Abstract

DOMINGOS, Diane Cristina Araújo; QUEIROS, Wellington Pereira; OLIVEIRA, Adriana Marques de  and  PIRES, Dario Xavier. Understandings on the use of pesticides by graduate students of a Rural Undergraduate Course of Nature Sciences. Acta Educ. [online]. 2023, vol.45, e63098.  Epub Dec 01, 2023. ISSN 2178-5201.  https://doi.org/10.4025/actascieduc.v45i1.63098.

The present study shows an understanding of the perceptions of the pesticide theme by graduates of the Nature Science undergraduate course of the Intercultural Indigenous Faculty of a public university, without directly addressing environmental issues and the health of farmers and their families: intoxication, cancer, depression, among other diseases. The data were collected from course completion papers produced by graduate students from the Nature Sciences undergraduate course as a partial result of the doctoral thesis in the Postgraduate Course in Science Teaching of the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul (UFMS). To clarify the results, the methodology of Discursive Textual Analysis (DTA) was used, and it was possible to observe that the farmer’s low level of education interferes both in the perception of the risks and in the use of pesticides. Furthermore, they do not use Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) and, consequently, apply pesticides on a large scale, without knowledge of the toxicity level, contributing to the monoculture practices within the agribusiness activities. This result contributed to rethinking the initial training of teachers of rural schools, supported by Paulo Freire’s theory, as a way to raise awareness and critical reflection on the risks of exposure to pesticides in order to promote sustainable agroecological practices and strengthen the debate on Education in/of the Rural areas.

Keywords : initial training of teachers; Freire; agroecology.

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