Curricularização da extensão e mudanças climáticas no Instituto Esperança de Ensino Superior – IESPES: o Programa 1,5ºc em destaque!

Abstract

Climate change has caused concern worldwide. Faced with this scenario, which impacts everyone, it is necessary for higher education institutions to assume their role in training future professionals, who are co-responsible for the Earth's climate. In this sense, this doctoral thesis aims to analyze the Program 1.5°C and its impact on the curricularization of extension activities at the Instituto Esperança de Ensino Superior (IESPES). This program seeks to promote actions, projects, and events within the curricularization of extension activities, emphasizing the promotion of measures to combat climate change. hus, the specific objectives assumed in this study are: to raise and discuss the perception of students and teachers at IESPES regarding the socio-environmental role of universities in adapting to and mitigating climate change; to report on the creation, implementation, and deployment process of the Program 1.5°C in the curricularization of extension activities at IESPES; to map projects, actions, activities, and/or events of the extension program that are favorable to the climate and life on the planet, developed in the communities, neighborhoods, and/or institutions participating in the curricularization of extension activities at IESPES; to describe and analyze the challenges, contributions, and impacts of the Program 1.5°C according to the perception of students and extension teachers at IESPES. This research is bibliographic, documentary, and empirical, with the Instituto Esperança de Ensino Superior (IESPES) as the locus of the case study, of an ethnographic nature and a qualitative-quantitative approach, developed in two phases: the first, of a diagnostic nature, applied the standard questionnaire of the International Project “Climate-U” on the role of HEIs in addressing climate change to all students and teachers in the 2023.2 semester, generating a sample of 316 students and 31 teachers. In the second phase, of the 374 students who entered in the 2023.1 semester, 205 of them and the 4 extension teachers responded to the evaluation questionnaire of the Program 1.5º C, which verified its impacts, contributions and challenges. The data produced were treated using Bardin's content analysis and the data triangulation technique was applied. Regarding the results of the systematic review using the SSF method, the scarcity of articles on the curricularization of extension and climate change (2) indicates the novelty of the study. Regarding the documentary analysis of the HEI locus of the study and its historical process, there are elements to continue to "hope in the Amazon". Regarding the first phase of the empirical study, the diagnosis among the students and professors surveyed about the role of the university in addressing climate change, there is a high degree of agreement among them, indicating its proactivity in this process. Scholars in the Climate-U context reinforce that interdisciplinarity is strategic in combating climate change and its consequences, connecting science, local communities, and public policies. As for the evaluation of the Program 1.5°C and its 52 extension activities, the results demonstrate a positive impact on 71% of the student extension participants surveyed, causing them to change their perception and attitude regarding climate change, and 75% of the professors reported a transformation in their habits and professional growth after experiencing pedagogical practices in engaging with the climate debate. We also observed that the impacts provided by the Program reached the personal, academic, and professional development of students, teachers, and other participants involved in this extension process. Thus, the analyzed data reveal how fundamental it was to add the Program 1.5ºC to the curricularization of extension, whose socio-environmental aspect is climate change, transcending the walls of IESPES. With this, we reaffirm the relevance of the role of HEIs in the implementation of institutional policies that promote critical-reflective and participatory training, through interdisciplinary and inter-course extension actions, in favor of the Earth's climate, especially in the Amazon.