CRITICAL ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION AND THE SCIENCE-TECHNOLOGY-SOCIETY APPROACH: CURRICULAR AND EPISTEMOLOGICAL CHALLENGES FOR TEACHER EDUCATION IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Abstract

The intensification of the contemporary socio-environmental crisis has required school education to adopt formative practices capable of overcoming fragmented and strictly content-based approaches, demanding critical, interdisciplinary, and contextualized pedagogical proposals. In this scenario, although the Science, Technology, and Society (STS) approach is present in debates on Environmental Education (EE), its integration into the school curriculum still faces limitations related to teacher education, curricular organization, and institutional conditions. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the curricular and formative challenges involved in the articulation between Critical Environmental Education and the STS approach, seeking to understand their impacts on the development of critical and interdisciplinary pedagogical practices. Methodologically, qualitative bibliographic research was conducted, based on Content Analysis, through the identification of thematic categories related to the challenges of implementing this perspective. The results highlighted curricular fragmentation, limitations in teacher education for interdisciplinary practices, the persistence of traditional pedagogical models, and institutional constraints that hinder educational innovation as the main obstacles. As a contribution, the study demonstrates that the consolidation of the articulation between STS and EE depends on strengthening critical teacher education and reorganizing the curriculum based on interdisciplinarity, contextualization of knowledge, and democratic participation, promoting educational practices more aligned with contemporary socio-environmental challenges.