Environmental education in pre-university studies: the case of teachers who teach the subject of Ecology. Puebla-Tlaxcala (Mexico)

Abstract

The different problems that happen in educational environment have been broached from different analysis approaches. This disciplinary diversity stems from the complexity of studied situations and it is the result of the difficulty in defining “the educative thing” as a methodological and theoretical field (Bertely, 2004). One of these complex situations is the environmental education that concerns this research. The objective of this article is to determine the scopes and limitations of the environmental education practice in order to promote and construct a consciousness environmental culture among bachelor’s degree students, as well as, to stimulate pro-environmental initiatives. The methodological approach adopted is the institutional ethnography (EI) applied to the environmental education, which will allow on the one hand to portray reality as faithfully as possible, and on the other hand, to adopt this portrait in other situations that happen in similar institutional contexts. Among the results we have found that: (a) the teachers do not have neither the desirable profile to teach the ecology course nor the basic environmental knowledge; (b) the training program in the ecology field has been created in a superficial and very general way; (c) the ecology course is nominal and (d) the ecology matter is taught in short periods of time and it is governed by a preferably theoretical modality than practical. Generally, both the limitations in teacher training and programmatic contents of the ecology subject restrict to approach with interest and to determine the proportions of the environmental problematic. Consequently, it is generated in the pupils an environmental formation without attitudes and values. The teaching staff fails in his intention to generate students with environmental consciousness, central purpose of the ecology matter.