ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION AS A PUBLIC POLICY AND ITS RELEVANCE FOR THE MUNICIPALITY OF NOVA IGUAÇU: THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE MUNICIPAL ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION PROGRAM
Environmental Education; Public Policy; Municipal Environmental Education Program.
Public Policies can be understood as the way in which the State acts in the face of public order issues that require solutions. The National Environmental Education Policy (PNEA) is considered a milestone for discussions on EE in the country, being taken as a basis for the formulation of state and municipal policies and these for the implementation of plans and programs. The Municipal Environmental Education Program (ProMEA) is an instrument that can contribute to the strengthening of environmental education in the municipality, and should be developed based on a participatory process, in order to implement a critical and reflective attitude towards decisions about the environment. In the State of Rio de Janeiro there are approximately 20 municipalities with proposals for the implementation of ProMEAs, among them the city of Nova Iguaçu, located in Baixada Fluminense. Therefore, the general objective of the research is to analyze how environmental education as a public policy can promote the strengthening of a more democratic and sustainable education in the municipality of Nova Iguaçu. The specific objectives are: to identify the insertion of Environmental Education as a public policy; understand the process of participatory construction of the Municipal Environmental Education Program (ProMEA) in Mesquita; and to analyze the construction process of the Municipal Environmental Education Program (ProMEA) in Nova Iguaçu. The methodology was based on bibliographic surveys, in order to understand the key concepts that underpinned the research; documentary research, in which the analysis of Mesquita's municipal policy and program was carried out; field research, where I acted as a participant observer in participatory workshops and semi-structured interviews, to analyze the speeches of social actors directly involved in the creation of ProMEA in Nova Iguaçu. The research made it possible to identify from what was observed in the workshops and analyzed from the speeches of the social actors that, a priori, the processes for the elaboration of ProMEA have assimilated the critical, reflective and emancipatory perspective.