts about the responsibilities with the social and environmental environment that sometimes are reflected in positive actions for nature. Within this perspective, a municipal elementary school in the city of São Paulo promotes various pedagogical activities, including the Ocupe a Praça Project, a social intervention held in a space located in front of the school. The objective of the present research, based on the Ocupe a Praça project, was to evaluate whether the educational public policy adopted in the city of São Paulo, through the proposed City Curriculum, favors the Critical Environmental Education chain. To this end, a case study was conducted, with data collection through mixed questionnaires, suggesting the social representations of the different actors regarding the environment and environmental education, the documentary analysis of the City Curriculum, the Ocupe a Praça Project and the Projects. Political-Pedagogical School, from 2012 to 2017. The results were treated according to content analysis with data triangulation and classification of social representations. The obtained results pointed to a globalizing vision about the environment and EA. They also indicated that the City Curriculum is not supporting Critical Environmental Education. However, this current may be present in school spaces if, in their political-pedagogical projects, interdisciplinary debates and practices are contemplated. They are schools building their own curriculum with a Critical Environmental Education approach.