Towards a pedagogy of flow for the sustainability of life

Abstract

This article presents the formative experience of the Water as an Ecopedagogical Matrix - AME project developed at the University of Brasília since 2003 with a focus on the permanent training of public school teachers in the Federal District. Between 2010-2011, we carried out a post-doctoral field research in the Graduate Program in Education at the University of São Paulo, with the objective of evaluating the methodology used by the AME project for training of trainers. The investigation involved 40 people participating in four project training classes at different times between 2003 - 2010 and the documentary analysis of articles and dissertations produced in that period. The central issue was to unveil the potential of water as a subject and a metaphor for reconnection between the individual and his environment, between the person and his symbolic universe, and to investigate the scope of the training process to sensitize social actors and to root knowledge related to water. The results showed the relevance of ecopedagogical strategies to mobilize in people a relationship of belonging anchored in deeper and more sustainable existential values. The AME experience confirms that educational processes rooted in local contexts favor the awareness of people for the sustainable management of their territories of life, finding creative responses in the face of crises.