Keyword: complexity

ABSTRACT: The environment as a human construction brings us closer to the dialogues between ontologies and epistemologies with which the human being relates and builds a possible interpretation of reality. This document addresses the interpretation of the reality of three people (7, 30, and 75 years old) who live with the consequences of climate change generated by the actions of human beings on planet earth. Each person participated in an interview to analyze their contextualization and interpretation of reality regarding an environmental problem. The results describe ontological, epistemological and the complexity elements in the language of the interviewees. Those elements would come from the mental intentions that configure interpretations of reality (IR) that the participants communicated through language.

ABSTRACT: Bringing theories or policies about environmental education into the classroom is a common problem that  teachers must confront. The purpose of this paper is to provide teachers with practical elements emergent from teaching experiences and research. A Complex Environmental Formation framework is proposed to curricularize a self-eco-organized understanding of the environment and being. Methodologically, three cases are studied using in two methods – a content analysis to identify emergent teaching elements, and a conducted analysis using the framework. The analysis and results indicate some potentially transferable teaching elements –a) selecting local environmental situations to contextualize curriculum, b) integrating knowledge for reading/transforming reality, c) guiding teaching and learning through questions, d) competence-based teaching and learning, e) project-based teaching and learning, f) assessing cooperatively and with formative purpose, g) addressing environmental education from different educational approaches, and h) breaking institutional barriers. There is an approximation to self-eco-organize the subject, communities, institutions, knowledge, learning, teaching, and assessment.