Environmental Education from the four-dimensional perspective of human ecology

Abstract

Rather than advocating for the environment through the same old paths of preservation and sustainability, a Cartesian unidimensional and fragmented conception, this study seeks to reflect on the humanization of environmental education by recognizing four specific dimensions of human life (bodily, social, socio-environmental, and eco-spiritual), as indivisible extensions of the network of ecosystemic relationships within the biosphere. To achieve the proposed objective, a literature review method was adopted, focusing on the principles of Complexity Theory and particularly on the perspective of Human Ecology, a science and/or paradigm still emerging in Brazil and worldwide. The results suggest that environmental education in school settings can (and should) be developed from a more human, multidimensional, and transcendent perspective, opposing the hegemonic and conservative conceptions historically conventioned by Western societies.