The systemic impacts of a large-scale socio- environmental educational program

Abstract

In this article we present our findings regarding the systemic impacts of the Environmental Education for the Communities (ECOA) program, an educational program sponsored by the Alcoa Institute. The program, which was developed from 2014 to 2016 in Brazil, involved one corporation (Alcoa Institute), one educational consulting firm (Evoluir), seven Municipal Departments of Education and 30 schools and its surrounding communities. The program promoted environmental awareness following a project-based learning approach: First the students became aware of certain socio-environmental problems in their areas, and then they developed projects to address these problems with support of local communities and guidance from teachers and Evoluir's educators. Our research objective was to understand the impacts of the program. We followed a qualitative research approach, collecting data by means of document analysis and interviews, unveiling the recurrent themes and analyzing the connections between them by means of a systemic analysis. Our main findings were: 1) The use of the PBL approach, involving schools and communities in joint planning and execution processes, promoted environmental awareness and strengthened the ties between the schools and local communities. 2) The PBL approach challenged the students to solve real-life problems, improving their critical thinking, their communications and problem-solving skills, leading to the improvement of their self-confidence and in their interest in learning. 3) The PBL approach empowered the teachers, motivating them to study and to make connections with community partners, thus changing the ways the courses were conducted and the relationships between school and local communities.