BIODIVERSITY IN ZOOLOGY TEACHING AND INTERFACES WITH ENVIRONMENTAL LEGISLATION
Content analysis. Practical didactic activities. Legal literacy. Animal diversity. Environmental awareness-raising
Zoology corresponds to an area of the life sciences that has received attention from several researchers involved with aspects of teaching and learning about animal diversity, whether as part of the contents of Science and Biology in basic education or as a curricular component in college education. Considering that zoology constitutes an area of knowledge with an intimate relationship with the environment where organisms live and that environmental themes warrant approaches from interdisciplinary perspectives, a bibliographical research of a qualitative nature was conducted that investigated how environmental aspects were evidenced in the path of zoology teaching in the Biological Sciences undergraduate course at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) (Natal, Brazil) with special attention to biodiversity and its relationship with the environment. The present dissertation comprises an investigation of works published over a period of 15 years (2006 through 2020). Elements of the content analysis methodology systematized by Laurence Bardin were used to visualize trends, thus, an analysis sample encompassing 73 papers was selected from this main corpus of publications. These papers were produced by researchers and/or students linked to the Biodiversity curricular component belonging in the curricular matrix of the Biological Sciences undergraduate course at UFRN, as well as subsequent academic disciplines along the trajectory of adjustments in said curricular matrix. The selected analysis resulted in the description of four categories involving environmental contextualization in the teaching of Zoology. This analysis included discussions on the papers that were considered most representative for the clarification of the highlighted environmental topics. A quantitative analysis of the sample showed that the number of works that cited the Brazilian environmental legislation increased over time, ranging from 22.22% in the 2006-2010 period to 75% in the 2016-2020 period. Some references to the legal aspects that regulate in situ activities with biodiversity, for didactic and scientific purposes, included the Normative Ruling nr. 03/2014-ICMBio that restricts such activities to the scope of higher education. As a way to promote the dissemination of a legal approach to biodiversity studies and conservation, the informative material entitled "Approaches to the regulation of activities in learning practices about animals" was developed as an educational product. This product is aimed at undergraduate Biological Sciences students and addresses some regulations present in the Normative Ruling nr. 03/2014-ICMBio and the Arouca Law, both of which are relevant to professionals in the biological area.