Percepção ambiental de professores da educação básica da Região Metropolitana de Fortaleza e a construção da cultura oceânica na costa semiárida brasileira

Abstract

The ocean is the largest ecosystem on the planet, covering approximately 70% of the Earth's surface and harboring immense biodiversity. Despite its ecological and social relevance, the topic remains poorly integrated into Brazilian basic education curricula, although measures to transform this reality are emerging. This thesis investigates the influence of the continuing education course "Ocean Education on the Semi-Arid Coast: Transforming Futures" on the transformation of ocean perception and pedagogical practices of Science, Biology, and Geography teachers in the public school system of the Fortaleza Metropolitan Region. The research is anchored in the agenda of the Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021–2030) and in the concept of Ocean Literacy, understood as the understanding of the mutual relationship between humanity and the ocean, articulating dimensions of knowing, doing, and feeling. The course, part of the "Blue University on the Semi-Arid Coast" project, promoted the integration of scientific and contextual knowledge, in dialogue with the National Common Curricular Base (BNCC), targeting basic education teachers. The objective was to evaluate the contribution of the training to the transformation of participants' environmental perception and pedagogical practices in the context of the Brazilian semiarid coast. The methodology adopted a mixed approach, with questionnaires and discussion groups administered before and after the course, combining Content Analysis (CA) to map and quantify thematic transformations and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to interpret how these transformations are signified at the linguistic-discursive and sociocultural levels. The results indicate an expansion of the ecological-scientific repertoire in the participants' accounts, without losing the affective-sensory centrality of their relationship with the sea. Processes of teacher empowerment, strengthening of agency and professional identity, and the construction of counter-discourses in the face of structural limitations such as poor infrastructure, insecurity, and lack of school time are evident. Testimonies reveal identity shifts and a greater willingness to engage in pedagogical intervention ("I leave here a different person"), as well as positive impacts on schools. The conclusion is that situated and interdisciplinary training enhances literacy and ocean culture, articulating the cognitive, affective, and sociocultural dimensions of teaching on Brazil's semiarid coast and strengthening the development of a critical and engaged oceanic citizenship