RECONFIGURATION OF THE PEDAGOGICAL FIELD: SOCIAL EDUCATORS AND THE PERSPECTIVES OF THE POPULAR ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

The objective of the study is to present the basis of the popular environmental education. It is the result of a survey that contemplated a bibliographic investigation (in Portuguese and foreign languages) and an empiric study on the Programa Nacional de Educaao Ambiental (National Program on Environmental Education). The following results were obtained: the non-scholar spaces, as a sphere of incidence of social education, demand specific procedures; three environmental education concepts exist: naturalist, systemic-functional and eco-socialist; the popular environmental education is affiliated to the eco-socialist concept of environmental education. Conclusively, it is noted that the popular environmental education requires renovation of approaches, where the educational field is not limited to mere 'application' of the so called 'pure sciences'. The need to adopt a survey-action as procedure in the work with popular environmental education is also noted.