ENVIRONMENTAL COMMUNITARIAN EDUCATION collaborative actions to an integral sustainable coastal development

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ENVIRONMENTAL COMMUNITARIAN EDUCATION

COLLABORATIVE ACTIONS TO AN INTEGRAL SUSTAINABLE COASTAL DEVELOPMENT SÍLVIA HELENA CORREIA FRANCO

DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES AND ENGINEERING

DOCTORATE IN ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY NOVA University Lisbon

Master in Sciences of Education, with expertise in Intercultural Education

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DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES AND ENGINEERING

ENVIRONMENTAL COMMUNITARIAN EDUCATION

COLLABORATIVE ACTIONS TO AN INTEGRAL SUSTAINABLE COASTAL DEVELOPMENT

Adviser: Mônica Maria Borges Mesquita

Researcher, NOVA School of Science and Technology

Co-adviser: Lia Maldonado Teles de Vasconcelos

Associated Professor, NOVA School of Science and Technology

Examination Committee:

Chair: Maria Paula Baptista da Costa Antunes

Full Professor, NOVA School of Science and Technology, Portugal

Rapporteurs: Stephanie Jordan

Assistant Professor, Michigan State University, USA Rui Miguel Moutinho Sá

Invited Assistant Professor, Institute of Social and Political Sciences of the University of Lisbon, Portugal Adviser:

Members:

Mônica Maria Borges Mesquita

Researcher, NOVA School of Science and Technology, Portugal Wenda Katherine Bauchspies

Associated Professor, College of Agricultures and Natural Resources from Michigan State University, USA Leandro Garcia Pinho

Professor, State University of Norte Fluminense Darcy Ribeiro, Brasil Maria Paula Baptista da Costa Antunes

Full Professor, NOVA School of Science and Technology, Portugal Antje Disterheft

Researcher, NOVA School of Science and Technology, Portugal

SÍLVIA HELENA CORREIA FRANCO

Master in Sciences of Education, with expertise in Intercultural Education

DOCTORATE IN ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY NOVA University Lisbon

MAY, 2022

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ENVIRONMENTAL COMMUNITARIAN EDUCATION

collaborative actions to an integral sustainable coastal development

The NOVA School of Science and Technology and the NOVA University Lisbon have the right, perpetual and without geographical boundaries, to file and publish this dissertation through printed copies reproduced on paper or on digital form, or by any other means known or that may be invented, and to disseminate through scientific repositories and admit its copying and distribution for non-commercial, educational or research purposes, as long, as credit is given to the author and editor.

This document was created with Microsoft Word and NOVA Athesis Word template [1].

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To all who shared this challenge with me

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank my supervisor Professor Mônica Mesquita and my co-supervisor Lia Vasconcelos for all their support at this stage of my journey. To the members of my Thesis Advisory Committee - Professors Wenda Bauchspies, Leandro Pinho, and Graça Martinho - for their inputs and questions throughout the process.

I am thankful to OLO that always welcomed me as a family member and strengthened me as researcher within a space of diversity, encounter, and collective construction. To Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, to Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, and to Doctoral Program in Environmental and Sustainability which welcomed me in the development of my research process in FCT NOVA. To Sandra Ferreira, a special thanks for clarifying the procedures.

To ECE Group - AR, MS, RG e TM - I express my absolute gratitude for accepting the challenge, nurturing the process and each other. Gratitude for being seeds of land and sea and developing with me, writing, and illustrating, a short story for children. A task which made us smile but took us beyond our restraint’s patterns. And, finally, I am deeply grateful to my husband Ricardo and my family, who were ever at my side despite my absences.

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“… imaginando outros mundos, acabamos por mudar também este nosso.”

Umberto Eco, Baudolino, p. 85

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ABSTRACT

A transdisciplinary approach on the emancipatory dynamics of learning to live sustainably acts as a bridge that passes over the fields of educational and environmental sciences. With this approach, the research Environmental Communitarian Education:

collaborative actions to an integral sustainable coastal development cooperated to environmental coastal knowledge. Considering that coastal areas encompass a diversity of human activities attracted by the ocean potentialities in a paradigm that dissociates individual, society, and nature, the emergence of the environmental issues appears as a direct result of the problematic relationship between society and nature.

The present research proposes to understand how community-based collaborative actions, grounded in a holistic transformative education, can contribute to an integral sustainable coastal development, by (1) identifying concepts of traditional, local, and technical coastal knowledge; (2) promoting the dialogue among traditional, local, technical, and scientific knowledge; (3) identifying community-based praxis that support that dialogue; and (4) critically co-analyzing the community-based collaborative actions. Acknowledging inner worlds as a realm of transformation towards an integral sustainability, this research acts on a SPIRAL framework, grounded on a Critical Ethnographic methodology, resignifying the environmental paradigm to an integral coastal ecology, which places humanity and nature as essential elements.

The findings of this research, among which the process that sought to explore the potential of Memories, Community, Care, Respect for different rhythms, and Sense of belonging, contributed to strengthen the knowledge of natural systems, and to promote the inter-knowledges dialogue for generating and supporting social transformation. A five-cycle model structured 20 events increasing the awareness of coastal communities' members of the interdependencies among individual, society, and nature. This theoretic-methodological approach illustrated how Slow Pedagogy promotes respect for personal and collective rhythms, boosting the potential - action and knowledge co-development, to reach integral sustainability. From this experience we soon saw that a sectoral and structured line of research, whose main concern is the external phenomena and the collective social structures, does not adequately acknowledge the importance of humans as both dependents and contributors.

Keywords: Environmental Communitarian Education; Sustainability; Transdisciplinary Approach; Collaborative Actions; Integral Coastal Ecology; Inter-knowledges Dialogue.

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RESUMO

Uma abordagem transdisciplinar sobre as dinâmicas emancipatórias de aprender a viver de forma sustentável atua como pontes que permeiam a ciência da educação e a ciência ambiental. Sob esta abordagem, a investigação Educação Ambiental Comunitária: ações colaborativas para um desenvolvimento costeiro sustentável integral cooperou para o conhecimento ambiental costeiro. Considerando que as áreas costeiras englobam uma diversidade de atividades humanas atraídas pelas potencialidades oceânicas em um paradigma que dissocia indivíduo, sociedade e natureza, a emergência das questões ambientais surge como resultado direto da relação problemática entre sociedade e natureza.

Esta investigação propõe-se a compreender como ações colaborativas de base comunitária, alicerçadas em uma educação holística e transformadora, podem contribuir para um desenvolvimento costeiro sustentável integral, por meio da (1) identificação de conceitos de conhecimento costeiro tradicional, local e técnico; da (2) promoção do diálogo entre os conhecimentos costeiros tradicional, local, técnico e científico; da (3) identificação de práxis comunitárias que apoiam esse diálogo; e da (4) co-análise crítica das ações colaborativas de fundo comunitário. Reconhecendo os mundos interiores como um domínio de transformação para uma sustentabilidade integral, esta linha de investigação atua num quadro SPIRAL, assente numa metodologia Etnográfica Crítica, ressignificando o paradigma ambiental para uma ecologia costeira integral, que coloca humanidade e natureza como elementos essenciais.

Os resultados desta investigação, entre os quais o processo que ativa o potencial de Memórias, Comunidade, Cuidado, Respeito pelos diferentes ritmos e Sentido de pertença, contribuíram para fortalecer o conhecimento dos sistemas naturais e promover o diálogo interconhecimentos para gerar e apoiar a transformação social. Um modelo de cinco ciclos estruturou 20 eventos, aumentando a conscientização dos membros das comunidades costeiras para as interdependências entre indivíduo, sociedade e natureza. Esta abordagem teórico-metodológica realça a forma como a Pedagogia da Lentidão promove o respeito pelos ritmos pessoais e coletivos, elevando o potencial - ação e co-desenvolvimento do conhecimento, para alcançar a sustentabilidade integral. Desta experiência entende-se que uma linha de investigação sectorial e estruturada, cuja principal preocupação são os fenómenos externos e as estruturas sociais coletivas, não reconhece a importância do ser humano como dependente e contribuinte.

Palavras-chave: Educação Comunitária Ambiental; Ambiente e Sustentabilidade; Abordagem Transdisciplinar; Ações Colaborativas; Ecologia Integral Costeira; Diálogo Interconhecimentos.

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LIST OF FIGURES

TABLE 1-EVENTS DEVELOPED ON CRITICAL ETHNOGRAPHY IMPLEMENTATION PHASE ... 66

FIGURE 1-FIVE-HAND WORD CLOUD WITH COLLABORATION RELATED CONCEPTS IDENTIFIED BY ECEGROUP ... 71

FIGURE 2-NOTEBOOKS FOR DATA COLLECTION WITHIN CRITICAL OBSERVATION ... 74

FIGURE 3-ECEGROUP MEMBERS AT SUMMIT 1 ... 74

FIGURE 4-MAP WITH DATA COLLECTED WITHIN ONE OF THE FOUR GROUPS PRESENT AT THE EVENT ... 76

TABLE 2-DATA COLLECTED WITHIN ONE WORKGROUP ANALYZING ALMADA MUNICIPALITY FISHING AREAS ... 76

TABLE 3-RESULTS OF SWOT ANALYSIS MADE BY ECEGROUP AS PROPOSAL TO COLLECT DATA AND REFLECT ON THE PROBLEMATICS SHARE WITHIN SMARTFISHINGSUMMIT 1(DATA TRANSLATED BY AUTHOR) ... 81

FIGURE 5-STRENGHT'S WORD CLOUD ... 82

FIGURE 6-WEAKNESSES WORD CLOUD ... 82

FIGURE 7-IN BETWEEN STORIES PROPOSAL ... 84

FIGURE 8-PRESENTATION OF QUESTIONS TO REFLECTION "WHAT AM I FEELING?WHAT DO I THINK?" ... 87

FIGURE 9-WORD CLOUDS ON COVID-19 RELATED FEELINGS AND THOUGHTS ... 89

FIGURE 10-IGM03 COLLECTIVE RESULTS (SLIDE 12) ... 91

FIGURE 11-TOPICS UNDER REFLECTION ON IGM04 ... 99

FIGURE 12-MOMENT WITHIN IGM07 ... 113

FIGURE 13-ACTIVITY 1:SCHEME-SYNTHESIS OF ECEGROUP REFLECTION ... 120

FIGURE 14-CIRCLE OF STORIES (IGM09) ... 125

FIGURE 15-THE LANCE ACTIVITY RESULTS (IGM09) ... 127

FIGURE 16-ANSWERS TO "WHAT DID THE ECEGROUP FISHED?"(IGM09) ... 128

FIGURE 17-SUMMIT 2 WORKGROUP ... 132

FIGURE 18-DISCUSSION OF FINAL POSTERS AT SUMMIT 2 ... 132

FIGURE 19-POSTER 1-RESULTS OF THE DEBATE ON PERSPECTIVES TO LOCAL FISHING ARTS ... 133

TABLE 4-RESULTS FROM ECEGROUP PROPOSED ACTIVITY TO SUMMIT 2 ... 134

FIGURE 22-ILLUSTRATION OF TRADITIONAL FISHING BOAT BY A LOCAL FISHER ... 142

TABLE 5-SMARTFISHING E-DAY REFLECTION WITHIN ECEGROUP ORGANIZED IN A SWOT ANALYSIS ... 143

FIGURE 23-ECEGROUP CONTRIBUTIONS 1(IGM15) ... 145

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FIGURE 27-ECEGROUP CONTRIBUTIONS 5(IGM15) ... 147 FIGURE 28-ECEGROUP CONTRIBUTIONS 6(IGM15) ... 148 FIGURE 29-ECEGROUP CONTRIBUTIONS 7(IGM15) ... 148 FIGURE 30-ECEGROUP CONTRIBUTIONS 8(IGM15) ... 149 FIGURE 31-ECEGROUP CONTRIBUTIONS 9(IGM15) ... 149 FIGURE 32-ECEGROUP CONTRIBUTIONS 10(IGM15) ... 150 FIGURE 33-OUR BOOK OF STORIES (PADLET BOARD) ... 152 IN BETWEEN MEETINGS 03 ... 153 FIGURE 34-MESTRE M. SPEAKING IN THE PLACE OF THE WAVE ... 155 FIGURE 35-POEM INSPIRED ON MESTRE M., BY A PARTICIPANT OF THE EVENT... 155

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LIST OF TABLES

TABLE 1-EVENTS DEVELOPED ON CRITICAL ETHNOGRAPHY IMPLEMENTATION PHASE ... 66 TABLE 2-DATA COLLECTED WITHIN ONE WORKGROUP ANALYZING ALMADA MUNICIPALITY FISHING AREAS ... 76 TABLE 3-RESULTS OF SWOT ANALYSIS MADE BY ECEGROUP AS PROPOSAL TO COLLECT DATA AND REFLECT ON THE

PROBLEMATICS SHARE WITHIN SMARTFISHINGSUMMIT 1(DATA TRANSLATED BY AUTHOR) ... 81 TABLE 4-RESULTS FROM ECEGROUP PROPOSED ACTIVITY TO SUMMIT 2 ... 134 TABLE 5-SMARTFISHING E-DAY REFLECTION WITHIN ECEGROUP ORGANIZED IN A SWOT ANALYSIS ... 143

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LIST OF ACRONYMS

CNPq National Council of Scientific and Technological Development, Brazil CAA Centro de Arqueologia de Almada

CENSE Center for Environmental and Sustainability Research EmF Educação em Fronteiras

EMR Educação Matemática em Revista, quarterly publication of Sociedade Brasileira de Educação Matemática

ERASMUS+ European Region Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students FCT NOVA NOVA Science and Technology School, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa

GEPEm Grupo de Estudos e Pesquisa em Etnomatemática, Brazil GEPEm Pt Grupo de Estudos e Pesquisa em Etnomatemática, Portugal MAR 2020 Operational Program MAR 2020

MARE Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre

NOVA.Id.FCT Association for the Innovation and Development of FCT OLO Ocean Literacy Observatory

ReDiPE Revista Diálogos e Perspectivas em Educação

PPAFCC Paisagem Protegida da Arriba Fóssil da Costa da Caparica (Protected area)

ICNF Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e Florestas RLE Revista Lusófona de Educação

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PREAMBLE

The research “Environmental Communitarian Education: collaborative actions to an integral sustainable coastal development” emerges out of an educational path, through a master’s in educational sciences, with expertise in Intercultural Education. Being born in the area of Caparica, I grew up with a strong connection with the nature and the coastal environment. That connection has shaped and informed my understanding of science education and the environmental science to study and promote the connections among individual, society, and nature (D’Ambrosio, 2002) by adopting a critical ethnographic exercise as an innovation tool in environmental sustainability issues.

My master’s dissertation has focused on a critical ethnographic immersion within the first indigenous intercultural degree course of Universidade Estadual da Bahia¹ - Brazil and took place in the city of Cumuruxatiba. Through that experience I came to see the need to create and develop a degree course that would respond to the needs, expectations, and constraints of its members, with special attention paid to the mainly natural, political, cultural and social issues within their environment. In fact, I witnessed the emancipation politics in action, through the constitution of a committee with real representativity of the student corp.

I, also, witnessed the emancipation in the presence of children that accompanied their mothers allowing them to attend a graduation course, and so empowering them as individuals as well as the ethnic groups to which they belong.

It was inspiring to have lived and experienced in this way the Intercultural Education, and to have noticed how the contribution of traditional, local, and technical knowledge, as

1State University of Bahía

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well as of scientific knowledge in the constitution of a degree course impacted positively the motivation and commitment of all participants – students, scholars, teachers, technicians, and local leaders. Some examples: (1) the students attend the course giving up their vacation time;

(2) the classes took most of the day, with the remaining time given to study and prepare tasks assigned, nevertheless, with the limited time available, it was still possible and instructive…to attend the organizational committee meetings, listening to issues in debate, and sharing opinions.

This experience, also, contributed to highlight the relevance of a connection between science education and environmental sciences, as it was possible to witness the strong connection of those students with the other environmental elements that surrounded them.

The nature became a room for classes, a tool, and a teacher – an element of the shared environment. The opportunity to explore the relation between the science education and the environmental sciences impelled me to follow an academic path, which allows for that bridge.

Nonetheless, it may be a hard task to bridge two different scientific areas with different knowledge settings, rules, and expectations. Therefore, I live the conflict and the dialogue in me. As I come from an educational background, the knowledge in me obeys different intellectual settings, rules, and prior expectations. As I take the task to work bridging the science education and the environmental sciences, I need to assure the dialogue between my learning and research mechanisms and the new mechanisms demanded. A careful attention is needed to enrich my path and my research with the dialogue within and the inter knowledges and dialogue areas.

Throughout the path to bridge those academic fields, I became member of research groups and of one association, those having given me important theoretical inputs, as well as experience in the research field, allowing me to assemble a strong framework – theoretical and empirical, and of human bonds - to take the present research to practice.

The first experience with a research and study group started before the enrolment in my master’s degree. GEPEm – Grupo de Estudo e Pesquisa em Etnomatemática², an

2Ethnomathematics Study and Research Group [My translation].

Website BR: http://www2.fe.usp.br/~etnomat/

Website PT: http://gepemportugal.blogspot.com/2010/

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ethnomathematics research and study group of Universidade de São Paulo³ - Brazil, with a branch in Portugal, following D’Ambrosio (1999, p. 146), introduction of the concept ethnomathematics “as modes, styles, and techniques (tics) of explanation, of understanding, and of coping with the natural and social environment (mathema) in distinct cultural systems (ethnos)". This group made an important input into what came to be my master’s dissertation

"A diversidade dialogante num processo educativo indígena. Observações num curso de etnomatemática”⁴, giving me a tool to understand the environment where I was immersed, and guided me through a critical analysis process the witnessed connections with society and nature, acknowledging the holistic transformative educational frame of reference (Mezirow, 1997) developed within the process.

A more recent integration comes with EmF – Educação em Fronteiras⁵, located in Brazil, with poles in Portugal, Spain, and United Kingdom. EmF is an interdisciplinary and transnational research group, registered in the CNPq – National Council of Scientific and Technological Development, focusing the research dynamics in three lines: Ethnomathematics, Ecology, and Bottom-up Methodologies. The three thematic lines of this group encompass thematics of relevance to the present research.

Nonetheless, it was within the Ocean Literacy Observatory, from now on designated as OLO, that I had, until the present moment, the opportunity to enhance my research activities.

OLO is a scientific research space integrated in Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre (MARE⁶), Pole MARE NOVA, NOVA University Lisbon⁷ (FCT NOVA). As a scientific research space, it works through a transdisciplinary and transcultural approach with focus on the creation of spaces and collective times of belonging for members of coastal communities, proposing alternatives to current models of governance through the development of local models of collaborative actions.

3 University of São Paulo

4 The diversity in dialogue into an indigenous educational process. Observations in an ethnomathematical course [My translation]

5 Education into Boundaries [My translation].

Website: https://fronteirasurbanas.wixsite.com/emfronteiras

6Centre of scientific research, technologic development, and innovation, with an integrative and holistic approach, presently with seven poles, respectively University of Coimbra (MARE-UCoimbra), Polytechnic of Leiria (MARE-IPLeiria), University of Lisbon (MARE-ULisboa), NOVA University of Lisbon (MARE-NOVA), ISPA (MARE- ISPA), University of Évora (MARE-UÉvora), and in the Madeira archipelago (MARE-Madeira). Website:

https://www.mare-centre.pt/pt

7 NOVA School of Science and Technology, NOVA University Lisbon. Website: https://www.fct.unl.pt/

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Throughout my path, I, also, became associated of CAA – Centro de Arqueologia de Almada⁸, a non-profit association created in 1972, with regulation for public utility and Non- Governmental Organization – Environment. It promotes research into and dissemination of Archæology, Patrimony and History, in the Almada municipality, going beyond the traditional, innovating with experiential activities that gained the attention of the young and the adults and strengthen their motivational settings for learning and interaction with other environmental elements.

I came across diversified realities and educational contexts. I met children, adolescents, and adults - spokespeople of the cultural diversity living in Portugal. In the dialogues with those groups, points of reflection arose about the way they felt about education, society, and, more importantly, their role, in their interactions with the environment – spaces where they move and where they interact with local natural resources.

As a researcher, I participated in the project "Urban Boundaries: The Dynamics of Cultural Encounters in Communitarian Education" (PTDC / CPE-CED / 119695/2010)⁹, which was highlighted by an action to promote dialogue and engagement among three communities of Costa de Caparica: neighborhood community (slum), fishing community, and academic community. Added to the dynamics intra and inter three communities, dynamics were, also, developed to promote dialogue and engagement with the surrounding society. In the process of this project, there were developed joint strategies to wake up the awareness of a common ground between the desires, needs and possibilities of the communities and the individuals that compose them.

My collaboration in the construction and development of the Urban Boundaries project, as well as the immersion in a critical ethnographic process in multicultural contexts, not only in Costa de Caparica / Portugal, but also in Cumuruxatiba / Brazil, taught me many lessons about the research processes, as well as awareness of how dialogue between different types of knowledge (traditional / local / technical / scientific) might promote co-responsible cultural encounters with the other life forms and, then, contribute to sustainable environment designs co-constructed, effective, and with belonging.

8Almada Archaeological Centre. Website: https://carqueoalm.wixsite.com/website

9Website: http://fronteirasurbanas.ie.ul.pt/

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My current position as researcher at OLO, under the coordination of Mônica Mesquita confirmed the transformative potential of communitarian education already experienced in the Urban Boundaries project. The work in the coastal area of Costa da Caparica has been reinforcing the need, the desire, and the possibilities for integration of the members of coastal communities into collaborative practices and educational processes that ensure awareness for local environmental sustainability.

I had the opportunity to be at the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering (FCT NOVA) with a research grant from NOVA.Id.FCT, within the framework of the Project for Provision of Services "Acquisition of Services for the Development of an Educational Project and Campaigns for Awareness and Action to Increase Literacy in Biodiversity and Nature Conservation", under the coordination of Lia Vasconcelos. This period was key to deepen the knowledge of environmental awareness practices and collaborative process projects, involving local agents in the decision-making processes promoted by the mentioned projects.

In this experience, I collaborated with some of the dynamics of Embaixadores pela Biodiversidade¹⁰ project and integrated one step of the participatory process proposed under the NIPOGES project. Furthermore, the contact with other researchers and with students in classroom dynamics reinforced the potential of differentiated dynamics of experiential nature for the (re)organization of the individual-society-nature relationship – fostering practices for environmental sustainability.

Integration in the SMART FISHING project¹¹ team, as researcher in the Collaborative Governance work package, allowed a closer contact with the different realities of local fishing arts, their concerns and perspectives towards the safety and sustainability of their practices and the environment to which they belong. This experience provided the impetus to go forth with the present line of work, engaging it directly with the research proposals.

Therefore, the dynamics here proposed bring to the field of research an integrative work of science education and the environmental sciences, with a conviction that interdisciplinary studies contribute to the knowledge of emancipatory dynamics in the field of

10Ambassadors for Biodiversity [My translation]. Website: https://embio6.wixsite.com/embio

11Website: http://smartfishing.olo.blue/

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education and environmental sustainability, as well as to the integral involvement of coastal communities in transformative and collaborative processes.

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INTRODUCTION

The present research is intitled “Environmental Communitarian Education:

collaborative actions to an integral sustainable coastal development” emerges out of an educational path, through a master’s in educational sciences, with expertise in Intercultural Education towards a path bridging education and environmental sustainability. Being born in the area of Caparica, I grew up with a strong connection with the nature and the coastal environment. That connection has shaped and informed my understanding of science education and the environmental science to study and promote the connection among individual, society, and nature (D’Ambrosio, 2002) by adopting a critical ethnographic (Thomas, 1993) exercise as an innovation tool in environmental sustainability issues.

The introduction of the problematic displayed for the present research relies on the understanding of a range of concepts that promote the perception of the relation between the three spaces presented by D’Ambrosio (2002) and contextualized by Mesquita et al. (2011), considering the diversity among traditional, local, technical, and scientific knowledges to an effective and integral environmental communitarian education. To reach the full potential of the dialogue within that diversity, the role of science must be revisited.

Through the Literature Review, will be introduced concepts like ecological consciousness (Ellis & Thompson, 1997), ecology of knowledge (Santos, 2006), local ecology (Gilbert et al., 2016), cognitive justice (Santos, 2017), and integral context (Acosta, 2016) contributing to the perception of the three levels of space (Mesquita et al., 2011) – the relation with the environment, here including the individual as an essential part.

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The present research aims to answer or, at least, suggest hints how community-based collaborative actions, grounded in a holistic transformative education, can contribute to an integral sustainable coastal development.? To do this, were defined as objectives (1) to identify concepts of traditional, local, and technical coastal knowledge; (2) to promote the dialogue among traditional, local, technical, and scientific knowledges; (3) to identify community-based praxis that support the dialogue of traditional, local, technical, and scientific knowledges; (4) to critically co-analyze the community-based collaborative actions.

The research process will be presented throughout the present thesis in two main sections. The first part will present the thinking of the research process itself, establishing the questions and objectives which nurtured the research and, as well, a chapter dedicated to a search for a theoretical basis, and another to the search for a methodological basis. The second part is dedicated to the lived experience of the critical ethnography implementation basis.

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PART I |

THINKING IT

“A crise ecológica da Terra é o reflexo da própria crise da civilização técnico-científica e constitui a principal acusação contra um dos mitos do nosso tempo: o progresso.”¹²

(Pompili, 2021, p. 9)

12“The Earth's ecological crisis is a reflection of the crisis of the technical-scientific civilization itself and is the main accusation against one of the myths of our time: progress.” [My translation]

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1. RESEARCH PREMISSES

The introduction of the problematic displayed for the present research relies on the understanding of a range of concepts that promote the perception of the relation between individual-society-nature (D’Ambrosio, 2002) claimed by Mesquita et al. (2011) as three levels of space considering the diversity of knowledge (traditional, local, technical, and scientific) for an effective and integral environmental communitarian education. Doing so, the role of science must be revisited, to reach the full potential of the dialogue within that diversity.

In the following sections, are introduced concepts like ecological consciousness (Ellis

& Thompson, 1997), ecology of knowledge (Santos, 2006), local ecology (Gilbert et al., 2016), cognitive justice (Santos, 2017), and integral context (Acosta, 2016) contributing to the perception of the three levels of space (Mesquita et al., 2011) – the relation with the environment, here including the individual as an essential part.

1.1. Problem introduction

Considering the emergence of global environmental problems as a result of the increasing awareness of the problematic relationship between society and nature (Stern et al., 1992; Kelly, 2018), it becomes critical to acknowledge the need to re-evaluate our worldview, our being in time and space, often not recognized. To Ellis & Thompson (1997) the traditional research and political measures, with strictly environmental focus, are not responding to the actual demands. The authors highlight the growing use of instruments measuring and reinforcing ecological consciousness. Enhancing this level of consciousness, the individuals may achieve a further awareness of their impact in their environment, comprehending the potential of destruction (Turner et al., 1990) as well as the potential for construction,

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protection, and a sustainable interaction with the spaces where they move and the respective resources (Boyd & Foke, 2012).

The environmental research often discusses the future of the Earth envisioning human beings acting out the drive for progress, which intensifies productivity and consumption rates.

In this sense, Puig de la Bellacasa (2015) argues that ecology attempts to develop considering soil a living community on opposition to an intensive crop production as a general questioning arose on the negative impacts of such progress. Nonetheless, the present research, despite valuing the arguments on the need to stop or drastic reduce such productivity/consumption, reflects on why human beings are, only, focused on a blame perspective. The present research drives the reflection on understanding the potentialities of human beings as guardians of the environment they live in.

For Mesquita et al. (2011), each individual translates his/her being into three levels of space - individual-society-nature, elementary for the ecology that defines him/herself. The concept of ecology arises, initially, in biology, while studying the relationships between living beings and the environment they live in, trying to clarify the influence that some exert on others (McIntosh, 2000). More recently, this concept refers to different views on different communities of living beings (human and nonhuman) in different scientific areas - the ecology of knowledge (Santos, 2006). As the conception of Mesquita’s et al. (2011) three levels of space approach, the relations between individual-society-nature (D’Ambrosio, 2002), can be translated, here, as an ecological relationship driven by the recognition of the diversity of knowledge and influences exerted among them in a local scale – a local ecology (Gilbert et al., 2016).

The use of the concept ecology, in this approach, seeks the recognition of the knowledge and actions produced throughout the world as a search for cognitive justice based on the fact, or political act as understood by the philosopher Slavoj Žižek (2008), that the production of knowledge goes beyond what the hegemonic model disseminates and must sustain, to support itself. Such a concept works as a political tool in creating spaces so that silenced and silent gaps can be filled by any production of knowledge, making it possible to reduce the spaces of exclusion within the decision-making processes of local and national policies. Those processes become relevant when thinking of the individuals involved in the protection of their environment, guardians of sustainability, protectors of nature as part of

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that. As individuals share and accept the dialogue of knowledge, they acknowledge their potential and their part in the triangle of interdependent factors – individual, society, and nature (D’Ambrosio, 2002; Mesquita et al., 2011). It becomes impossible to conceive pollution and unconscious consumption, becomes unbearable to legislate about artisanal fishing without consult the actual fishers.

Ecology, here, migrates from its primary character into biology, transforming itself into the study of the relationship of living beings not only with their natural environment but also with their socioeconomic, cultural, geographical, historical, and political environment. In fact, the present research suggests that this transformation is based on the paradigm shift of the notion of environment (Dunlap & Van Liere, 1978), which takes us to the concept of sustainable development, that was described by the 1987 Bruntland Commission Report (p. 34) as the

“development [that] seeks to meet the needs and aspirations of the present without compromising the ability to meet those of the future.”

Considering individual, society, and nature (D’Ambrosio, 2002; Mesquita et al., 2011) as essential elements of the environment and facing the growing issues affecting the biodiversity and the natural resources availability, it points out new ways to imagine sustainable development. Human population growth implies massive consumption, therefore the exploitation of resources following a path of disconnection within the environmental essential elements above quoted. In that sense, and questioning those issues, approaches as degrowth appeared in the decade of 1970 by the hand of André Gorz (1980) as a critic to neoclassic economics based on an intensive production system raising constantly the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). However, how to run away from the current capitalist impositions that forge current policies to answer to wider economic interests?

The 1987 Bruntland Commission Report introduces a reflection on the changes required to the conception of growth, nonetheless the economic sphere has a great impact throughout the report. Lang (2016) brings forth the reflection to a new dimension, in which the concept of development carries within a contradiction to the concepts of sustainability, equity, and inclusion. To Lang (2016) the concept of development has been driven from a natural cyclic process, experienced in the natural world, towards a linear and unlimited one, in association to the neoclassical economic concept of growth. To face problems within the current unlimited and unsustainable growth pattern, Lang (2016) urges the readers to rethink

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the concept of development, working towards alternatives that consider the diversity of relationships among individuals, society, and nature (D’Ambrosio, 2002; Mesquita et al., 2011), enabling new connections, new knowledge, new perceptions… a new frame of engagement…

a new human posture toward the ecological system.

The reflection may start by the understanding that every individual has innumerable relationships with fractions of the locality in which he or she lives, so the perceptions of the environment are often partial and fragmentary, involving multiple references from diverse origins (Lynch, 1960), placing the species itself as an outsider. It is understood as emerging the visibility of different forms of cognitive resistance that expose relations of influence, abuse of power, and violence, at different levels and with different characteristics.

It becomes a key-action to reflect on and exercise being in environment, becoming aware of CorpSpace, of the relationships with others - OtherSpace, and, in an integral context (Acosta, 2016), of the way of interacting, communicating, and participating with the environment, of which humanity are an intrinsic element - EcoSpace. Considering this, it may fill the gap in Environmental Education literature, which integrates the human being in environmental defense, however as an element apart of that environment (Pickett et al., 2008).

Environmental Education has for many years focused Sustainable Development as the goal to reach, however as Nielson and Castro (2016, p. 203) appointed,

Sustainable Development (SD) is a controversial concept informed by conflictual narratives which reshape the way we envision the earth, the sea and the stars. Its integration in international policies and national strategy plans for development influences the ways we now know the past, our understanding of the present, and our paths to the future. It influences our lives through policies that regulate daily practices (…) However, the problems faced by the ocean require understanding sustainable marine ecosystems through the complex interactions between ecological, social, economic, and political dimensions. Analyzing the intersection of those dimensions, while respecting peoples’ voices, allowed us to identify how policies and regulations for SD fail, and opened spaces for an emancipatory reflexive research on SD: responsible, accountable and transformative.

Nielson and Castro's (2016) assessment opens space to reach alternatives which consider that the most elementary forms of experience may become a way of reflection,

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consciousness, and knowledge, transcending as an alternative to the current development of collective intelligibility and, consequently, reflecting as an alternative for the emerging integral sustainable development claimed by the Earth. Here, as a sustainable development conception which makes accountable communitarian processes and learning experiences of a citizenship which values and promotes harmony and diversity in society and nature (Acosta, 2016), gathering the knowledge of multiple actors (Santos, 2006) to the common well-being – individual, society, and nature (D’Ambrosio, 2002).

1.2. Research questions

This research proposes a critical ethnographic study (Thomas, 1993) in coastal areas, within the collaborative praxis¹³ of OLO, which joins a diversity of actors – scientific researchers, schoolteachers, representatives from institutions connected to the fishing activity, local artisanal fishers, coastal communities’ members, and general population. The present proposal is grounded on the (re)organization of local ecology in coastal contexts, working over the relationship between individual-society-nature (D’Ambrosio, 2002), ethnographically applied by Mesquita et al. (2011) as three relational spaces – CorpSpace, OtherSpace, and EcoSpace.

The safeguarding of nature, circumscribed by the ethnographic action field proposed for the research, is highlighted, here, via the encounter of intellectual diversity. For instance, the traditional and local knowledge of fishers on marine and coastal life, and their phenomena can be of great value in the encounter with technical and scientific knowledge. Therefore, it aims at collaborative actions to identify and promote the dialogue between traditional, local, technical, and scientific knowledge reinforcing and resignifying the local ecological knowledge (Santos, 2006) in a collective sense of belonging – applying the communitarian education (Mesquita, 2014) dimensions towards the acknowledgement of the three relational spaces (Mesquita et al., 2011). Considering this dialogue as a way to reconnect with the Earth that is a living being (Krenak, 2019), to reconnect with the nature in us.

Uncertainty and instability direct human life (Barata, 1986). In fishing communities, for example, a fisher’s income depends on the volume of fish caught. The practice of a critical questioning around daily discourses and practices, on individual and collective levels, can be

13Paulo Freire introduces praxis as a practical application of a theory.

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an essential tool to understand motivations and paths chosen and then project futures in circumstances of uncertainty (Amorim, 2018). How does uncertainty/instability shape the coastal consumption? How does it change the use of resources in transitional ecosystems?

How is it reflected in the participation processes? How does it impact the actions on coastal spaces? This critical questioning becomes a tool in a critical ethnographic research as an act of self-awareness for the researcher and participants towards the envisioned integral sustainable development.

In order to foster a praxis of an integral sustainable development in coastal areas, here is raised the larger question of this research: How community-based collaborative actions, grounded in a holistic transformative education, can contribute to an integral sustainable coastal development?

The approach brought to the present research reaches to a holistic transformative educational exercise (Mezirow, 1997; Freire, 2008b) defined by Mezirow (1997, p. 5) as “the process of effecting change in a frame of reference”. To the author (1997, p. 5) «Frames of reference are the structures of assumptions through which we understand our experiences.

They selectively shape and delimit expectations, perceptions, cognition, and feelings. They set our “line of action.”». Moving forward to a frame of reference which integrates CorpSpace, OtherSpace, and EcoSpace (Mesquita et al., 2011), Environmental Communitarian Education is acknowledged, and in a sense developed from the perception of Communitarian Education (Mesquita, 2014) acting as researcher in the Urban Boundaries project (PTDC/CPE- CED/119695/2010), research which was developed within the Institute of Education of Lisbon University, with support of Science and Technology Foundation.

Urban Boundaries took place within the concerns that joined, in action, members of the academia, the members of a fishing community, and members of a so-called illegal settlement – a place where the communitarian dimension was, still, alive, and well. The dialogues proposed in Urban Boundaries allowed the perception of how the community-based acts in inter generation development, transmitting values and reinforcing the commitment towards others and the local environment could be affected.

Nonetheless, the educational dimension of community-based movements within which human beings grow, gains a particular impact in coastal areas as the interaction with the ocean joins a diversity of actors. Here, the coastal areas enhance the role of a place in the

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construction of identity and sense of place for all visitors and tourists, and mainly to local communities (Acott & Urquhart, n.d.). The sense of belonging that may be developed when there is a strong bond with a place/area strengthens the relationship with the environment promoting an exploring exercise of the connection between individual-society-nature.

Therefore, coastal areas have potential for integral sustainable development. However, there is the need to ask: Which are the characteristics of such development? What is the community- based involvement for this development? Is integral development desired? What form of coastal development will be left for the next generations?

The present research takes the previous questions to a collective exercise, which summons representatives of traditional, local, technical, and scientific knowledges – actors within the coastal area playing different parts in such a local ecology. Thus, the research exercise joins a fisher, a local inhabitant connected with the fishing community, a nature watcher that grew up by the sea, a polytechnic institute teacher that is also a visitor, and Ph.D.

student that grew up by the coast. The critical ethnographic research proposed main objective is to understand how community-based collaborative actions, grounded in a holistic transformative education, can contribute to an integral sustainable coastal development. The following specific objectives were defined to ensure data collection and dynamics that would respond to the previous research question:

(1) To identify concepts of traditional, local, and technical coastal knowledge;

(2) To promote the dialogue among traditional, local, technical, and scientific knowledge;

(3) To identify community-based praxis that support the dialogue of traditional, local, technical, and scientific knowledges;

(4) To critically co-analyze the community-based collaborative actions.

This study directly addresses emerging issues aligned with Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development, enhancing environmental educational practices through collaborative actions co-constructed with local actors, potential multipliers of coastal sustainability, it is intended to answer directly to Sustainable Development Goal 4 - Quality Education, through the target 4.7:

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By 2030, ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, among others, through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development.

(United Nations, Sustainable Development Goals) The ongoing actions aim to ensure the sustainability of transitional ecosystems, as well as promoting inclusive, equitable, participatory, and sustainable communities, contributing to the development of an integral (Acosta, 2016) plan that is based on a new paradigm of environment, which goes beyond Dunlap & Van Liere (1978) paradigm, placing humanity and nature as essential elements (Acosta, 2016), on an exercise of acknowledgement of inner worlds as a realm of transformation towards an integral sustainability (Ives et al., 2020).

Therefore, CorpSpace, OtherSpace, and Ecospace (Mesquita et al., 2011) experienced in their deepest connections.

The promotion of this acknowledgement exercise is made through a slow living (Honoré, 2004), emphasizing balance, critical reflection, and collective deliberation. At this level, it is possible to consider a plan powered by different types of knowledge and, facing that diversity, it might encompass different modes and strategies like collaborative actions; fair trade; participatory processes; co-responsible acts; emancipatory dynamics; among others. In fact, such a plan is unsustainable without an intra and inter systems network.

1.3. Hypothesis and Approach

The promotion of interconnectivity between society and science, attending to OLO’s daily praxis, is transposed into action in the preparation and presentation of scientific communications and papers together, as well as in the co-construction of activities to be developed both within the fishing community and the scientific community, with the aim of sharing knowledge and fostering the dialogue. In this sense, political decision-makers, and other entities with an impact on environmental management have also been invited into the dialogue. The OLO’s proposal has reached its peak in the co-construction of national and European projects, already in implementation. Understanding, therefore, the need to bring society and science closer together in a cooperative framework, the role of science must be rethought.

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Social problems and science, as a promising method of inquiry, are presented in an entanglement of myths and ideologies that feed the idea of science / pure knowledge intoxicating humanity and masking its potential to promote the power of the ruling classes (Restivo, 2017). In making conscious the duality (Santos, 2012) in the role of science, it is important to remember the relevance of cooperation in the process of adaptation and evolution from primitive organisms to more complex forms of human and social cooperation (Restivo, 2017).

From the practical application of cooperation, collaboration, and interconnectivity to research processes, effective and valuable contributions have emerged for the development of projects of scientific, economic, social, and cultural interest. Active participation with high motivation levels has, also, emerged among a multi-diverse group that has accepted the challenge of researching its own practices and collaborating in a committed way for a sustainable journey through the local ecology. Thus, recognition of a principle of collaboration, which integrates cooperation and connectivity, as an unquestionable factor for the world is central to the creative exercise of local ecological sustainability. Thereby, placing the hypothesis that collaborative actions will promote environmental communitarian education, and make viable an integral sustainable coastal development that could be adapted to other coastal areas. To verify this hypothesis, it will be needed to start the process with a collaborative approach; therefore, all steps and tasks will be partaken among scientific researchers, fisher researchers, technical researchers, and other local researchers.

The development of the research path with a collaborative approach, like the one here proposed, implies a meeting with the fishers already working as members of OLO and in OLO’s projects, to explain the research purpose. With the acceptance of their part in the research, we began the collaborative empirical immersion. It must be said that the fishers that are OLO’s members and a few others, participating more directly in projects in development, accepted the research challenge in an early stage of the proposal.

Although, the collaborative approach established the basis for a co-developed research, it was programmed to present a range of proposals and timings to set the research in motion, considering, from the start, those could be reorganized or even eliminated from the process, as soon as the dialogic dynamics were activated, respecting the dialogic needs of a critical ethnographic process.

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2. IN SEARCH OF A THEORETICAL BASIS

The problematic brought to the attention of present research sets a great value on bridging the gap between the sciences of education and environment as the connection of those academic fields present alternatives to go beyond the pre-established patterns and concepts of environment, as well as the perception on how the spaces are experienced.

In this bridging exercise, the research will approach educational processes in a dialogical and communitarian venture, approaching individual and societal perceptions of the environment. In the sense of exploring the existing connections within the ecological system and the potentials of a new environmental paradigm, this chapter will also review concepts, on a path from ecology to ecology-related concepts, which integrate human beings into the system. Through this path, the research will elaborate on ecological consciousness (Ellis &

Thompson, 1997), ecology of knowledge (Santos, 2006), local ecology (Gilbert et al., 2016), ecology of freedom (Bookchin, 1982), cognitive justice (Santos, 2017), and integral context (Acosta, 2016) contributing to the perception of the three levels of space (Mesquita et al., 2011;

D’Ambrosio, 2002) – the relation with the environment, here including the individual as an essential part.

The integrated reading of the previous concepts sets out a way for the contributions of Environmental Communitarian Education towards an integral coastal sustainable development, reaching to Mariotti (2002) “Cinco Saberes do Pensamento Complexo”¹⁴.

14“The five knowledges of complex thinking” [my translation].

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2.1. Living our spaces and the conception of environment

Environmental sustainability is according to multiple scholars and scientists a complex issue with multi and interconnected causes; therefore, uncertainties connected with those issues may have many possible solution perspectives (Vasconcelos, 2015; Wheeler et al, 2018).

Often society, government and scientists expect science to produce foolproof solutions to complex environmental issues, nonetheless Wheeler et al. (2018) argue in “Quantifying an Integral Ecology Framework: A Case Study of the Riverina, Australia” the relevance of multiple factors appearing as causes as well as input perspectives to the solutions. To the authors’

uncertainties associated to sustainability problems, also, come social, economic, and institutional factors, so the solutions for them must include all those perspectives. In this sense, Wheeler et al. (2018) brought to their research the concept of Integral Ecology (Esbjörn- Hargens, 2009a; Esbjörn-Hargens, 2009b; Wilber, 2006) to include as many perspectives as possible in the process of formulating solutions, responding to complex situations and enabling adapted responses to the distinct challenges and issues faced by different communities.

Kevin Lynch (1960), an American urban planner and author, recalls that every citizen has innumerable relationships with some fractions of the locality in which he lives, and his image is impregnated with memories and meanings that may interfere with the dynamics of life and participation in local decision spheres. Thus, for the author (Lynch, 1960), people and their activities are an active part of their environment (natural, socioeconomic, cultural, historical, geographical, and political), they are participants and co-builders of the image of the environment. However, the perception of the environment is often partial and fragmentary, involving multiple references of different origins and placing the species itself as an outsider.

The connection individual-society-environment is perceived by the affections developed. Memories and experiences of the spaces, pass on through intergenerational knowledge, connecting individuals to their ancestry. Those paths and memories promote the cohesion of a community or group (Le Goff, 1990; Freire, 2008b), therefore they are the basis of the co-developed process of communitarian education (Mesquita, 2014), essential to a holistic perception of the environment (D’Ambrosio, 2002).

D’Ambrosio’s (2002) theoretical framework allows us to look at human behavior, realizing the need to create strategies to survive - "dealing with everyday life" - and

ENVIRONMENTAL COMMUNITARIAN EDUCATION collaborative actions to an integral sustainable coastal development

ENVIRONMENTAL COMMUNITARIAN EDUCATION

COLLABORATIVE ACTIONS TO AN INTEGRAL SUSTAINABLE COASTAL DEVELOPMENT SÍLVIA HELENA CORREIA FRANCO

DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES AND ENGINEERING

DOCTORATE IN ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY NOVA University Lisbon

Master in Sciences of Education, with expertise in Intercultural Education

DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES AND ENGINEERING

ENVIRONMENTAL COMMUNITARIAN EDUCATION

COLLABORATIVE ACTIONS TO AN INTEGRAL SUSTAINABLE COASTAL DEVELOPMENT

SÍLVIA HELENA CORREIA FRANCO

Master in Sciences of Education, with expertise in Intercultural Education

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ABSTRACT

RESUMO

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES

LIST OF TABLES

LIST OF ACRONYMS

PREAMBLE

INTRODUCTION

PART I |

THINKING IT

1.

RESEARCH PREMISSES

1.1. Problem introduction

1.2. Research questions

1.3. Hypothesis and Approach

2.

IN SEARCH OF A THEORETICAL BASIS

2.1. Living our spaces and the conception of environment