Hortas escolares na literatura acadêmica : o universo histórico-dialético do trabalho

Abstract

This thesis is the result of research from the doctoral program in Education of the Postgraduate Program in Education at the Federal University of Mato Grosso, in the research line Social Movements, Politics, and Popular Education. Considering the context of the school garden, the main objective of the research was to understand the theoretical and methodological aspects of the implementation and maintenance of a school garden, connecting work with the land, health, and environment, as well as its challenges and possibilities within the current capitalist structure. This research stems from the following question: What foundations underpin research production on school gardens, and what are the possibilities for developing agroecological practices and food sovereignty beyond capital interests? We used the State of Knowledge methodology to support this research and Content Analysis to identify elements present in each selected production, thereby defining the analysis categories. The source of the investigative process is characterized by knowledge productions of dissertations and theses from stricto sensu programs defended and published between 2010 and 2020 in Postgraduate Programs (PPG) in Brazil. Data collection was carried out on the electronic portals Catálogo de Teses e Dissertações da Capes and the Biblioteca Digital Brasileira de Teses e Dissertações – BDTD, through which we identified 65 academic productions, 61 dissertations, and 4 theses. For this research, we relied on a critical and reflective knowledge approach, in the modality of qualitative research, based on Historical-Dialectical Materialism. The research results point to the school garden as a pedagogical space, a place of sensitization, and problematization, capable of fostering the development of agroecological practices that give new meaning to space and at the same time create opportunities to educate for sustainability, thinking from food sovereignty, environmental justice, environmental education, associated work, food reeducation, habit changes, and, above all, care and preservation of nature. With this work, we reflect on the contradictions present in the school garden context, announcing possibilities and denouncing absences, the lack of encouragement for this practice in the school environment, the absence of training for teachers, and the scarcity of materials. At the same time, we hope this work can contribute to the training and organization of pedagogical spaces, as the school garden is a proposition that enriches the teaching-learning process, which strengthens social structures and relationships both inside and outside the school environment, and can promote the relationship between theory and practice, in the development of praxis and in the work-education relationship.