In the diagnosis carried out, it was found that the members of the San Juan and Martínez community were not carriers of an adequate process of Popular Environmental Education (EPA).
The reality was characterized by the performance of isolated actions in an irregular way, summoned, systemic and decontextualized, as long as they were not based on a sequenced and dynamic structure for the construction of knowledge based on its own reality. In this sense, the present research emphasized: to base a methodological conception of the process of popular environmental education in the community, which through its component phases, which in turn constitute dynamic axes of the process of education, participation, communication, commitment and integration, guarantee the systemic, contextualized, sequenced and dynamic nature of this process. The results obtained have been systematized and are presented in this work as valid experiences to be taken into account for the popular scientific debate.
Introduction
A quick review of the events that have occurred in the last decades reveals that some topics appear more and more frequently, these are those related to the different aspects of development, associated with the political, social, environmental, and profound changes in the world economy where The consolidation of a neoliberal globalized world space stands out, culminating a secular process marked by the constant expansion of capitalist relations of production and favored by the wide development of new information and communication technologies.
"On the other hand, education is becoming increasingly important in the world, not only in relation to the production of knowledge, its socialization and introduction, but also in the development of human capacities and the formation of values." (González GM, 2003: 1).
“Education has thus become the main engine of development for our society. The educational processes acquire significance and strong implications for the future, particularly in the local setting, where the community constitutes a space that concentrates and at the same time reflects the multiple facets of social development.
Under such conditions, the New Information and Communication Technologies, together with the new social programs of the Revolution, become potentiating allies of this endeavor. ” (González GM, 2003: 1).
When studying in particular the situation of the current state of Popular Environmental Education in the San Juan y Martínez community, a problematic situation was observed consisting of: the scarce environmental knowledge and on sustainable development in the population, generated by the inexistence of an educational process, theoretical and practical through the participation and investigation of their own reality with a systemic and contextualized nature, which has repercussions on the low levels of education, participation, communication, commitment and integration in the solution of environmental problems, limiting development sustainable community.
Correspondingly, the following problem was raised: How to conceive the process of popular environmental education in the community that allows a higher level of education, participation, communication, commitment and integration of the population and the rest of the population in a systemic and contextualized way. social actors for the transformation of the way of acting against the environment?
Starting from the problem, the following general objective was formulated: To base a methodological conception for the process of environmental popular education of the community that contributes in a systemic and contextualized way to raise the levels of education, participation, communication, commitment and integration of the population and the rest of the social actors for the transformation of the way of acting against the environment.
For the purposes of this work, the specific objectives that we propose are the following:
- Analyze the theoretical and conceptual framework of Popular Environmental Education to determine the essential characteristics of an education for sustainable development. Socialize the results of the experience from the realities of our context.
Theoretical foundations of Popular Environmental Education (EPA).
Popular environmental education in Latin America, according to Muñoz, (2003: 30), is located in the mid-80s of the 20th century, and reaches a greater expression at the end of this decade and the beginning of the next, when the interrelation begins between environmentalism and popular education, based on questions about the behavior of some environmental groups, who insisted on acting outside the daily problems of the communities, and community groups that did not have the environmental issue at the center of their work.
In this regard, Figueredo J., (2008: 320) proposes the following: (…) "We were looking for ways to implement a new logic of thought that would account for a popular education that incorporated society-nature relations, or an environmental education that incorporated the Participatory political dimension of popular education ”.
“It was clear then, that we continued talking about a popular education that paid tribute to environmental education and vice versa. However, we were not aware that already - from some of our educational practices, conditioned by the demands, needs and demands of our socio-natural context - we were constructing the theory of our popular environmental education ”. (Figueredo J., 2008: 320).
These ideas continued their evolution from the 90s of the last century until today, in the line of thought of many other authors such as Viezzer, Ovalles, (1990), among others, including incorporating the educational principles of Paulo Freire, as he did (Castro E, 1997).
In conceptual terms we could say that the (EPA) owes its name to two related currents, on the maternal side Environmental Education, on the paternal side Popular Education. (Reyes J., 1994) in the Assembly of the Council of Adult Education for Latin America (CEAAL), of the Network of Popular and Ecological Education (REPEC), establishes that: “Environmental Popular Education is a synthesis that incorporates the approaches ecological of Environmental Education and the socio-political of Popular Education ”.
However, this does not refer to a simple mechanical sum of the deficit aspects of one or the other, “such incidence does not consist in simply adding to popular education content related to ecology, as many people see it from their perceptions about the ecological and the environmental. Nor to add to environmental education content on popular education and participatory techniques, which is also present in the imaginary of some Cuban educators.
The issue is more complex. It is really a mutual contribution that incorporates the idea of transforming the knowledge system and the knowledge paradigms towards a renewed understanding of the human environment that contributes to harmonious relationships within the society-nature system. ”
Castro A, (1994: 25) defines the EPA as follows: “it is a permanent process that from a political perspective provides theoretical and practical elements with the aim of modifying attitudes, increasing understanding and enriching the behavior of the popular sectors in their sociocultural relations and with the biophysical environment, in the process of building sustainable societies that, with social equity, respond to the existing cultural and ecological particularities ”.
Leff E, (1995: 20) for his part states that "the EPA goes beyond the approaches of critical popular education and the pedagogy of liberation, to propose new ways for the construction, transmission and appropriation of knowledge. This raises the need to internalize the concepts of the environment, the analysis of complexity and the methods of interdisciplinarity in education science, thus transforming pedagogical practices ”.
Within these conceptualizations we find the works of Castro E, (1997: 76) who maintains that the methodology of environmental education is closely related to the educational principles of Paulo Freire where “the teacher abandons a language, descriptions, categories and concepts to analyze the situation of the student and develops a dialogical process from which the students begin to enunciate their own lives: their social, economic and political relationships ”.
Having contemplated some conceptual bases that support its response and educational intent to the complex, systemic and multi-causal nature of environmental problems, we are in a position to analyze some pertinent approaches to the problems of our country.
According to Figueredo J., (2008), these are:
The ecological approach: this refers to a worldview on the ecological, it originates from the criticism of the industrialist development of capitalist societies, their consumerist attitudes, reproduced by the very market mechanism that today operates globally.
Therefore "it does not accept those reductionist visions that simplify the interpretation of the environmental problem to the deterioration of natural resources (…). The social relations of gender, classes, races and ethnic groups, are also incorporated as substantial parts within the problems of the society-nature system ”. (Figueredo J., 2008: 339).
According to this approach, as can be seen from the aforementioned, the relationships of the economic, political, cultural and natural contribute to the ecological being no longer limited to nature. Thus, the felling of a tree should lead us not only to the world of natural relationships, but also involves the analysis of different elements of a system of multi-causal interconnections of social, cultural, political, economic and natural elements.
The Marxist approach: it is anchored in the questioning of Marxist categories of development, which are subject to criticism conditioned, among other factors, by the discredit awarded by the fall of real socialism in the former Soviet Union and by the failure of the developmental models of Latin America in the eighties and early nineties.
However, there is another trend that vindicates Marxism, this recognizes that the methodological basis Marxism continues in the current conditions offering an explanation to the different problems of the society-nature relationship that arise, assuming it as a critical reflection for the collective construction of knowledge. that are generated in local, regional and global practices.
The challenge of popular environmental education in the incorporation of this approach resides, according to Figueredo J., (2008), in that it is not assumed under the unidirectional form of content transmission, but as one more theory that dialogues with our practices and experiences of concrete life, which contribute to the learning of our environmental knowledge.
The pedagogical approach: it is in our opinion, coinciding with other authors, one of the most important to take into account in our educational practices.
This part of the strategy of learning to learn environmental complexity, this means developing the capacities of self-analysis, critical self-reflection of their reality, self-management and self-development in order to search for solutions to the problems of their realities.
The educational process that is unleashed under this approach from popular environmental education should: "truly mobilize individuals in the improvement of their realities from the affective, corporal, intellectual, behavioral, from their culture (…). And from such mobilization, promote a true articulation that makes it possible for people to access collective decision-making entities, to assert their proposals for solutions to sociocultural problems. ”
Approach to Popular Environmental Education in Cuba.
Cuban environmental popular education -without the intention of going into depth in a historical analysis of its origin-, has distinctive characteristics, conditioned by the historical contexts that demanded it, that make profound differences with respect to the countries of Latin America.
Although it is true that the Cuban revolutionary project has generated the sociocultural, political and economic conditions to exercise political power, based on justice and social, human, solidarity, care and conservation of natural resources, it is also true that There are a series of limitations that have had a decisive impact on the assumption of the EPA in Cuba, these are:
- Although education occupies a privileged place, which as it is known constitutes a tool for the transformation of existing realities and modes of action, it has not fully assumed a systemic society-nature relationship, for a harmonious development in this sense. (Figueredo J., 2008). The economic crisis of the nineties of the last century generated deficiencies in basic resources, causing a substantial and abrupt change in our senses in social relations and with our natural environment. Consistency and integration are still weak of direct community actors around environmental issues. The participation of some social organizations is only limited to supporting,so that the people attend the different activities and not in the mobilization for the search for collective solutions to problems of this nature. (Rosales, 1995, cited in González, 2003: 45).The multiplicity of programs and projects do not move within an integrated environmental development strategy, but exist without being articulated with each other because they are independent programs. contribution of the community, in terms of the formulation of environmental objectives, decision making and resource management for its implementation in this regard. In this, the specific interests of the members of the community have not always been taken into account, precisely because they are not elaborated from their own reality and because they do not have knowledge of environmental issues.The participation of the community during the evaluation and control processes is very limited and almost nil in the impact evaluation and even less so in the community systematization, as a process of critical reflection of one or more experiences.
The above problems intervene as limitations, which must be solved by Popular Environmental Education, since these have affected the success of the communities. Therefore, assuming environmental popular education in Cuba was not a coincidence or a simple interest in professional improvement, it was and continues to be conditioned by concrete contextual elements. "But, above all, it had to do with the shortcomings and inconsistencies of our practices in the face of an environmental problem that dimensioned the conceptual and methodological approaches traditionally used." (Figueredo J., 2008).
All these implications required assuming an educational and research process that would respond to such demands. This process was that of Popular Environmental Education.
Based on the diagnosis made in the community, a series of problems were detected, which are listed below:
- High presence of environmental problems, partly given by the inadequate forms of action of the direct actors of the community and the rest of the social actors who attempt against the sustainable development of the same. It should be noted that it was difficult for them to identify the environment with a multidimensional vision that involves social, economic, cultural and nature aspects. It was found that there was a very limited perception of the concept of the environment, since a large part of the opinions referred to the presence of problems of nature fundamentally, with almost no impact on socio-cultural and economic levels. participation of community members in solving their environmental problems.Lack of integration for the solution of the community's environmental problems. Lack of environmental and sustainable development knowledge in the population conditioned by the absence of a theoretical and practical educational process through participation and educational research as a contribution to sustainable development. Lack of an educational strategy of the community based on its environmental transformation as a contribution to sustainable development. Lack of knowledge by members of the community of methods and methodologies for the solution of environmental problems. Low levels of communication of problems environmental effects that are manifested in the community and its possible solutions Low levels of commitment and participation of the other social actors in the community.
From the previous problems detected, a methodological conception for the process of Popular Environmental Education of the community was founded.
This is defined as a system of scientific ideas that underpin the phases that in turn constitute dynamic axes and the principles for their development, which guarantees the systemic, contextualized, sequenced and dynamic nature of said process for the cognitive and behavioral transformation of individuals with respect to the environment.
The principles on which it is based are the following:
- Education and training of human potential as an essential factor for sustainable development. Education must generate a culture of participation that allows the collective construction of alternatives to carry out the transformations of the community, starting from the interests, expectations and needs of the community itself. The action based on sustainable development must be conceived and implemented from your own needs, based on participatory environmental diagnosis. Through this, what are the problems, where are they, what magnitude are they, what resources does the community have to face them? The coordination and integration of efforts requires the participation of all in an integral way and includes the diversity of interests of the local population.Development of collaborative and mutual aid relationships, not only among its members, but with other communities.
Having examined the preceding principles which determine that the education process is centered on the members of the community, we can move concretely to the steps or phases of the methodological conception that is proposed for the community under study.
I. The approach phase.
This can be seen explicitly or underlying under other names according to the wide diversity of authors, but in the end it had the fundamental objective of achieving a climate of trust, affection and respect between people, establishing a dialogue communication that strengthens their relationships interpersonal.
II. The diagnostic phase.
In this step within the diagnosis, the identification, selection, study and weighing of the problems, needs and expectations that individuals have and that are present in the community are carried out by:
- List the problems without hierarchical order of priority. Assign the statistical units in which they are expressed. Assign the hierarchical order of priority by means of the number of responses issued by community members about each problem, and determine the frequency of responses. the weighting. Proceed to the allocation of the budget, if it exists and is available for use.
III. The strategic planning phase.
This phase is where the proposals for solutions to the environmental problems that manifest themselves in the community are elaborated, the objectives are determined, the action plan for their solution is elaborated, the goals are drawn, the activities are proposed and actions to develop.
At this stage, a participatory strategic plan is established, reflected in a document that includes objectives, actions, goals, activities, budgets and responsibilities, these will establish the limits of the community's operations.
IV. Project management and execution.
Once the essential aspects of the strategic planning process have been defined, a series of actions begin to be developed, these are manifested through projects dreamed, conceived, planned and executed by the members of the community themselves.
V. The phase of realization and obtaining of the results.
In this phase, the main objective is to check the results of the actions carried out by the members of the community and the rest of the social actors, which qualitative and quantitative results were obtained compared to what they planned in the phase. III.
In this way, with all the above elements, a balance of the community's environmental action can be established, an instrument that allows collecting, organizing, registering, measuring, evaluating, summarizing, interpreting and making decisions about the environmental action that is taking place in community.
SAW. Evaluation, systematization and decision making.
In this phase, a set of indicators are obtained that are derived from the entire process and that through their qualitative and quantitative analysis, it is possible to evaluate and base the decisions of the direct actors in the most effective and correct way possible.
This methodological conception also has two organizational forms (a popular environmental education program and software as practical support), which together with the phases and principles make up an integrated, systemic and contextualized, sequenced and dynamic system that allows improving the way of acting. of community members facing the environment. Its application in the community frameworks yielded the following results:
Educational, theoretical and practical results of the analyzed experience.
- Introduction of the environmental theme in theater groups for both children and adults. Painting exhibitions, galleries, stories, contests, peasant groups allegorical to the environment. Creation of environmental vigilance groups with children and control groups with the elderly. Creation of circles of interest and environmental murals in schools. Sociocultural environmental benchmarks. Training workshops on environmental legislation. Implementation of a communication strategy through:
- TV San Juan.Radio educational base in conjunction with the Casa de Cultura, printing of bulletins, advertisements, spot, folding allegorical to the state of the environment in the community.Signage system through the green map of the community.
8. The development of an experimental area of agro ecology and sustainable agriculture with the help of the Experimental Station of Tobacco and Municipal Agriculture.
9. Reforestation of the banks of the San Juan river, with the support of the
Silvicultural Unit.
10. Creation of an Environment website, as well as insertion in the environmental training network of the Pinar del Río province.
Conclusions
The validation of the experience in the community showed that the application of the methodological conception contributed to: an increase in knowledge about the environment, to a more successful and progressive participation in relation to the identification, planning, solution, evaluation and systematization of the environmental problems, communication, commitment and integration, which shows a transformation in the conscience and the way of acting of those involved, placing them in better conditions of construction and appropriation of knowledge from their practices.
recommendations
Increase the socialization process of this type of experience, according to the specific context or community, taking into account the physical and socio-cultural characteristics of each territory.
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