Educación para el Desarrollo Sostenibleainvestigación analítico-crítica de los proyectos de Educación Ambiental del Ayuntamiento de Valencia, España

Abstract

This doctoral thesis is related to the understanding of education as an essential tool for sustainable development and has to do with the current discussions about the Declaration of the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) (2005-2014). Its goal is the study of the pedagogical suitability of Environmental Education (EE) projects carried out by the Environmental Education Department of the City Council of Valencia during the academic period 2011-12 with regard to the pedagogic principles of EE (complexity and interdisciplinarity, constructivism, dialogue and criticality). It is a critical-analytical research project of qualitative nature in which an ethnographic study is performed. This study has provided a better comprehension of the implementation process of the aforementioned projects as well as descriptive data of the interactions which have taken place in the educational settings observed, the activities performed, the expectations of the participants and many other aspects. These were analysed under the analytical categories grounded in the approaches of the complexity paradigm (Galano, 2000; Loureiro, 2005; Morin, 1993, 1994, 1995, 2001, 2004, 2010; Leff, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2006; etc.) and the critical perspective (Bonafé, 1998, 2003, 2011; Sacristán, 1991, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2008; Freire, 1973, 1988, 1990, 2006; Silva, 2001, etc.). Through participatory field observation, combined with the other data collection techniques used in this study (document analysis, field notes and non-standardized interviews) it was possible to analyse, understand and interpret the existing relationship between theory and practice within the EE projects carried out by the Education Department of the City Council of Valencia. On the one hand, it was noted there were several weaknesses in the implementation process, namely with regard to the absence of any involvement of the teachers from the educational establishments where the study was conducted; as well as the non-continuity of the work within the educational establishments once the projects were finished and the absence of a previous work on the issues dealt with on every project. On the other hand, as a big strength, it could be pointed out that the booklets used were well grounded and the work on the contents was interdisciplinary; and the situations, problems and practical examples were contextualised within the real issues about the environment, in this specific case, in the city of Valencia and neighbouring villages (the villages of the Valencian Horta Sud and Nord). Moreover, in spite of the aforementioned weaknesses and limitations of the implementation process of the EE projects analysed in this study, the Educational Projects Sector of the Education Department of the City Council of Valencia (which has poor financial, human and material resources as well as little cooperation from the other departments working with EE – theDepartments of Environment, Education, Youth and Climate Change-) is looking for new ways of acting so as to achieve environment sustainability locally, although the political and economical context in which it is immersed does not favour progress in public policies in the field of EE or cooperative work between local institutions.