Provoking Thought on Anti-Racist Environmental Education: Narrative Images of School Life in Vila Nova de Colares in Confluence with Other Ecologies
Name: ESTER BARRETO BENTO
Publication date: 08/06/2026
Examining board:
Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| DEBORA CRISTINA DE ARAUJO | Examinador Interno |
| PATRÍCIA RAQUEL BARONI | Examinador Externo |
| SOLER GONZALEZ | Presidente |
Summary: This dissertation brings together Education for Ethnic-Racial Relations (ERER) and Environmental Education (EE) in the development of pedagogical practices grounded in an anti-racist approach to Environmental Education. Drawing on Law No. 10.639/2003 and the National Curriculum Guidelines for Education for Ethnic-Racial Relations and for the Teaching of Afro-Brazilian and African History and Culture (Brazil, 2004a), the research understands racism as a structural phenomenon (Fanon, 2020; Kilomba, 2019; Almeida, 2019) that produces and sustains inequalities and shapes educational experiences (Pinheiro, 2023a). In dialogue with ERER, understood as an educational practice committed to confronting racism and affirming Black identity in everyday school life, Environmental Education is approached from an ecologist perspective (Reigota, 1999; Gonzalez; Ramos; Jesus, 2023), conceiving the environment as a space shaped by social relations and subjectivities. Within this intersection, the general objective of this research is to develop anti-racist Environmental Education practices in everyday school life that foster confluência with other ecologies through students’ imagensnarrativas and their ways of reading the world, particularly in relation to environmental issues present in the everyday life of the Vila Nova de Colares neighborhood. More specifically, the research seeks to develop pedagogical practices in Portuguese Language classes that approach Environmental Education from an anti-racist perspective; to problematize socio-environmental issues in Vila Nova de Colares in connection with ethnic-racial relations; and to produce a situated pedagogical notebook that brings together students’ imagensnarrativas and other ecologies from an anti-racist and emancipatory perspective. Methodologically, this is a narrative inquiry (Reigota, 1999; Reis; Oliveira; Baroni, 2022) grounded in the study of everyday school life (Andrade; Caldas; Alves, 2019; Oliveira; Peixoto; Süssekind, 2019; Ferraço, 2007), recognizing imagensnarrativas (Reigota, 1999) as productions of conhecimentossignificações (Alves, 2019). The research was conducted with third-year high school students at a public school in Serra, Espírito Santo, Brazil, understood as praticantespensantes (Andrade; Caldas; Alves, 2019), in confluência with the contributions of Ailton Krenak (2020a; 2020b; 2022), Antônio Bispo dos Santos (2023), and Carolina Maria de Jesus (2014). Data were generated through imagensnarrativas created from photographs documenting environmental issues in the territory, accompanied by captions and shared on the Padlet platform, as well as through the researcher’s field diary. Rather than following a conventional interpretive model, the analysis of these productions unfolds through the development of a pedagogical notebook as an educational product, conceived as an open and situated proposal. The findings suggest that bringing EE and ERER into dialogue strengthens anti-racist Environmental Education practices by recognizing everyday school life as espaçostempos in which conhecimentossignificações are produced, while affirming education as a political, ethical, and aesthetic practice through which other worlds can be imagined and brought into being.
