Education, Territory and Socio-Environmental Collapse: Critical Analysis of the Municipal Education Plan of São José dos Campos (2015-2025)

Larissa Moreira Ribeiro; Flávia Pierrotti de Castro

DOI: 10.22167/2675-6528-202603132

Article derived from a Final Course Work (TCC), with content based on the student’s original work and adapted to the editorial format of the E&S Magazine with the support of the ResumeAI tool, an artificial intelligence solution developed by the Pecege Institute for textual synthesis and organization.

Abstract

Faced with the demands imposed by the socio-environmental collapse and the specificities of rural territories, this study analyzed how the Municipal Education Plan (PME) of São José dos Campos (2015-2025) incorporated or neglected the urgency of environmental education in the context of the climate crisis. The study aimed to analyze how the municipality’s educational policies addressed the promotion of critical environmental education in rural territories, in light of Gramscian categories that allowed for the highlighting of hegemonic disputes and processes of territorial invisibility. Documentary research was conducted, focusing on content analysis of the PME, based on references from critical environmental education, rural education, and the debate on socio-environmental collapse. The results indicated limitations in the incorporation of territorial and socio-environmental specificities in educational planning, highlighting the predominance of a universalizing approach that tended to make rural realities invisible. The research revealed possibilities for tensioning and reorienting public policies from critical and territorialized perspectives.

Keywords: Socio-environmental collapse; Environmental education; Rural education; Educational policies; Rural territories.

1. Introduction

The contemporary scenario is marked by an ongoing socio-environmental collapse, characterized by the intensification of climate change, the widening of inequalities, and a civilizational crisis (Fernandes, 2020). This systemic and interconnected dynamic of planetary and social degradation demands a critical interpretation of reality, one that goes beyond superficial understandings. Authors such as Silva (2014), Loureiro (2012), and Guimarães (2006) point out that the crisis transcends the merely environmental dimension, being intrinsically linked to development models and ideological disputes.

In this context of polycrisis, education assumes a strategic role as a political and emancipatory practice (Freire, 1996). It is understood as a process crossed by disputes of hegemony, fundamental for the formation of subjects capable of intervening in reality (Gramsci, 2001). The maxim “think globally and act locally” gains specific contours, evidencing the need for educational policies that respond to the complexities of the territories.

The municipality of São José dos Campos, in São Paulo, exemplifies this complexity. Although it is a hub for technological and scientific development, with a relevant role in the production of knowledge about climate change (Marques, 2023), it also has a vast rural territorial extension and a rich sociocultural diversity. This duality strains homogeneous educational planning models, making it imperative to recognize the particularities of rural schools and social movements (Almeida, 2008; Silva Júnior, 2014).

The analysis of the Municipal Education Plan (PME) of São José dos Campos (2015-2025) reveals the relevance of evaluating how the concepts of education, territory, and development have guided public planning. A gap is observed in the incorporation of territorial and socio-environmental specificities, with the predominance of a universalizing approach that tends to make rural realities invisible. This invisibilization is manifested in how critical environmental education is contemplated or neglected in the context of the climate crisis.

Given the above, it becomes crucial to investigate how educational policies materialize in the territory, highlighting their contradictions, limits, and latent possibilities. The relevance of this study lies in its contribution to a critical reading of public policies, especially regarding the specificity of rural subjects inserted in a context of contemporary socio-environmental collapse, where social transformation requires the recognition and active participation of those who live and produce knowledge in the territories themselves (Loureiro, 2012). The present work aims to analyze how the educational policies of São José dos Campos, materialized in the Municipal Education Plan (2015–2025), promote critical environmental education in the context of socio-environmental collapse, especially in rural territories.

2. Material and Methods

This research was characterized by its documentary nature and qualitative approach, seeking to deepen the understanding of educational policies in the municipality of São José dos Campos, São Paulo. To encompass the complexity of the educational reality as an expression of social contradictions, Historical-Dialectical Materialism was adopted as the epistemological basis, as explained by Fernandes (2020). This perspective guided the investigation of historical dynamics and ideological disputes that manifest in the field of public policies, aiming to interpret and transform reality.

The study focused on the analysis of the Municipal Education Plan (PME) of São José dos Campos, in effect from 2015 to 2025, which constituted the central empirical object. The choice of the PME as the unit of analysis was justified by its relevance as an instrument of public planning, capable of revealing the conceptions of education, territory, and development that guide local educational policies. Documentary research, as indicated by Sá-Silva, Almeida, and Guindani (2009), allowed for the historical contextualization of the object of study.

The analysis technique employed was content analysis, focusing on the meanings and discursive constructions present in the document. This qualitative approach engaged with Freire’s (1996) perspective, which understands knowledge production as a political practice. The analysis sought to unveil the contradictions, limits, and possibilities latent in educational policies, especially concerning critical environmental education and rural territories.

To guide the analysis of the SME, three main categories were established. The first category addressed the recognition and treatment of rural territories, investigating the presence or absence of mentions of the countryside, rural schools, territorial differentiation, and specific strategies for these populations. The second category analyzed the conceptions of education and development that guide the document, paying attention to the presence of environmental education and its articulation with the territory.

The third category of analysis focused on the political-institutional structure of the plan, observing the mechanisms for participation, democratic management, and the instruments provided for its implementation and monitoring. These categories, anchored in references from critical environmental education, rural education, and the debate on socio-environmental collapse, made it possible to highlight disputes of hegemony and processes of territorial invisibilization, in light of Gramscian categories.

Considering the nature of the research, which was based exclusively on the analysis of public documents and did not involve human participants, this study was exempt from submission to the Research Ethics Committee. This exemption was granted in accordance with CNS Resolution No. 510/2016, which regulates research in human and social sciences.

The methodological procedures adopted therefore aimed to analyze how the educational policies of São José dos Campos, materialized in the Municipal Education Plan (2015–2025), contemplate the promotion of critical environmental education in the context of socio-environmental collapse, especially in rural territories. The ethical and aesthetic rigor of the documentary analysis was defended based on Gramscian considerations, contributing to a critical reading of public policies.

3. Results and Discussion

The documentary analysis of the Municipal Education Plan (PME) of São José dos Campos (2015–2025) revealed how the municipality’s educational policies address critical environmental education in rural territories, in light of the categories of territorial recognition, conceptions of education and development, and political-institutional structure. The results indicated significant limitations in the incorporation of territorial and socio-environmental specificities in educational planning, highlighting a predominance of a universalizing approach that tends to invisibilize rural realities, according to the inquiries that guided the research (Gamboa, 2006).

Regarding the recognition and treatment of rural territories, it was observed that the word “field”, although intrinsic to the historical formation of the municipality and present in its name, is not explicitly associated with education in rural territories in the PME. Despite a specific strategy in the Sole Paragraph, Item II, which recognizes the needs of the rural population and the importance of educational equity and cultural multiplicity (São José dos Campos, 2015), this mention is not concretely articulated in the plan’s goals and actions.

The presence of the term “rural” in the PME is occasional, concentrating mainly on Goal 7, with few strategies addressing this reality. Strategy 7.16, which proposes the development of differentiated curricula and pedagogical proposals for rural areas, was classified as “completed” in the monitoring reports, but without detailing the processes, methodologies, or impacts achieved. This absence of empirical evidence or qualitative indicators prevents an understanding of the effective recognition of the sociocultural specificities of these territories or a transformation of pedagogical practices.

Goal 8, which aims to reduce regional and socioeconomic inequalities, directs actions towards rural populations, but its practical strategies (8.1 to 8.4) are generic, using terms such as “active search” and Youth and Adult Education (EJA), without a public policy design adapted to the geographical and seasonal realities of the countryside. This universalizing approach ignores the particularities of rural subjects, who, even when migrating, maintain their culture and values, demanding educational policies that consider their times and spaces (Silva Júnior, 2014).

The disparity between the rural territorial extension of São José dos Campos, which corresponds to about 68% of the municipality, and the low percentage of the population residing in these areas (approximately 1.3%), according to the Master Plan (São José dos Campos, 2017), is not proportionally reflected in the PME. This disregard for the municipality’s geographical and socio-environmental diversity reveals a low territorialization of educational policy, which can lead to the invisibility of rural communities and the strengthening of exodus, as pointed out by Caldart (2004) in relation to the nucleation of rural schools.

This absence of a territorialized approach in the PME strains the document’s conception of universalization, contrasting with the guidelines of the National Education Plan (PNE, 2014), which, built under intense democratic debates, explicitly states the need to respect the specificities of rural populations, from curriculum organization to school transportation. The mismatch between federal and municipal planning exposes the limits of local autonomy, which, instead of providing flexibility, ends up making rural particularities invisible.

Regarding the concepts of education and development, and environmental education, the PME does not explicitly recognize the existence of socio-environmental conflicts, and mentions of Environmental Education are residual. No strategies were identified for infrastructural adaptation, continuous teacher training, or incentives for the creation of institutions focused on Environmental Education. Socio-environmental sustainability appears as a plan guideline, but it does not translate into concrete goals, strategies, or actions, which dilutes its responsibility and effectiveness.

The analysis of the PME reveals an emptying of the transformative potential of Environmental Education, prioritizing a technical and infrastructural perspective, focused on the logic of “sustainable schools”, without budgetary goals or pedagogical indicators that promote critical praxis. This approach aligns with market environmentalism and neoliberal hegemony, which, according to Layrargues and Lima (2014), tend to maintain a limited perception of the environmental issue, reducing it to individual behavioral changes or efficient resource management.

Strategy 7.17, which proposes the insertion of socio-environmental sustainability as a structuring principle of education, remains classified as “initiated” and “partially achieved” in the monitoring reports, without its description allowing the identification of actions taken, subjects involved, or results obtained. This lack of detail prevents a critical evaluation of the policy’s effectiveness and the conception of Environmental Education adopted by the municipality, which, in a polycrisis scenario, needs to go beyond sectoral diagnoses (Mello Silva and Guimarães, 2018).

The centrality given to quantitative performance indicators, especially the Basic Education Development Index (IDEB), in Goal 7, establishes a way of understanding and monitoring educational results that does not encompass fundamental dimensions for a territorially situated education. The dialogical relationship between school and territory, the valorization of local knowledge, and the curricular adequacy to different realities are neglected aspects, generating a tension between measurable quality and the lived quality of education.

The discursive investment in innovation, such as “Education 5.0” and the institution of the Center for Innovation and Educational Technologies (Municipal Law n° 10.292/2021), although important, raises questions about which dimensions are mobilized. If innovation is not articulated with the specificities of rural territories and with critical environmental education, it may reinforce the urban-centric and homogeneous logic, without contributing to the formation of subjects capable of intervening in the reality of socio-environmental collapse (Andrade Júnior et al., 2024).

Regarding the political-institutional structure, the analysis revealed that, although the SME foresees institutional instances and mechanisms for participation, no specific mentions of evaluation by children, youth, and families were identified. The monitoring reports do not allow us to conclude whether the articulation occurs horizontally and collaboratively or if it remains predominantly administrative, limiting the visibility of the effective participation of the subjects and territories involved.

The absence of didactic explanation regarding the scope of goals for society in the dissemination of monitoring results is also questionable. The information, apparently restricted to the City Hall’s website via the internet, is not made available horizontally throughout the municipal territory. This communication gap can hinder social participation and control, essential elements for effective democratic management (Paro, 1996).

Strategy 7.1, which foresees incentives for the development of technologies to improve school management procedures and processes, highlights a conception of management associated with modernization and efficiency. Although such mechanisms can contribute to the organization of educational networks, their formulation does not explicitly state how they would broaden the participation of the school community or incorporate the specificities of the territories, revealing a prioritization of administrative rationality (Oliveira, 2015).

Goal 19, which establishes democratic management as a dimension of educational policy, foresees the strengthening of participation and articulation mechanisms (19.4) and the approximation between school and community (19.8). However, the coexistence of these formulations with management oriented by procedures and results, as observed in Goal 7 with its focus on IDEB, reveals a contradiction of meanings. Democratic management, to be effective, is not reduced to technical preparation, but implies the formation of subjects capable of critically reading reality and collectively building decisions (Gramsci, 2001).

The emergence of organic intellectuals, linked to the concrete experiences of the territories, is understood as a possibility for building forms of participation that go beyond the bureaucratic dimension of management. For rural territories, this dimension acquires special relevance, as the participation of education professionals, students, families, and communities in decision-making can contribute to the incorporation of locally produced knowledge into educational policy, rather than remaining as peripheral references.

In summary, the analysis of the PME of São José dos Campos (2015–2025) demonstrated that, despite formally recognizing diversity and sustainability, the plan presents limitations in the territorialization of educational policies, in the promotion of critical environmental education, and in the effective implementation of democratic management. The invisibility of rural territories, the predominance of a quantitative logic of quality, and the fragility of participation mechanisms reveal gaps between the normative discourse and the institutional capacity to respond to the complexities of the socio-environmental collapse and the needs of the subjects who live and produce knowledge in these spaces.

4. Conclusion

The analysis of the Municipal Education Plan (PME) of São José dos Campos (2015–2025) sought to understand how the municipality’s educational policies addressed the promotion of critical environmental education in rural territories, in the context of socio-environmental collapse. It was found that the PME presented significant limitations in incorporating territorial and socio-environmental specificities into educational planning, evidencing the predominance of a universalizing approach that tended to make rural realities invisible. The presence of the term “rural” was sporadic, with few concrete strategies for rural areas, and socio-environmental sustainability, although a guideline, did not translate into effective goals and actions. It was also observed that the centrality given to quantitative performance indicators, such as the Basic Education Development Index (IDEB), neglected fundamental qualitative dimensions for territorially situated education, such as the dialogical relationship between school and territory and the valorization of local knowledge. At the political-institutional level, a coexistence was identified between the formal provision of democratic management and efficiency-oriented management mechanisms, which limited the visibility of the effective participation of the subjects and territories involved.

In this way, this research contributed to a critical reading of public policies, by explicating the gaps between normative discourse and institutional capacity to respond to the complexities of socio-environmental collapse and the needs of subjects who live and produce knowledge in rural territories. The invisibilization of these realities, the fragility of critical environmental education, and the contradictions in democratic management reveal the urgency of reorienting educational planning to recognize rural subjects as political actors capable of intervening in the construction of other ways of understanding and transforming reality. However, the documentary nature of the study limited the understanding of the lived experience of these policies in school and community daily life. It is therefore suggested that future investigations deepen the analysis through internal documents, interviews, and observation of pedagogical practices, exploring the applicability of the Pedagogy of Alternation and the impacts of the closure of rural schools in the municipality, in order to strengthen the construction of organic intellectuals linked to the concrete experiences of the territories.

Bibliographic References

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FERNANDES, Sabrina. Se quiser mudar o mundo: um guia político para ação e transformação. São Paulo: Todavia, 2020.

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GRAMSCI, Antonio. Cadernos do cárcere. Rio de Janeiro: Civilização Brasileira, 2001.

GUIMARÃES, Mauro. Os caminhos da educação ambiental: da forma à ação. Campinas: Papirus, 2006.

LOUREIRO, Carlos Frederico Bernardo. Educação ambiental crítica: contribuições e desafios. São Paulo: Cortez, 2012.

MARQUES, Luiz. O decênio decisivo: propostas para uma política de sobrevivência. São Paulo: Elefante, 2023.

SILVA JÚNIOR, Astrogildo Fernandes. Ensinar e aprender em territórios rurais: histórico, desafios e perspectivas. Interfaces da Educação, Paranaíba, v. 5, n. 13, p. 179–193, 2014.

Article originating from the Final Course Work of the Specialization in School Management of the MBA USP/Esalq

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