EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABILITY IN THE CERRADO BIOME: NECESSARY ARTICULATIONS FOR TRAINING TEACHERS WHO TEACH IN MATOPIBA
Educating for a sustainable future, conservation of the cerrado biome, teacher training, critical, reflective and emancipatory education.
In the geographical area known as Matopiba (Maranhao, Tocantins, Piaui and Bahia), located in the Cerrado biome, socio-environmental problems are worsening daily with the excessive expansion of agribusiness. This is a high impact due mainly to deforestation and the use of pesticides, which has been identified and disseminated by numerous studies, which reveal the destruction of nature, human, animal and plant life, threatening future generations of families and the biodiversity present in the biome. Several schools are located around numerous farms that contribute to this unbridled development, which only favors economic growth based on the exploitation of cheap labor. Considering the potential of the pillars of education for sustainability in teacher training, we defend the thesis that this perspective can foster training processes for in-service teachers, problematizing the catastrophic and unsustainable situation of the cerrado biome in Matopiba, and also being able to direct and rethink their practices, teaching situations and the reorientation of the school curriculum. This study proposed to analyze the limits and possibilities of education for sustainability as a problematizing perspective of the cerrado biome in the continuing education of teachers in two schools located in Matopiba, specifically in the municipality of Balsas, state of Maranhao, the city that has deforested the most in recent years in favor of agribusiness. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 in-service teachers and the Discursive Textual Analysis (ATD) technique was used, which indicated the emergence of the following categories: 1. Sustainability: concepts, approaches and purposes; 2. To conserve or to produce?: a socio-environmental controversy worthy of problematization and reflection; and, 3. The Cerrado is on the verge of an unhappy day: fateful complaints. In addition, we also analyzed a training process with the participating teachers, seeking to promote the construction of a didactic project that could problematize and propose possible situations to contribute to the biome. The results point to a series of conceptions, some of which are still uncritical on the part of the teachers regarding the problem in question, indicating the need for training courses aimed at disseminating more sustainable proposals. In addition, a series of complaints emerged from the teachers who work there about unsustainable practices in the region, allowing us to criticize such attitudes and propose some important solutions for reflection, awareness and action in school spaces. With the training process, it was also possible to perceive the potential for dialogue and reflection on local problems, culminating in the elaboration of a project for use in the school itself, as a possibility to enhance education for sustainability in search of real social transformation.