O meio ambiente como conteúdo nos cursos de graduação: uma abordagem documental e a praxis docente no campus Uruguaiana-Unipampa

Abstract

The concern about environmental issues has been involved in several dimensions and global actions in the last decades, such as ecological themes are being incorporated in education processes at the universities, in order, its presence be pertinent in the formation of citizens professionals. This work had as the main objective identify if the theme of the environment (TE) is present or articulated in formal or unformal curricula of the eight courses of undergraduate of the Federal University of Pampa, Campus Uruguaiana, as well as identify their challenges in docent praxis. It is an exploratory research, developed in three stages, through documentary and bibliographic analysis, built on the theoretical assumptions of a qualitative and quantitative approach to teachers on campus. In the two initial phases, the Pedagogic Projects of the Undergraduate Courses (PPC) available in sites of own university were accessed to check the existence of words related directly or indirectly to TE, according to descriptors previously established through the Virtual Library in Health (VLH). The results of the first two phases were tabulated in spreadsheets and organized to check the relationships between them, enabling interpretations. Then, the software GraphPad Prism trial version was used to make the graphics. In the third phase, it was applicated an electronic questionnaire to all docents from Campus Uruguaiana (n=153), intending to verify if the TE was presente during the progressive formation of the docents, as well as if it is aborded in their praxis in the disciplines from the formal and informal curricula, in a special way as transversal and interdisciplinary. Additionally, to know about the difficulties and challenges to incorporate the environment education (EE). The results from the two initial phases indicate that the theme is present modestly and few valorized in the most of PPC, showing different levels of concern with the environment, fulfilling minimally what determine the law 9,795/99. The courses that showed major preoccupation with TE were Nature Sciences, Technology in Aquiculture and Veterinary Medicine. The results from the third phase point out that docentes know that TE is pertinent in the formation of their students and the need to care for natural resources. They bring this conscious mainly of their both individual and academic experiences. And, minor representative, form their professional life. We observed that TE is addressed through the disciplines and the activities of research, teaching, and extension, about everything by the last one. On the other hand, some docents did not fell totally prepared or even motivated to minister the TE, emphasizing the institutional obligation to capacitate its docents to work with TE. Taking all data together, we expect to cooperate with the discussion of the politic that supports the adequation or restructuring of formal curricula of undergraduate courses from Campus Uruguaiana. Additionally, we expect to cooperate with the application of TE to qualify the environment-conscious of its students.