EMANCIPATION AND COMPLEXITY

reflecting on the tendencies in Environmental Education

Abstract

In this article, the functionalist and organicist tendencies in Environmental Education, along with the tendencies inserted in the environmentalist pragmatism, are problematized. This pragmatism tends to dissolve the political and cultural aspects that are inherent to the environmental complexity and to education, establishing an abstract unity between society and nature. This critical reflection is made in the light of theoretical references inserted in the pedagogical tradition of emancipation and transformation, which is relevant to build an education that emphasizes the citizen's commitment, the re-signification of the environment, and the transformation in society: these are principles that cannot be separated from the humans’ re-qualification process in nature.