Education for the Environment, Sustainability and Climate Action in Pará State
A new curriculum component is arriving in school classrooms in the state of Pará (Brazil) in 2024: Education for the Environment, Sustainability and Climate Action.
It aims to have students acquire in-depth knowledge about sustainable development, preservation and conservation of the environment, and adopt tangible attitudes in the face of the climate crisis. And always in close dialogue with their own realities, given that these are teenagers and youth who live in quite distinct contexts: some reside in large urban centers, whereas others are far from these centers, particularly in riverine, indigenous or quilombola communities.
Because it is an urgent and relevant topic for all humankind, this curriculum component will be incorporated into student programs throughout Basic Education in the state education system in Pará.
This initiative was established by the Government of the State of Pará, through the Pará State Education Secretariat, in partnership with Instituto iungo.
This partnership also provides for the production of pedagogical and continuing education materials for teachers and educators, with the purpose of guiding and supporting the work of teachers and students. This entire process takes place collaboratively, including active listening to students from state schools, and participation of Pará State educators and school managers, of the local academic and scientific community, of representatives of traditional communities, and of experts from Instituto iungo in the production and critical reading of content.
In practice, students will participate in learning itineraries that invite them to examine global environmental issues and to relate them to their own contexts. This enables them to recognize and identify the particularities of their territories and local knowledge that could have a positive impact on other people and regions, and even become new development models. In this process, students will exercise critical and creative thinking as well as collaborative problem solving, and implement sustainable, ethical, democratic, and supportive practices that promote the common good and well-being.
How will this component reach schools in Pará?
Aimed at teachers and students attending the final years of Middle School (Brazilian 6th to 9th grade) or High School in the Pará State education system, the component will have a workload of 40 hours per school year and will be implemented with the support of the following teaching materials:
- handbooks for students, providing an overview of each two-month term, space for taking notes regarding their key learnings and discoveries; discussion of issues for practical reflection; recommended content on the environment and on sustainability; roadmaps for practical, action-oriented activities; fields for students to write their ideas and interventions.
- handbooks for teachers, with the learning itineraries for each two-month term. They include, for instance, the organization of activities in learning situations; specific content on the environment and on sustainability; text boxes on environmental issues in Pará and the Legal Amazon; instructional and methodology strategies; guidelines for process and formative assessments. These handbooks are designed to support teachers in planning their classes and in encouraging student active participation.
The Pará State Education Secretariat and Instituto iungo will also carry out training for teachers from the state public school system, so that they deepen their knowledge on the subject, take ownership of the materials, and lead the implementation of the curriculum component with their students in class.
Find below a summary of the component’s introductory material, to be used during the first two-month term of 2024.
Learning paths for the 1st two-month term
Learn more about the Amazon Itineraries program
This partnership between the Pará State Education Secretariat and Instituto iungo – which now includes the development of the new component Education for the Environment, Sustainability and Climate Action – has been in motion since the beginning of 2023, through the Amazon Itineraries program.
The Amazon Itineraries program provides High School students and teachers with education content on Amazon themes, produced in collaboration with youth, educators and education secretariats in the Legal Amazon. It also offers continued learning to teams from partner education institutions for implementation in their schools.
The Amazon Itineraries have already been implemented in classrooms in the Pará state education system, as well as in seven other partnering states in the Brazilian Legal Amazon.