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Abstract
Urban populations that live in the outskirts of major Latin American cities usually face conditions of vulnerability attached to complex environmental issues, such as the lack of sewerage, floods, pollution and soil and water contamination. This article reports an intervention research programme in São Paulo, Brazil that combines a moral education approach with sustainability awareness in vulnerable communities. The main conceptual foundations of the project, designed to empower the community and promote ethical and environmental awareness are: strengthening the ties between the school and the surrounding community in order to construct ‘moral atmosphere’; adoption of Problem- and Project-based Learning and the Design Thinking approach to reach the proposed goals.
Notes
1. Centro Interdisciplinar de Pesquisas em Complexidade e Cidadania (CIPECC) [Interdisciplinary Research Center on Complexity and Citizenship].
2. An index created by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
3. Brazilian high school students range from 15 to 18 years old.
4. In this article, ethical awareness represents consciousness of and a concern about values and virtues, such as justice, solidarity, citizenship and the pursuit of personal and collective happiness. Environmental awareness, in the same way, represents human–environmental interaction issues that affect the well-being of human society related to the well-being of natural ecosystems.
5. It is important to mention that participation in the Forum is not mandatory for the school teachers.
6. IDEO is a design consultancy firm located in Palo Alto (California) that takes a human-centred, design-based approach to helping organisations to be innovative.