Environmental culture training for university students

Summary

The formation of an environmental culture in professionals Sociocultural studies is of great importance at the present time, since it will be these who will be linked to decision-making, the projection of social policies, the use of natural resources, and transformation of society from cultural institutions, on its performance the process of social development on a global and local scale will largely depend. This article analyzes the theoretical and methodological foundation of environmental education, the stages of its development and its influence on environmental culture conditioned by the professional training process as well as the characteristics of that process and the formation of environmental culture in students.The results showed insufficiencies in the professional training of the Degree in Sociocultural Studies in relation to environmental culture that limit the socio-transformative relevance in the context of action.

Introduction

There are different social programs based on concepts of equity and social justice to which our society aspires as part of the Battle of Ideas. The Cuban University has been no stranger to it and has developed several workshops on political-ideological work (Ministry of Higher Education, 1996; 1998).

In this context, the need to respond to the continuity of studies of the graduates of the social worker programs, of the emerging schools of primary teachers and art instructors, in the country's universities was addressed.

The term training embodies the process developed in universities with the aim of fully instructing the student of a certain university career and includes both undergraduate and postgraduate studies. Horruitiner, P. (2006). This author continues stating that training expresses the direction of development, that is, where it should go.

In the attempt to define theoretically at the international and national level the precepts that differentiate vocational training, a significant number of authors have referred to whose works reveal a great consensus related to the importance they attach to it, which shows the need to promote training based on organizational policy, the interests of its professionals with the required quality. Due to the value of this process, great importance is attributed to the concepts worked on by the following authors, Castro O and Addine F. (2010), Balmaceda, E. (2010), González Maura, V. (2003, 2006, 2008), Calderón RM (2006), Alonso Angulo D. (2006), (Collective of Authors of the University of Ciego de Ávila (2006), Ramírez Feliú A. (2006), Álvarez de Zayas, Carlos M., (1989),among others that propose contextualized training alternatives to the specific conditions of teaching at the Current Cuban University.

Currently, Cuban education aims to create a man who is actively involved in the construction of the new society, with a high level of responsibility, practical skills, human feelings, and aesthetic and ethical values, which ultimately implies, create a revolutionary and educated man.

To ensure that education achieves that essential purpose, it is necessary to train a professional with a valuable level of integrity, who also possesses the necessary knowledge, skills development and the formation of the values that our society demands today.

At the beginning of the 21st century, the great problems that threaten the very existence of humanity, including climate change and the increase in disasters that are no longer so natural, seriously endanger the existence of species and jeopardize creation. of the foundations of a viable and sustainable world.

Environmental training was conceived since the Tbilisi Conference as the process of building interdisciplinary knowledge and new holistic methods to analyze the complex socio-environmental processes that emerge from global change. (UNESCO, 1994)

Within the framework of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), "environmental training is understood, as specialized environmental education, in that it is aimed at a restricted group of professionals." (Novo, 1998).

One of the main challenges in the work of universities is environmental training, oriented towards the need to train professionals capable of operating changes in the behavior of society as a whole, as well as the transformation of knowledge and the innovation of technologies for solving environmental problems.

In Cuba, professional training is based on the clear definition of professional problems that must be solved independently and creatively after graduation, making the creation of the Ministry of Higher Education (MES) an essential purpose. environmental culture in undergraduate, postgraduate, scientific research, scientific-technical information, university extension and inter-institutional relations, since the university must train a professional who does not attack or pollute the environment, but rather transforms its way of action before society and therefore work to achieve an environmental culture (MES, 2007).

The complex environmental problems facing today's societies require a paradigm shift to understand them, from disciplinarity to interdisciplinarity and, in many aspects, to transdisciplinarity, for which a culture that is respectful with the social and community environment at the university, which is ultimately an ecosystem.

The author carried out a bibliographic review and confirmed the insufficient articles and works by authors that have referred to the treatment of environmental education and culture in the training of professionals in the Bachelor's Degree in Sociocultural Studies, only some articles that refer to the topic appear such as Ballester (2007), this article analyzes the results of the study carried out on the state of Interdisciplinary Environmental Education in the SUM of the province of Holguín.

The following shortcomings are revealed in the process of training the professional in the Sociocultural Studies career:

Limitations of teachers and students to offer solution options to environmental problems. Limitations in the applicability of knowledge of environmental culture in the contexts where it interacts.

Development

Theoretical and methodological foundations about environmental education in the process of training the professional of Sociocultural Studies and the formation of environmental culture.

It is true that the environment is a new specificity of the Nature-Society interaction and that it is an open system where all the elements interact, even human thought itself and, as our Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz said at the International Conference of the United Nations on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro “For the first time in its history, man is capable of upsetting the balance of the main vital systems and breaking the natural laws that have gathered evolution on the planet. It can destroy life in one fell swoop and trigger nuclear war. It actively influences, through genetic engineering, the accelerated mutations of species that naturally took millennia to consolidate. For the first time, man is capable of changing the course of life ”.Castro, Ruz (1993) pp. 63-94.

Taking into account the previous idea of the Maximum Leader, it is then considered that environmental education in these times is something transcendental, which had its origins when man envisioned his relationship with the Biosphere and began to question his role in the conservation and degradation of the environment. For centuries, the human species has transformed the environment in which it lives to adapt it to its needs, in this society-environment relationship, values have been instituted that promote a mentality of submission, developing rules of use that together with scientific advances and Technological technologies that have endowed man with an enormous power of impact on the environment, have conditioned his predatory action on the environment, which has surpassed local effects, since the problems derived from the society-nature conflict,have changed the living conditions of the planet, causing harmful effects that affect the quality of life as a whole.

The concept of Environmental Education has been addressed by many authors, among which stand out: Jorge Ramón Cuevas (1982) ”Natural resources and their conservation. In defense of the Environment ", Eduardo Torres Consuegra (1996)" The ethical environmental behavior ", Milene González Ramos (2002)" Health and environmental development ", Margarita Mc Pherson Sayú (2004)" Environmental Education in the formation of teachers ”, among others.

In this investigation the author assumes the concept issued in the National Environmental Strategy in his law 81 which states: "Environmental Education is a continuous and permanent process, which constitutes a dimension of comprehensive education for all citizens, aimed at the acquisition of knowledge, development of habits, abilities, capacities and attitudes and in the formation of values, the relations between human beings and theirs with the rest of society and nature are harmonized, to promote the orientation of processes economic, social and cultural towards sustainable development. ”

Stages of the development of environmental education and the influence on environmental culture conditioned by the training process.

The origins of environmental education are located in the 70s, it arises in the context of global concern about the serious destabilization of natural systems, which highlights the unsustainability of the paradigm of industrial development or "development", and It leads the international community to the need for changes in the sciences, including the educational sciences, with the aim of responding to the growing and new problems facing humanity.

In 1972, in Stockholm, Sweden, the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment was held, where the existence of this concept and its importance for changing the development model were officially recognized. Which has been emphasized by different authors, (Leff, E. 1995; Pardo, A. 1996; Esteva, J. 1994; Martínez, R. 1994).

Principle 19 of this conference indicates that an education in environmental tasks, aimed at both young generations and adults, and that pays due attention to the less privileged sector of the population, is essential to broaden the foundations of a well-public opinion informed and conduct of individuals, companies and communities, inspired by the sense of their responsibility for the protection and improvement of the environment in all its

At the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro Brazil in 1992, an Environmental Education was conceptualized focused on the analysis of the problems derived from the development models established by humanity and the essential need for their change towards sustainable development, where education is the key that opens the doors that lead to the paths that generate the transformations in the countries, especially in the so-called rich where most of the matter and energy of this planet are consumed. (PIEA-UNESCO-UNEP, 1994a).

Since 1986, actions on the Environment by Cuban education began until the Environment Program of the Ministry of Higher Education was created in October 1995.

Law 81 or Environmental Law, in its Chapter VII "Environmental Education", article 50 indicates as significant elements that higher education must implement the environmental dimension taking into account the relationship established with the professional model and study plans. that organize undergraduate training, unfolding through outreach, teaching and extra-teaching activities. Elements that are shared given the purposes of the research, since the value that it has in the training of Sociocultural Studies professionals in relation to environmental culture is indicated.

In the National Education System and in the training plans for higher education professionals, environmental education has been recognized as a prioritized objective. This has allowed the development of actions that make it possible to raise the environmental culture of the students and strengthen the relationship of the school and university with the community. If this is so, then the process of training the professional of Sociocultural Studies constitutes an ideal space to form environmental culture through transformative dynamics in contexts of universalization of higher education.

In this sense, it should be borne in mind that there are still limitations in the comprehensive training of teachers that allow adequate management of the processes of environmental culture training in higher education, and there is still insufficient application of the interdisciplinary approach that requires training and / or environmental education in the disciplines programs of the degree course in Sociocultural Studies, with a predominance of initial undergraduate training. On the other hand, specialized texts and other didactic resources for environmental education are not available for the Cuban school. However, progress in the incorporation of environmental issues in the curricula of MES and MINED study programs can be seen in the country.

Stages of the development of environmental education and the influence on environmental culture conditioned by the professional training process.

The origins of environmental education are located in the 70s, it arises in the context of global concern about the serious destabilization of natural systems, which highlights the unsustainability of the paradigm of industrial development or "development", and leads the international community to the need for changes in the sciences, including the educational sciences, with the aim of responding to the growing and novel problems facing humanity

In 1985 in Bogotá, Colombia, at the University and Environment Congress, the first approach to environmental education was made in Latin American universities and the environmental training network in Latin America was created, led by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). (González Muñoz, 1996a and 1996b).

Since 1986, actions on the Environment by Cuban education began until the Environment Program of the Ministry of Higher Education was created in October 1995.

Law 81 or Environmental Law, in its Chapter VII "Environmental Education", article 50 indicates as significant elements that higher education must implement the environmental dimension taking into account the relationship established with the professional model and study plans. that organize undergraduate training, unfolding through outreach, teaching and extra-teaching activities. Elements that are shared given the purposes of the investigation, since the value it has in the training of the legal professional in relation to the environmental culture is indicated.

In the National Education System and in the training plans for higher education professionals, environmental education has been recognized as a prioritized objective. This has allowed the development of actions that make it possible to raise the environmental culture of the students and strengthen the relationship of the school and university with the community. If this is so, then the process of training the legal professional constitutes an ideal space to form environmental culture through transformative dynamics in contexts of universalization of higher education.

In this sense, it should be borne in mind that there are still limitations in the comprehensive training of teachers that allow adequate management of the processes of environmental culture training in higher education, and there is still insufficient application of the interdisciplinary approach that requires training and / or environmental education in the disciplines programs of the Bachelor of Law degree, with a predominance of initial undergraduate training. On the other hand, specialized texts and other didactic resources for environmental education are not available for the Cuban school. However, progress in the incorporation of environmental issues in the curricula of MES and MINED study programs can be seen in the country.

On the training process of professionals Álvarez de Zayas, Carlos M., (1989), states that, training is the process and the result whose function is to prepare men in all aspects of their personality, is the possibility and the need for man to become a subject, to have the capacity to consciously dispose of himself. In this sense, environmental education and culture constitute the essence of integral culture, by strengthening ethical values, requiring the inclusion of the environmental dimension and the development of an environmental culture.

In the analysis of the professional training process, what was proposed by Fuentes, H. and Cruz Baranda, S., (2002) acquires significance, considering it as a space for the construction of meanings and meanings that implies progressive human development, which It can be explained from a pedagogical model that recognizes this process as a conscious, complex, holistic and dialectical process. Aspects shared by the author of the research due to its totalitarian and enriching character that denotes this process, which allows the implementation of training actions intended to form environmental culture in the professionals in training.

For its part, UNESCO (1989) considers as professional training, the forms and levels of the educational process that include, in addition to general knowledge, the study of related science technologies, the acquisition of practical skills, competences, attitudes, and understandings related to occupations in different sectors of social life.

The foregoing allows us to assert that environmental training is one of the dimensions of professional training, which is continually reconceptualized, subject to theoretical conceptions of Environmental Education, which has gone through different stages. The first is aimed at preserving nature, the second is for protecting the environment and the third is to create an environmental culture for sustainable development

The term environmental training has been addressed by several authors Left Enrique, (1994); Coya Melania, (2000) who consider it as a process of acquiring skills, techniques and concepts to contribute to a new form of cultural adaptation to environmental systems through the professional pedagogical process. Environmental training is interpreted from the criteria of these authors, as an action and consequence of training.

If one takes into account that the environment is a complex and continuous system where dynamic interrelations between the biotic, abiotic, socio-cultural, economic, historical, constructed, etc. are manifested, which is the focus of the vision of an interconnected world in a complex web of relationships, ranging from the very existence of man to his culture and social relationships, then there is no doubt that as a consistent environmental education is achieved, a comprehensive approach will be favored in future professionals.

The process of training the university student acquires great connotation from the significant transformations that take place in the Cuban university, which have as their central axis a comprehensive vision of the training of professionals that responds to the great challenges that the current society raises you.

Environmental education in its future incorporates the concept of environmental training present in the United Nations Environment Program of 1972, is taken up by Figueroa, A., (1995), who considers environmental training as “a set of theoretical or practical activities that lead to a more adequate understanding of environmental problems and technical training (training) for the management of ecosystems, based on an adequate quality of life. This assessment responds to the concept of environmental education, oriented to the conservation of natural resources, and is focused on technical training to understand environmental problems and act on the management of ecosystems.

The current need to guide the processes of environmental education and training towards sustainable development requires profound transformations in the processes that take place at the current Cuban University, considering firstly the development of environmental education in its substantive processes, the integration of these processes and their extension to the whole of society. Therefore, the objective pursued by the professional environmental training process is to train students in an environmental culture in correspondence with the demands of society, which contributes to their future way of acting professionally.

Despite the actions that have been developed, the required level is not achieved, based on the demands that the exercise of the profession raises and based on providing professionals with a culture that fosters a consistent attitude towards care and conservation enviroment

Taking into consideration the elements set forth above, and for the environmental training of law students to be truly effective, the consistent application of the interdisciplinary approach is required, starting from the integration of the university's substantive processes, the different disciplines of the study plan and training and / or educational actions that achieve a change in the way of acting of individuals in their relationship with the environment.

Characteristics by stages of the process of training the professional of Sociocultural Studies and the formation of environmental culture.

The process of training the Sociocultural Studies professional has gone through several stages, leaving a significant and highly valuable imprint for subsequent studies. In this direction, the author takes into consideration some essential features of the historical movement through which the training of this professional passes, establishing the pertinent interconnections with the formation of environmental culture, given the interests of the research being carried out.

When it comes to the process of training the Sociocultural Studies professional, it is essential to take into account its initiation, identified by essential features that imply it as an important period in this process, reflected in the model and / or professional profile. The Sociocultural Studies career does not have a reliable background in the Cuban higher education system, however it is an integrator of main elements of the knowledge system, skills and modes of action of the degrees in Letters, Art History, History, Sociology and Social Sciences.

In order for the study to reveal some edges of the problem to be investigated, we determined indicators that would integrate the analysis at each determined historical stage:

Projection of the main events that set the tone for the development of environmental training for students in the degree course in Sociocultural Studies. Development of the environmental dimension from the degree course in Sociocultural Studies.

These indicators allowed determining the stages, conceived from the main documents that set guidelines in the development of the environmental dimension in the degree course in Sociocultural Studies: the first, from 1992 to 2001, is governed by the agreements of the Summit of Rio de Janeiro on deepening and systematizing the work of environmental training in universities, called the experimental stage of the degree course in Sociocultural Studies and the second from 2002 to the present which is governed by the MES-CITMA agreements and determines a stage of improvement of environmental training in the career.

The career in Sociocultural Studies prepares professionals capable of carrying out community social work, consulting, social research, promotion, animation and cultural and tourist management, and even teacher training and extension work in the social, cultural, political-ideological and tourism spheres.

The object of work of this professional is community sociocultural work. Its mode of action is to carry out specialized detection, research and sociocultural intervention work; for this reason the object of the profession is precisely community social intervention that involves working with ethnic groups, gender, territories, generations, the urban and rural, tourism, etc.

To periodize Sociocultural Studies in Cuba, the author proposes a division into two stages, starting from the emergence of the career and the study plans that follow, namely: experimental training, training improvement.

First stage (1992 to 2001): experimental environmental training in the training of Sociocultural Studies professional.

An event of great incidence at this stage was the Earth Summit or Summit of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1992 (United Nations Conference on Environment and Development). It constitutes a milestone in that it provided far-reaching international agreements and relevant documents, such as Agenda 21, in which Chapter 36 is dedicated to promoting education and reorienting it towards quality-oriented sustainable development. of life, training and awareness of environmental problems.

When the Bachelor's Degree in Sociocultural Studies began in 1998, the “C” plan that was being applied was in force, which was characterized by a structuring of the career with a broad profile, a model of the professional based on the problems that must be resolve in its performance and the determination of the modes of action, to which new trends were incorporated: a more consistent application of the principle of systematic teaching in order to achieve the objectives of the model and a decentralization of decisions related to the most operational aspects of the management of the training process, aimed at achieving effective community intervention, which undoubtedly favors the environmental training of the students of the degree (Martínez Casanova, Manuel., 2010: 4)

The Chairs of the Environment were created in 1998, with the aim of strengthening the environmental training of students through the performance of curricular and extracurricular activities, which are inserted into the environmental strategies of the Ministry of Higher Education.

From the 1999-2000 academic year, given the acceptance and prospects that this career opened, it began progressively in other universities, with an unprecedented extension for any other university career up to that moment.

The indications to deepen and systematize the work of environmental training in universities, issued by the MES in 1998, mark the beginning of a new period, in which they are analyzed and perfected in three consecutive National Seminars (2003, 2004, 2005) and international events such as the University (2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008), which, in turn, derive strategies that are increasingly appropriate to the demands of the current moment.

Also from the conception of the university, the formulation of the Environmental Curriculum Strategy was conceived. At the beginning of this period, the importance of environmental training in the students of the Bachelor's Degree in Sociocultural Studies is underlined, projecting the actions for the five-year period 2000-2005 (Projects, research, studies and experiences integrated with community participation).

The analyzed stage is characterized by assuming an integration strategy

interdisciplinary on the part of the professors for the environmental formative work in the career, in a formal, traditional way based on the requirement of the Curricular Strategy of Environmental Education established by the MES, although the interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary nature of education is advocated environmental. In this period, emphasis is placed on sustainable development and environmental problems are analyzed from the local, community to the international and vice versa, an aspect that is not sufficiently exploited.

In the midst of an international conjuncture that marked a milestone in the historical evolution of humanity, our country persevered in its political will to support our alternative project to brutal capitalism: our adherence to the principles of social justice and, in general, to the project that we have called "our socialism". In this stage plan C is modified. The fundamental strategic conception at this stage was to train a professional with an absolute political content.

In 1992, the Constitutional Reform that modified article 27 of the 1976 constitution was brought into effect, making it more in line with the new internationally existing conditions on environmental problems, since the Earth Summit had recently concluded.

In the first years of this stage, there were no educational intentions regarding the environment, although the program content of many disciplines and subjects was reformulated. The subject is not included in the model of the legal professional nor were there strategies in this regard. There are no environmental instructional objectives, which prevents a coherent and homogeneous orientation of the environmental training of the legal professional, and there are no methodological strategies to guide the development of interdisciplinary relationships.

In 1997, Cuban Higher Education conceived the National Strategy for Environmental Education (ENEA). From this moment on, steps begin to be taken to incorporate the environmental dimension in the study plans of the different careers and it is an objective in the training plan for professionals. The actions proposed did not meet the expectations in the training process of the legal professional.

At this stage there are insufficiencies in terms of the treatment of environmental education in the training of professionals, demonstrated in the lack of comprehensiveness in the preparation of teachers, which did not allow adequate management of environmental processes; prosecuted for the insufficient interdisciplinary approach, the absence of specialized texts and other training mediators required for the process of formation of environmental culture.

In summary, the formation of environmental culture as a dimension that acquires connotation in the training process of the Sociocultural Studies professional at this stage is distinguished by the following essential features:

The normative and methodological documents that direct the sociocultural studies professional training policy show the need to include environmental culture in the professional training process. In the organization, planning of the professional training process Sociocultural Studies, An approach to intentionally linking environmental training actions in relation to the professional model is evident. The formation of environmental culture in the Sociocultural Studies professional is promoted from a traditional dynamic, with the support of mediators who predominantly represent elements cognitive.

Second stage (2000 to present): Environmental training improvement in the process of training the Sociocultural Studies professional.

At this stage, the Climate Change Conference, Rio +10 in 2002, takes place in Johannesburg, where contemporary environmental problems are addressed and the Environmental Education Strategy (CITMA) is perfected and its transdisciplinary character is advocated..

The integration strategy assumed by the teachers includes, the environmental strategy, in order to give formative treatment mediated by diverse activities but this is still multidisciplinary although steps are being taken to interdisciplinary treatment of it, in a traditional way in which Training is not conceived from an ethical, aesthetic, emotional and spiritual perspective.

In the degree course in Sociocultural Studies it is appreciated that the opportunities are present throughout the Study Plan and the essence of the career itself, aimed at training a professional capable of leading social and natural transformations from the community, requires treatment from the didactic with the use of ways and procedures that are motivating.

In the analyzed stage it is evident that in the formative actions that are developed as an inherent part of the training process of the Sociocultural Studies professional, a trend still persists, gradually moving from a traditional dynamics to a leading one, which involves student self-training, where they not only appropriate theoretical knowledge, but also integrate it with the attitudinal values that regulate their behavior in diverse contexts.

The treatment of the thematic formation of environmental culture, elucidated from the professional's own improvement process, shows unsystematicity in the different activities that are carried out.

The training actions that are developed in the process of training the Sociocultural Studies professional, acquire as a consequence of improvement, the integration of cognitive and attitudinal elements in relation to environmental training.

In this period it is established as regularities:

Carrying out national events that favor the development of the environmental dimension in Higher Education, without articulating this process the training of the Sociocultural Studies professional, from the curricular conception of environmental education. The development of the environmental dimension within the teaching-learning process it still maintains an eminently social approach, without addressing the environmental contents where problems are analyzed from a natural and cultural perspective with an integrative approach of the cognitive and attitudinal, but with predominance of the former. The state of integration for the development of environmental culture in the career is still multidisciplinary with an approach to interdisciplinarity by teachers in a traditional way,with the elaboration of development plans and projects from a sociocultural perspective and the execution of sociocultural promotion and management processes, which is supported and developed with a traditional dynamic.

In this sense, it is synthesized that in the period under consideration the formation of environmental culture in the process of training the Sociocultural Studies professional has as a significant distinction that there are limitations in the training actions and procedures that must be executed to achieve the formation of knowledge. and necessary values in professionals; in such a way that the scientific problem revealed in the investigation is evidenced, being necessary to look for an alternative solution.

Conclusions

The examination of the theoretical foundations of environmental education allowed us to reach the following conclusions:

The explanatory analysis of the theoretical and methodological foundations that arrive at the object and the field of this investigation showed limitations regarding the formation of environmental culture in the students of the Sociocultural Studies degree and provided statistics of the insufficiencies in the revised theoretical considerations.

Showing the stages that express the historical background through which the environmental culture has gone through in the training of professionals in the Sociocultural Studies career has facilitated the characterization of each one and established their insufficiencies to discover the essential features that typify it.

The results of the diagnosis applied to the students and professors of the Sociocultural Studies career at the University Branch of the municipality of Jiguaní, exposed the state of the current situation in relation to environmental culture in the training of professionals, they are visible insufficiencies of a formative nature, in relation to the formation of environmental culture in the students of the race.

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