Abstract

SCHWARZ, Maria Luiza; HERRMANN, Thora Martina; TORRI, Maria Costanza  and  GOLDBERG, Luciane. "Rain, we need you so much!": social representations of water based on drawings of children from a semiarid region of Mexico. Ciência educ. [online]. 2016, vol.22, n.3, pp.651-669. ISSN 1980-850X.  https://doi.org/10.1590/1516-731320160030007.

Children's drawings are very important tools to assess the values that they attribute to the environment and natural resources; this is especially the case for water, which is an essential resource for human life. This study analyzes drawings of children and adolescents from the rural community of Francisco Medrano-Mexico. The task set for the students was: "Draw anything that comes to your mind when you hear the word 'water'". After the students finished their task, discussions took place among students, teachers and researchers about the different meanings attributed to the drawings. For the analysis of the drawings, first we classified the elements represented, subsequently, we proceeded with a detailed examination of the context of the drawings. This study reveals that drawings can provide insight on how young people see the water and that drawing can be very important tools in building theme generators in a Freirean perspective.

Keywords : Water; Rain; Children drawning; Environment; Environmental education; Mexico.

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