Geosciences in professional education: a comparative study between Brazil and Portugal

Abstract

Brazil faces educational and environmental crisis that enhance the importance of valuing geoscientific contents in school curricula, especially in basic education. The modality of technical education integrated to high school courses (TEIHSC) open broad possibilities to build an integrated view of nature and of human interference. However, the current situation is one of great fragmentation of contents and diversification of teaching­learning approaches. As a contribution to understand better the national reality, the present project aims to carry out a survey of geoscientific themes present in the Brazilian official curricula of TEIHSC courses and in the curricula of secondary professional education of public schools in Portugal. The distribution of technical schools in TEIHSC teaching modality comprises the states of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo and even in the official curricula of federal technical schools situated in these states. This project should discuss curricular convergences and divergences from the background of the following courses: a) Brasil: Agriculture, Surveying, Agro livestock, Environmental control, Forestry, Environment, Mining Oil and Gas; b) Portugal: Environmental Management, Food and Beverage Outlets, Forest and Environmental Resources, Tourism, Environmental and Rural Tourism, Viti winery. The investigation will produce a comprehensive panorama of proposals for including geoscientific contents within this type of school integrative curriculum. The debate should attempt to recompose the basic needs to help citizens for taking well­founded decisions about socioeconomic, political and environmental changes.