The inclusion of environmental dimension in training ...



Inclusion of the Environmental Dimension in the Education of Chemistry Professionals

Area: Human Sciences (Chemistry Education)

Prof. Dr. Vânia Gomes Zuin

Department of Chemistry

Federal University of São Carlos

vaniaz@ufscar.br

There is a consensus today that Institutions of Higher Learning (IHL) should promote a process of curricular environmentalization to encourage students to ponder about Earth’s sustainability by means of knowledge integration projects. However, few studies have focused on the education of professionals of the area of Chemistry concerned with the discussion about raising environmental awareness. The general understanding in this area is that the environmental dimension corresponds mostly to the practices and the development and use of materials considered environmentally correct or friendly, often associated with Green Chemistry. According to its main founders (Anastas; Warner, 1998), Green Chemistry can be defined as the “creation, development and application of chemical products and processes to reduce or eliminate the use and generation of substances that are harmful to human health and the environment” (p.11). In other words, the goal is to reduce risks by minimizing or even eliminating the harmfulness of toxic substances by restricting exposure to them. In Brazil, the concepts of Green Chemistry began to be disseminated in the academic, governmental and industrial spheres about five years ago. The few research groups that have championed Green Chemistry, connected mainly to universities, have generally held meetings destined for undergraduates, graduates and professors of Chemistry and correlated areas (Correa; Zuin, 2009).

In this sense, understanding the curriculum as a field where disputes for symbolic power in an area occur, as well as the perspective of critical theory in the analysis of the writings and discourse of subjects involved in a course for the initial education of Chemistry professors of a Brazilian public university, have proved to be highly pertinent in studies focusing on curricular environmentalization (Bourdieu, 2003; Marcuse, 1999; Adorno, 1995).

Ongoing research indicates that there are no major differences between the understanding of the environmental dimension contained in analyzed documents and the discourse of subjects linked to the licentiate course in Chemistry examined here. There is a noticeable resemblance between the proposed curriculum and practice, especially when visions of the environmental dimension of the course have a reductionist character, marked by instrumental reason, understood as that which is related to environmental chemistry or Green Chemistry. In this course, research seems to be the quintessential educational element, specifically in the areas considered hard. The maximization of production assumes a conspicuous role, for knowledge is converted into patents or articles, preferentially of high impact, drawing attention to those who have more products while at the same time pointing out researchers who do not have a number of publications considered satisfactory. This mechanism of commercialization of teachers and students’ work, exciting, addictive and highly competitive, is understood right from the beginning of the licentiate course in Chemistry. It should be noted that it is very easy for competitors to become adversaries to be fought. Obviously, this productive and educational model affects not only those who belong to the investigated group but, for these people, the modus operandi weighs heavily and its tradition seems unassailable.

There are glimmers indicating an educational process able to generate critique and enfranchisement, in a movement of resistance to that which is taught in semi-education (Halbbildung). University students sometimes feel that something is lacking, but that the course itself cannot or should not always fill this gap. However, in this search for improvement, both licentiates and the course coordinator advocate a modification of the curriculum, since they believe that the course requires a reformulation. To this end, they request the inclusion of more subjects in the technical and conceptual areas of chemistry.

However, what is the real potential for transformation of a new philosophy aimed at environmentally correct practices in the licentiate course in Chemistry? To what extent does the environmental dimension go beyond the educational ‘slogan’? How can the semi-education of Chemistry professors be avoided, over and above the easy and simplistic denouncement that it is a product of technical and scientificist rationality? What routes should be constructed? In view of all this, it seems more productive to initiate a process of curricular environmentalization or the construction of an alternative rationality born within the course itself; in other words, a process that can and should take place slowly and inexorably.

ADORNO, T. (1995). Tabus acerca do magistério. In. ____ Educação e emancipação. São Paulo: Paz e Terra.

Anastas, P.T.; Warner, J.C. Green Chemistry: theory and practice. New York: Oxford University Press. 1998. 135p.

BOURDIEU, P. (2003). Os usos sociais da ciência: por uma sociologia clínica do campo científico. São Paulo: Unesp.

CORREA, A.G.; ZUIN, V.G. Introdução à Química Verde. In: Correa, A.; ZUIN, V.G. Química Verde: fundamentos e aplicações. São Carlos: EDUFSCar, 2009. p. 9-22.

MARCUSE, H. (1999). Tecnologia, Guerra e fascismo. São Paulo: UNESP.

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