Percepção de professores e alunos sobre impactos associados à mineração em Congonhas, Minas Gerais, Brasil

Abstract

This study was developed in the municipality of Congonhas, which is located in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The municipality has a territorial area of approximately 304,06 km ², with a population of 48,519 inhabitants (2010). The municipality is part of the Quadrilátero Ferrífero (QF), considered one of the largest iron ore provinces in Brazil, with an area of approximately 7.200km². The GDP per capita of Congonhas corresponds to the value of R $ 53,975.10 (2015). This study is divided into three chapters. The first one presents the state of the art on the perception of environmental problems addressed in the literature of the IberoAmerican countries, aiming to identify the multiple approaches and perspectives to answer the question: "How subjects, teachers and students are commonly involved in the studies on perception of environmental problems in Congonhas?”. The research was carried out in a digital platform between the years of 1997 until the 1st / 2018. The results show that the main subjects involved in the research are the Conservation Unit managers (14%) and the local population (11%). The lack of studies on the school environment and the perception of teachers and students about environmental problems indicates a field to be better explored. There are many possibilities to investigate the perception of these subjects in the face of the impacts caused by economic enterprises, especially those of medium and large size, due to their polluting potential. The second chapter aimed to evaluate teachers 'and students' perceptions regarding the impacts of mining to answer: How can the perception of these actors contribute to a critical participation in the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs of which they participate? 76 teachers and 2,854 students were interviewed. Qualitative-quantitative analyzes, categorizations, Principal Component Analysis and Kmeans tests were used for teachers. In the case of students the word cloud was used, highlighting the words most cited by them. The results showed that among the three groups of teachers trained, only the group with teachers that have a course in the environmental area (86%) sees the man as part of nature. Through the cloud of words it was noticed that the students also presented difficulties of identifying the man as part of the environment. Thus, the current perception of teachers and students does not contribute to a critical participation in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs, requiring a mobilization process between the groups. The process should involve the actions of sharing, discussing and creating environmental actions, through participatory methodologies and collaborative knowledge for the elaboration of projects with critical and transformative bias based on the student's understanding of the relationship between man and nature. The third chapter presents the steps of the teacher mobilization process of different areas, for the joint construction of an environmental project with the teachers of the Congonhas municipal school network. Based on the difficulties identified in the process, the teachers prepared a booklet to guide them to design projects. This study is a qualitative-quantitative research whose data were analyzed through participant observation and the application of semi-structured interviews. The responses analyzed showed that the mobilization process contributed to a more critical and political attitude of the teachers in relation to the elaboration of projects. As a result of the mobilization work carried out with the teachers, the interdisciplinary form of work, previously disregarded as possible, was adopted by a large part of them (71%). We believe that the act of discussing, reflecting, creating and sharing environmental actions, through participatory methodologies and cooperative / collaborative learning, as part of the mobilization process can contribute to the elaboration of projects with critical and transformative bias.