Environmental education in thesis and dissertations in the field of law in Brazil: a field under construction

• Autor(a) principal: Zane, Adriano César
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Outros Autores: Santana, Luiz Carlos
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Actio (Curitiba)
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.utfpr.edu.br/actio/article/view/12438
• topic: 7.08.00.00-6 Educação; Pesquisa em Educação Ambiental; Pesquisa em Direito; Estado da Arte; Educação Ambiental;; Environmental Education Research; Research in Law; State of art; Environmental education

In this article, we start from the presupposition that a consistent theoretical and methodological basis for the consolidation of the Environmental Education (EA) in Brazil is indispensable. This base is built mainly by the production of researches about the topic. The academic production (Environmental Education) is a recent fact, dating from the beginning of 1980s in the last century. It occurs in several areas of knowledge. There is a production of researches about the same theme in different areas. The article deals with the production of researches about Environmental Education in the area of Law. It is an excerpt from a qualitative investigation of Environmental Education thesis and dissertation in graduate Law Programs. The scope of the research covers the period 1981-2009 and 2011-2012. What does feature the production of research about Environmental Education in the area of Law? What are the objectives of these researches? What are the theoretical-methodological references? The search for answers to these questions was made at the Thesis Bank of the State of the Art Project of the Environmental Education in Brazil (EArte). Until 2012, the researchers of this project had cataloged 2,763 works about Environmental Education in the different areas of knowledge. In the definition of the documentary corpus for the analysis that were achieved, we initially identified 55 works. Of these, we had access to 31 of them that constituted the corpus from which it was possible to achieve the analysis effectively. A mapping of 55 works was made, based on the cataloged data by EArte. The identification of the goals and theoretical-methodological references occurred in 31 works that we had access to. In the mapping, we found a research about Environmental Education in the area of Law, that occurs predominantly in private institutions located in the South and Southeast regions. However, the production occurred in the North Region, in a public institution, caught our attention. Regarding to the goals and theoretical-methodological references of the research examined, certain peculiarities of the Law area were identified, such as the valorization of the theoretical research over the empirical research, the lack of clear explanation of the goals, research questions and research procedures. In addition, we also found the use of hermeneutics and the reproduction of legal doctrines instead of problematizing the theme investigated. Such findings lead us to inquire about the contributions and weaknesses of the production of researches about Environmental Education in the area of Law.