YOUTH AND ADULT EDUCATION IN GEOGRAPHY: AN ANALYSIS OF THE CURRICULAR MATRICES OF THE DEGREE COURSES IN GEOGRAPHY OF THE PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES OF RIO DE JANEIRO, A LOOK AT THE BAIXADA FLUMINENSE
Geography teaching. Youth and adult education. Baixada Fluminense. Teacher training.
The Education of Youth and Adults (EJA) is a teaching modality provided for in the Law of Guidelines and Bases of National Education (LDB), intended for those who did not have access or continuity of studies in elementary and secondary education at their own age, and it is very important that educators of this modality understand their difficulties and needs. The graduate in Geography as a professional qualified to teach geography classes in the final years of elementary school and high school, is one of the educators who work with EJA in Brazil. The general objective of the research is to analyze how Youth and Adult Education is worked on in the curricular matrices of Geography degree courses at Public Universities in Baixada Fluminense. The methodology is qualitative in nature, based on assumptions indicated by authors such as Guttschow (2011), Friedrich, Benite and Benite (2012), Serra (2019, 2011), Santos (2000), Haddad and Pierro (2000), Nicodemos and Serra (2021) and Sampaio and Hizim (2022). In addition to working with relevant references from EJA and Geography Teaching, we analyzed official documents, the curricular matrices of Geography courses at public universities in the state of Rio de Janeiro and carried out interviews/questionnaires that feature a semi-structured aspect, which allows greater flexibility and dialogue between interviewer and interviewee. The interviews were carried out remotely with graduates who graduated in Geography at the Multidisciplinary Institute of the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro on the Nova Iguaçu campus and at the Faculdade de Educação da Baixada Fluminense of the State University of Rio de Janeiro and who are also teachers of the public education network. It is worth mentioning that questionnaires are an important tool in the preparation of research, as they allow a greater reach of the target audience and also democratize the answers sent by interviewees, as the questionnaires were made available through a free form creation platform. (Google Forms). Teaching professionals working in the area point to the lack of a subject on EJA and Geography Teaching during graduation, directly affecting their teaching practice at school. We highlight the relevance of understanding the history of EJA, demonstrating how it is a teaching modality and its main characteristic, which is to value lifelong education. Public universities in Baixada Fluminense have a relevant role for society, especially at present, where we can analyze the relationship between students/teachers of undergraduate geography courses with EJA.