Environmental education research in Brazil

Abstract

This Editorial to the current collection provides a brief historical, cultural, regional and contemporary picture of environmental education research in Brazil. Its main purpose is to offer readers a short background and orientation to the collection, and in so doing, illustrate how its contributions relate to some wider tendencies, trends and issues in environmental education, as well as to different locales of research and knowledge generation in the country. Of particular note for environmental education in Brazil are: the effects of social and political backdrops and issues, the unique environments on which environmental education is grounded, and how environmental education research, in turn, may echo or influence particular educational and public policies.

Keywords:

• Environmental education
• Brazil
• special issue

Note

In this collection, all translations are by the authors of the articles, unless otherwise indicated.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Flávia Torreão Thiemann

Flávia Torreão Thiemann works at her own environmental education company, conducting research on the use of technology as a resource in EE practices at zoos, botanical gardens and parks. She holds a PhD in EE from the Ecology and Natural Resources program at the Universidade Federal de São Carlos, São Paulo, Brazil. She also holds two extension course degrees in Environmental Sciences (Waste Management) from the University of California Los Angeles, UCLA and on Environmental Education from the Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Her main research interests are biodiversity and Environmental Education, focusing on issues of place and educational possibilities of working with biodiversity through a critical EE perspective. She also has 10 years of experience in the local council, where she participated in developing and overseeing the implementation of public policies in EE at the Municipal Office of Education. Flávia has been a teacher in various EE teaching processes and courses and has worked with Non-Governmental Organizations and networks of environmental educators.

Luiz Marcelo de Carvalho

Luiz Marcelo de Carvalho studied Biological Sciences and holds a Masters in Ecology and Natural Resources, a doctorate degree in Education and a postdoctoral habilitation at the Institute of Education of the University of London. He is currently a professor and researcher at the Post Graduate Course of Education (Environmental Education) at the University of the State of São Paulo, Unesp, Rio Claro. His main interests in research and teaching are Environmental Education, Environmental Education in the school context and Environmental Education Research. He is one of the Editors of the Brazilian Journal of Environmental Education Research (Pesquisa em Educação Ambiental) and has taken part on the Organizational Committee of the Environmental Education Research Meetings carried out in Brazil for the last 12 years. He coordinates the Environmental Themes and Educational Process Research Group and an interinstitutional research on the state of the art of Environmental Education Research in Brazil.

Haydée Torres de Oliveira

Haydée Torres de Oliveira is currently a Professor Senior and has been active in researching and teaching on environmental education in graduate and undergraduate levels. She was a full Professor at the Environmental Sciences Department, at the Federal University of São Carlos, Brazil, from 1995 to 2016. All her academic activities are strongly focused on experiential and social learning, participatory and collective perspectives. She sat on national and international advisory committees on Environmental Education Research and Policy. She is one of the editors of the Brazilian Journal of Environmental Education Research (Pesquisa em Educação Ambiental, published mainly in Portuguese) and is a member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education (ISSN 1467-6370 - Emerald Library/ULSF) and International Journal of Environment and Sustainable Development (ISSN 1474-6778 - Inderscience Publishers). She is a Biologist (1982), has a Master´s in Ecology (1988), PhD in Environmental Engineering (1993) and has a postdoctoral work in Environmental Education (2004) at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain. She has coordinated many extension programmes at her Institution dedicated to forming popular environmental educators. She is also member of many networks of environmental educators in her country, in a national, regional and local level.