Abstract

BEDOLLA SOLANO, Ramón; MIRANDA ESTEBAN, Adriana; SANCHEZ ADAME, Oscar  and  BEDOLLA SOLANO, Juan José. Comparative Analysis of the Implementation of Environmental Education in Degree Programs of Three Universities. RIDE. Rev. Iberoam. Investig. Desarro. Educ [online]. 2019, vol.10, n.19, e037.  Epub Nov 17, 2020. ISSN 2007-7467.  https://doi.org/10.23913/ride.v10i19.556.

The environmental crisis is of great concern throughout the world. In the face of this, environmental education (EE) arises as a process that promotes socio-environmental competences. Educational institutions such as the university represent an adequate space to introduce environmental knowledge into the curriculum, in such a way that the specific competencies and graduation of the educational project are complemented environmentally. The objective of this research was to perform a comparative analysis on the integration of EE in degree programs of three universities: Autonomous University of Guerrero (Mexico), Regional University of Blumenau (Brazil) and Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (South Africa).

It is a mixed research with a comparative and descriptive approach. It was carried out in the period 2015-2017. A survey was applied to professors and students in the programs under study, an interview in the programs of Mexico and South Africa and questionnaires of opinion to key informants of the curriculum in the programs of the university of Brazil, and some official documents were reviewed. The dimensions considered in the instruments and techniques were based on the following elements: perception of environmental issues, the relationship between EE and the curriculum, environmental competencies promoted by teachers and students, the revision of regulations that establish the integration of the EE in the study plan.

The result of the survey showed, among other things, that students and professors of educational programs in Mexico have a lower degree of perception of environmental problems compared to the professors of the programs of the other two universities. From the information provided by key informants it was deduced that two programs of the university of Mexico and the two of Brazil contemplate EE in some way. However, in the first, it is in a lesser proportion and in a disciplined way; in the second it is in greater proportion: its integration is transverse and is in process. In the program of South Africa, the EE does not appear. Regarding the official documents, the programs of Mexico and Brazil have a support that supports the integration of the EE; South Africa does not have an official document.

The incorporation of the EE in the educational programs of the universities is glimpsed when the environmental dimension curricularly intervenes in a disciplinary, transversal or other way. Consequently, diverse tasks are developed to preserve the environment and seek sustainability.

Keywords : environmental competences; environmental crisis; curriculum; universities.

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