Schooling in Traditional Communities and Critical Environmental Education: Tensions, Emancipatory Dialogues, and Perspectives for Socio-Environmental Transformation

tensões, diálogos emancipatórios e perspectivas de transformação socioambiental

Abstract

This article analyzes the tensions and possibilities that emerge from schooling processes in territories of traditional communities, articulating them within the field of Critical Environmental Education (CEE). Based on a qualitative, theoretically grounded and reflective approach, supported by a critical literature review, the study draws on scholars such as Paulo Freire, Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Edgar Morin, Isabel Carvalho, Carlos Loureiro, and Enrique Leff to problematize the hegemonic schooling model as a vector of epistemic coloniality. In this context, the paper discusses the extent to which the school historically marked by cultural homogenization can be re-signified as a space for mediating scientific knowledge and traditional knowledges. It argues that CEE, by articulating socio-environmental justice, the ecology of knowledges, and critical interculturality, provides both theoretical and pedagogical foundations for the construction of emancipatory educational practices. The article further examines the challenges of teacher education in culturally diverse contexts and the role of aesthetic sensibility in shaping ecological subjects. It concludes that the articulation between Critical Environmental Education and education in traditional contexts not only broadens the formative possibilities of schooling but also constitutes an ethical and political imperative in the face of contemporary socio-environmental crises.