Emancipation in environmental education: Training at a Brazilian University

Abstract

Based on Critical Theory and Emancipator Environmental Education, the study aimed at analyzing the dialectic of emancipation and its potentials in Environmental Education (EE). The research method was structured following a qualitative, participatory research approach, which includes focus group techniques and documental textual analysis. The category "dialectic of emancipation in the socio-environmental training project" was priorised here, with the sub-categories "emancipation", "emancipator EE", "autonomy" and "freedom". It was observed that the potential emancipator elements include the contradictions in the processes of education and in the bureaucratic and power relations of the institutions that can limitate the autonomy and freedom of individuals, besides the valorization of the experience in collectives in search of the democratization of the EE, as a potential for reflections and critical actions within the HEI.