Representations of environment and environmental education: a study with teachers from rural family homes

This paper results from a research aimed to analyse the social representations of environment held by teachers who work at Rural Family Homes located in the southwest of Paraná, Brazil. The data were collected using an instrument composed of three parts: the fi rst focused on identifi cation data; the second contained open-ended questions focused on teachers’ conceptions of sustainable development, education and pedagogy of alternation; the third consisted of a free-association question, based on the term environment. The results suggest that the social representation of environment held by the subjects is directly related with their work as rural educators and with the mediation provided by the pedagogy work being conducted according to the alternation pedagogy method. A certain perspective of environmental education that favours the change of people’s behaviour and attitude towards environmental issues could be identifi ed.