A ambientalização curricular em cursos de licenciatura e bacharelado em Ciências Biológicas da Universidade Federal da Bahia

Abstract

This study seeks to understand how the process of curricular environmentalization is presented in undergraduate and bachelor's degree courses in Biological Sciences at the Federal University of Bahia, Salvador campus. This study is justified by the possibility of contributing to the reflection on curricular documents, the Pedagogical Project of the Courses, Curricular Matrix, syllabi and teaching plans, with a view to a more qualified training of professionals, who may be able to work on environmental education in research, extension, management or teaching. In the training of professionals in the area of Biology, this aspect proves relevant, as it can contribute to the development of a broader and more critical view of environmental problems, which influences practical action. However, although EE is something inherent to the training of biologists, the incorporation of socio-environmental issues in the curricula should occur in a contextualized manner, in an interdisciplinary perspective that allows the analysis and proposition of solutions. In Higher Education, the inclusion of environmental issues in curricula has been called curricular environmentalization, through the Higher Education Curricular Environmentalization Network (ACES), and refers to the inclusion of the issue in the dimensions of teaching, research, extension and management, as a continuous process of construction that helps educational institutions to become sustainable spaces. The ACES Network emerged in 2000, with the challenge of developing models that would allow the analysis and reflection on environmental issues within the university environment. To this end, 10 indicators of an environmentalized training curriculum were established, and a diagnostic matrix was developed to be used as a basis for the analysis of signs of environmentalization. In this context, to meet the proposed objective, a qualitative, exploratory research was carried out, based on the documentary analysis of the institutional curricular components. A critical reading and analysis of the Course Pedagogical Project, the Curricular Matrix, the syllabi and the Teaching Plans were carried out, seeking to verify the existence of signs of curricular environmentalization in order to understand how the process occurred. It is important to note that the presence of evidence of curricular environmentalization does not guarantee that the curricula are environmentalized, since, for this to happen, management planning is necessary, aiming at establishing strategies for the real insertion of environmental education in curricula and training practices. The research revealed that, although institutional guidelines recognize the importance of sustainability, the insertion of environmental issues occurs in a fragmented manner, with the absence of environmentalized guiding principles in the PPC, which reverberated in the curricular matrix. The result contributes to the reflection on environmentalization in Biological Sciences courses at UFBA, and can support processes of curricular review and strengthening of institutional policies aimed at the insertion of environmental issues. Although it presents relevant contributions, the study is limited to the documentary analysis of the teaching dimension, without considering the perspective of coordinators and teachers, which restricts the understanding of the strategies developed.