Urbanização e o terciário nas aulas de Geografia de Caucaia – CE

Abstract

Citizen education in education consists of developing students for active participation in society, exercising their duties, and ensuring their rights as citizens. Geography, with its purpose of studying the society-nature relationship, plays an essential role in citizen education in schools. Therefore, the general objective of this research is to analyze the importance and application of Urban Geography content, such as Urban Economics in the city, for the formation of critical citizens. To achieve this, the students' place of residence, Caucaia, CE, was used to develop content on Urbanization, Economics, and the Tertiary Sector, and to create an intervention project for students at a school in Caucaia, in order to analyze this geographical content in the school reality. Thus, the research is exploratory and participatory, with a qualitative-quantitative approach. The procedures included bibliographic research with authors such as Helena Callai and Lana Cavalcanti, who guide the study on geography education and citizen formation; Milton Santos, Henri Lefebvre, Ana Fani Carlos, and Maria Encarnação Sposito, as references in the discussion of city and urbanization; Leda Paulani, Andressa Ribeiro, Sandra Lencioni, Edward Soja, Alexsandra Muniz, Milton Santos, and Anita Kon for the study of urban economics and the tertiary sector; and Francisco Antônio Menezes, Hamilton Freitas, Clóvis Jucá Neto, Francisco Alexandre Coelho, Zenilde Amora, and Maria Clélia Costa for the analysis of the urban evolution of Caucaia, CE. In addition, statistical data analysis was conducted on government websites such as IBGE, IPECE, and RAIS/CAGED, as well as field research in the main commerce and service centers, and interviews with elementary school teachers to analyze the importance of citizen education in the teaching of Geography, and participatory research with intervention in the school. It is concluded that, through the history, geography, and economy of Caucaia, in addition to facilitating the content of Urban Geography, bringing it to the students' reality, this study promoted the development of critical, analytical, and proactive thinking in students, essential characteristics for citizen formation.