Agricultura orgânica e agroecologia como ferramenta de educação ambiental e alimentar

Abstract

Through a systemic participatory approach, agroecology tends to play key educational and pedagogical roles among all stakeholders and particularly the youngest ones (i.e., children of elementary schools). In this perspective, the present work used a qualitative questionnaire based investigation targeting 9 to 10 years old children of a public school in the municipality of Lavras – MG (Brazil). The ultimate aim was to assess the potential of Agroecology and Organic Agriculture (AOA) as pedagogical tool for teaching food education and raising environmental awareness among this young public. Moreover, besides showing that such lack of knowledge was inherently linked to socio-economic factors, results revealed that school children are frequently dissociated from the university and its roles as a provider of educational services to society. There is thus an urgent need to develop more multidisciplinary and innovative approaches for agroecology teaching to reach a wider public.