Changes in people's relationship with their environment are both urgent and essential to hold back climate change and prevent the degradation of the planet. A crucial step in this direction is investing in environmental education to form conscientious citizens about sustainability and preservation.
Schools are ideal spaces for such initiatives. Accordingly, the Base Nacional Comum Curricular (BNCC) [National Common Curricular Base], which serves as a framework for creating school curricula, defines that environmental education must be explored transversally across all areas of knowledge.
However, some regions of the country have gone further, establishing environmental education as a standalone subject. In the Amazon, a Brazilian institute with expertise in professional teacher development has been contributing to this.
Since 2023, Instituto Iungo, in partnership with Instituto Reúna and the Uma Concertação pela Amazônia network, has been promoting a program named Itinerários Amazônicos [Amazonian Itineraries]. The initiative provides curricular units on Amazonian topics—mainly socio-environmental and continuous teacher training. The program has reached nearly all nine states in the Legal Amazon region, with the exception of Rondônia.
ADDRESSED THEMES
The program employs active methodologies that encourage student engagement, focusing on four main themes: Biodiversity and Sociodiversity in the Amazon, Amazonian Geopolitics, Amazonian Identities and Cultures, and Amazonian Economies. These themes are developed in dialogue with multiple areas of knowledge.
"Given the pressing challenges of the 21st century, the program is grounded in three pillars: continuous teacher training; teaching materials with territorialized and contextualized situations according to the places where students and teachers live; and technical-formative guidance to support education departments in implementing the program", explains Alcielle dos Santos, Director of Education at Instituto Iungo.
The pedagogue adds that it was only possible to develop the curriculum matrix with such level of depth due to the collaborative process involved. “Around 120 people contributed to its development, including young adults, educators, Amazonian studies and high school education experts, and the departments of education from the eight states that are currently part of the Itineraries program,” she explains.
Currently, the Amazonian Itineraries material already accumulates more than 2,600 pages. Since its launching, more than 43,000 teachers have been covered by means of training actions and over 1 million students impacted in the region.
PARÁ HAS STATEWIDE POLICY
In Pará, environmental education has been incorporated into the curriculum by means of the Política Pública de Educação para o Meio Ambiente, Sustentabilidade e Clima [Public Policy on Education for the Environment, Sustainability, and Climate], officially launched in June 2023 and implemented in schools in the beginning of 2024.
In addition to the mandatory environmental education curricular component in the state education system, the policy includes other initiatives such as creating Centros de Inovação e Sustentabilidade da Educação Básica [Innovation and Sustainability Centers for Basic Education]; the transfer of resources directly to schools to invest in environmental sustainability projects, and the introduction of environmental literacy, which culminates in planting a tree for every student who becomes literate.
“Environmental literacy during the early years aims to create literacy, but with a strong environmental education focus, that is, the materials used in the literacy process are centered on environmental themes”, explains Mauro Tavares, coordinator of Innovation and Sustainability Centers for Basic Education.
The curricular component itself is implemented in the classroom by a one-hour instruction weekly, in all grade levels, from the first year of elementary school to the third year of high school. In addition to the state schools, interested municipalities may also adopt the curriculum. Currently, of the 144 municipalities in Pará, 80 have already joined the initiative. The education department expects to cover the entire state.
CONTINGENT
To implement the component, the Secretaria de estado de educação Seduc [state secretary of education] collaborates with Instituto Iungo and the Amazonian Itineraries. “Seduc has partnered with institutes that support the implementation of our state policy, and one of them is Iungo, which assists with both by creating teaching materials and providing ongoing teacher training”, Tavares emphasizes. According to Alcielle dos Santos, the Iungo director, the component has already enabled the ongoing training of 10,000 teachers in Pará who, after qualified, have covered more than 400,000 students.
During this weekly one-hour instruction, the teacher who is in charge of the component is able to access to the teaching material and, by debating, can encourage students to promote environmental education not only within the school grounds, but also within their families and communities. We believe that the component, more than just transferring content, needs to promote behavioral and attitudinal changes, going beyond the school walls,” says Mauro Tavares.
STUDENTS SEE THEMSELVES AS PROTAGONIST
An example of going beyond the school walls occurred at the João Carlos Batista State School, in Ananindeua, Pará. Brenda Costa, a teacher of Geography, Amazonian Studies and Education for the Environment, Sustainability and Climate, talks about her experiences with her students during the year 2024.
“When we start theoretical discussions and ask students about environmental issues, they often cite Amazon deforestation. They can’t see the city of Ananindeua as part of the Amazon. They don’t recognize the environmental problem in our neighborhood is also a problem in the Amazon. Following the suggestions in the teaching material, we go out into the field with the students so that they can identify the local problems that are closest to us”, explains the teacher.
The teacher reports that, equipped with notetaking books for registering observations, students explored areas around the school, including a nearby market. There they identified two major issues: the waste of food, such as vegetables and fruits and improper disposal of cooking oil.
“Then we started discussing potential solutions and came up with the idea of producing a 100% biodegradable ecological soap, made with oil from the market food stalls, which is used to be thrown directly into the sewer, causing environmental harm,” says Brenda Costa.
UNDERSTANDING
The teacher can already see results from the discussions proposed by the subject. “We observe that our students are beginning to understand, in a more critical way, that they are the main protagonist in this debate, as Amazonian youths, and that they can transform their space,” she reflects.
She credits the Amazonian Itineraries materials for this progress. “It is a modern book that breaks away with the traditional model. It has QR codes leading to songs and videos. And the content was also very concerned with the issue of regionality, with regional songs and examples of youth leaders from the Amazon. This awakens a new perspective in our students,” says the teacher.
Student Estefane Macedo, 16, from João Carlos Batista School agrees with the teacher’s opinion: “I’ve learned to consume more consciously, to save energy and water, to avoid waste and to prefer ecological products. I practice and pass on all my knowledge at home, such as, for example, saving used oil for proper disposal and recycling products. The environmental education course helps to form responsible people who are committed to sustainability. Education changes the world.”
THE PROGRAM REACHES SCHOOLS IN MARANHÃO
Around 80% of Maranhão's territory is located within the Legal Amazon territory. According to the Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE) [Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics], this area covers 181 municipalities, out of a total of 217. The state is also one of those that received the Amazonian Itineraries.
In early 2023, the Iungo Institute approached the Maranhão Department of Education to propose the implementation of the program. “They presented the Amazonian Itineraries and our state saw it as something that could contribute to improving the education of our students. So, throughout 2023, the entire organization was carried out, adapting the content of the material to our reality and our curricular structure”, says Sueli Brito, Pedagogical Supporting Technician for the schools of Maranhão State Department of Education (Seduc).
During the second half of that year, the training for management teams and teachers took place, and the curricular component was implemented in the classroom at the beginning of 2024. “Teachers receive this structured material that Iungo provides and they only have to adapt it to their planning, as something that will add to what they already develop, stimulating the skills that the Itineraries program proposes to work on”, evaluates Sueli Brito.
NEW HABITS
Ezaquiene Passos, director of the Dr. José Neiva Teaching Center in the Maranhão municipality of Pastos Bons, believes that the curricular component is essential for the formation of citizens who are committed to the environment and who are capable of transforming the reality in which they live.
“The themes address the importance of preserving natural resources, as well as understanding oneself as part of life on Earth. The result we observed in the school’s daily routine was the development of conservation habits and the students’ understanding that, in addition to the community in which they live, there are others, in different cultural and social contexts”, says the director.
Some of the activities carried out by the school throughout the year involved a trip to the Parnaíba River, which is close to the city, where the class was led to reflect on natural resources and how to intervene so that they are preserved for future generations; and a survey, with interviews and video recordings, with the local community, regarding medicinal plants and phytotherapeutics. “In addition, we visited tourist attractions, showing not only their beauty, but also ways to preserve them, also highlighting our belonging to the Amazon region,” reports the director.
“IT DEPENDS ON US”
Student Kemilly Silva, 17, from the school in Pastos Bons, says that, through the curricular component, she learned about recycling, visited protected areas and participated in the creation of a small vegetable garden.
“I learned to look at the environment I live in differently. Studying this at school is very important, because it helps us to keep in mind that having a good environment to live in depends on us, that it is our responsibility to make a difference with small actions to have a healthier and more sustainable future. And the school helps us to have this awareness”, she says.
INSTITUTIONAL PARTNERSHIP
The production of Liberal Amazon is one of the initiatives of the Technical Cooperation Agreement between the Liberal Group and the Federal University of Pará. The articles involving research from UFPA are revised by professionals from the academy. The translation of the content is also provided by the agreement, through the research project ET-Multi: Translation Studies: multifaces and multisemiotics.
