Environmental education as an instrument for increasing resilience in schools: implementation of the eco-school project in Brazilian and Portuguese educational institutions

Education is the most transformative tool of the individual and of society, although its effects are perceptible only in the medium and long term. Climate change have already changed practices in many sectors of society... [ view full abstract ]

Education is the most transformative tool of the individual and of society, although its effects are perceptible only in the medium and long term. Climate change have already changed practices in many sectors of society related to adaptation and mitigation actions and their effects. Among these sectors, education is a nest in which it is possible to foster and develop some adaptive practices that bring positive results. According to the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, the term resilience can be understood as "the capacity of a system, community or society exposed to the risks of resisting, absorbing, adapting and recovering from the effects of a hazard in a timely and efficient manner, for instance, through the preservation and restoration of its basic structures and essential functions". Therefore, it is possible to conclude that education and changing behavior have been intrinsically linked to adaptation and to resilience. Teaching is naturally resilient because of the Brazilian and other countries´ adverse context. Currently in Brazil the contents of high school´s education plan have already included the basic concepts related (Law of Guidelines and Bases - LDB) to environmental education that are now taught as part of some disciplines such as Physics, Chemistry, Geography, among others. Related to Environmental Education, it is necessary to appropriate the concept of resilience of the communities in case of seasonal or of eventual environmental events with the aim to approach issues regarding to resilience in that subject. In other words, to any topics related to adaptation to climate change naturally links to the issue of resilience, although the term resilience itself is not that often applied. In Brazil as in other countries, the perception of resilience included in environmental education is already noticeable. Based on the Eco-school project of the international program "Foundation for Environmental Education", started in Portugal in 1996 and developed since then, we will provide a practical methodology for the integration of environmental education in Brazilian basic education system, in order to increase resilience to extreme events and to form environmental multipliers agents. Considering this aim, we investigated the Eco-school project by interviewing the workers professionals and being in touch with their main features including weaknesses while executing the project. A comparison was made between the results of the program in a Portuguese and Brazilian school in order to verify in which case the resilience approach was effectively applied or theoretically perceived.