The categorization of Environmental Education and sustainable concepts and attitudes by groups of university students at different stages of training

• Autor(a) principal: Pereira, Karina Braccini
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Outros Autores: Dinardi, Ailton Jesus, Pessano, Edward Castro
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Revista Monografias Ambientais
• Texto Completo: http://periodicos.ufsm.br/remoa/article/view/68446
• topic: Temática ambiental; Resíduos sólidos; Práticas sustentáveis; Environmental theme; Solid waste; Sustainable practices

This research aimed to investigate Environmental Education (EE) perception of students from an undergraduate course in Natural Sciences and students from a Specialization in Environmental Education at the Federal University of Pampa, as well as identify their understanding of waste generation in their daily lives, considering that EE can contribute to the Campus theoretical-methodological consolidation as a privileged space for the production of social and environmental knowledge, discussions and relevant  reflections. The research, of quali-quantitative nature, is part of a larger study and used a semi-structured questionnaire as data collection instrument. The open question about EE conceptions was categorized through Discursive Textual Analysis (DTA); for the question about recycling knowledge, categories were created according to authors' concepts and current legislation. The other questions were analyzed using the event counting method. The results reveal that DTA allowed us to analyze the whole in parts, realizing the impossibility of classifying the individual's thoughts into a single category. Most records, freshmen (41%), finalists (30%) and Specialization students (49%), were identified within the Naturalist category, demonstrating a conservative perception, however. Despite this, we understand categorization not as a division or labeling of thoughts that differ due to formations and visions, but rather to analyze their characteristics to improve them. About sustainable attitudes in everyday life, most mention knowing about selective waste collection, composting and recycling, but a considerable part does not practice these activities.