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1 INTRODUCTION
A study prepared by the British consultancy Oxford Economics for the World Travel and Tourism Council, published in 2019, presents data that confirm that the contribution of the tourism sector to Brazilian GDP grew 3.1% in 2018, totaling 8.1% of the national GDP (Brasil, 2019a). The projection is that the impact of tourism on the Brazilian economy is expected to reach about R$ 739 billion by the year 2027, employing 8.91 million people in the country (Brasil, 2017a). The figures indicate growth, both in the offer of jobs and in the need for vocational training. In Sergipe, state in the Northeast of Brazil, 21 municipalities were added to the tourist map of the state in 2017, including 26 new destinations with tourism potential (Brasil, 2017d). Beyond the local motivations for this study (the growth of tourism in the state of Sergipe), the research presented in this article is justified by issues related to the global increase in tourism: (1) the potential impact of tourism on the environment and (2) the need for training in relation to environmental issues of professionals working in tourism, both quantitatively and qualitatively. Both issues become even more significant in the relationship with tourist activities that integrate people with natural resources, focusing on sectors such as nature tourism, environmental tourism, and ecotourism.
Among the factors that influence the increase in the search for nature tourism in modern societies, Rodrigues (2010) highlights the increase in available time (time not linked to work or other social commitments), technological advances (e.g., communication and transportation), government incentives, and, in accordance with Sampaio (2006), the creation of an imaginary of modernity and health associated with experiences in nature. However, it is important to highlight that the environmental perspective is not restricted to tourism with a focus on visiting natural areas, being broadly encompassed by the tourism sector through the concept of sustainable tourism. In this context, we agree with the precept already described in the academy (Ceballos-Lascuráin, 1995; Blengini et al., 2019; Blengini; Rodrigues, 2019; Khanra et al., 2021 1) that tourism needs to be studied, planned, and marketed according to the ideals of environmental conservation, preserving natural and cultural resources, and ensuring the development of local communities. We also agree with authors who affirm that sustainable tourism is more feasible and likely through the inclusion of environmental education in the training of agents who will act directly in the operationalization of tourism activities (Petersen; Romano, 1999; Campos, 2006; Layrargues, 2009).
This article presents the results of a diagnosis on the degree of curricular environmentalization (DCE) of technical training courses for the receptive tourism in Sergipe, providing data that can be the basis for public and private policies for vocational training. Curricular environmentalization is a theme portrayed by normative documents2 and publications in Brazil3 and in international literature4. However, in Brazil there are few studies that report on curricular environmentalization processes in the context of training courses for receptive tourism agents, such as travel agents, tour guides, chambermaids, cooks, waiters, sailors, and drivers5. These agents act directly in the receptive tourism and can be both multipliers of educational processes and guardians capable of watching over the environment while performing their work.
Added to the gap indicated in the previous paragraph, there are three more specific justifications for focusing on the curricular environmentalization of receptive tourism in Sergipe. The first is the higher proportion of tourist demand for natural attractions in Sergipe, being 35.5% against 19.5% for historical heritage, 20% for popular festivals, and 25% for business tourism (Brasil, 2013). The second is the investment from the Tourism Development Program (Programa de Desenvolvimento do Turismo - Prodetur6) in Sergipe, which currently adds to R$ 100 million (R$ 60 million from the Inter-American Development Bank - IDB and R$ 40 million from the Sergipe State Secretariat of Tourism). The investments were allocated in a wide range of sectors, from architectural works, such as new waterfronts, construction of bars, restaurants, and hotels, to receptive tourism companies with terrestrial and fluvial means of transport (Brasil, 2013). The third is the growing attention to technical courses in Brazil. The Brazilian Ministry of Education amended the Law of Guidelines and Bases of National Education through the Law 13.415/2017, with changes in the structure of secondary education, at the high school level. The definition of the new curricular organization includes a focus on areas of “technical and professional training”. The idea, according to the Ministry of Education, is to ensure an education that meets the demands of the labor market that is focused on activities considered as “technical” (Brasil, 2017c).
In the tourism market in Sergipe, vocational courses are conducted through a trade, which is composed of the Brazilian Association of Travel Agents (Associação Brasileira de Agentes de Viagens - Abav7), the Brazilian Association of Bars and Restaurants (Associação Brasileira de Bares e Restaurantes - Abrasel/238), the Brazilian Association of Hotel Industry (Associação Brasileira de Indústria de Hotéis - Abih9), the Tourism Companies Union (Sindicato das Empresas de Turismo - Sindetur10), and the Tourism Guides Union (Sindicato do Guias de Turismo - Singtur11), with support from the National Commercial Learning Service (Serviço Nacional de Aprendizado Comercial - Senac12), the Micro and Small Business Support Service (Serviço de Apoio à Micro e Pequena Empresa - Sebrae13), the state government (through the Secretariat of Tourism), and the Federal Institute of Sergipe (Instituto Federal de Sergipe - IFS14). From a complete diagnosis of the courses offered by the trade, we identified the institutions that offered vocational technical courses and training in the state of Sergipe for tourism professionals15.
Once the courses were identified and the methodological procedures were carried out to obtain the pedagogical programs from these courses (online research; E-mail messages; on-site visits) the curricular structures were analyzed with special attention to the offered subjects and used bibliography, seeking to identify contents related to the environmental field (more details in the description of the methods). The analysis made it possible to create a comparative diagnosis presented as degrees of curricular environmentalization16 for each course.
The article is divided into four sections. In the first section we present a theoretical discussion addressing, especially, the themes of environmental education and curricular environmentalization in receptive tourism. In the second section we describe the innovative methodology created for this research. In the third section we present a summary of the research results. The last section is dedicated to conclusions and final considerations.
2 ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION, SUSTAINABLE TOURISM, TECHNICAL COURSES, AND PROCESSES OF CURRICULAR ENVIRONMENTALIZATION
Environmental education in the context of sustainable tourism proposes to integrate the tourist to the environment through an adapted architecture preserving and valuing the natural, historical, and cultural heritage, and the participation of local and professional communities in the process of developing awareness, respect, and protection of natural resources (Escouto, 2013). There are a number of limitations to the experience of environmental education as praxis, both in the incorporation of ecological ideals by institutions (limits to processes of environmentalization (Lopes, 2006; Bluhdorn, 2011; Payne; Rodrigues, 2012; Rodrigues, 2015b) and in the movement habitus of individuals (ontological limits to change - e.g. Fay, 1987; Carvalho; Steil, 2009; Rodrigues, 2016, 2018, 2019). Since this is not the focus of the article, we will not discuss the topic in depth. However, we highlight the importance of acknowledging these limitations in proposed processes of environmental education for the development of sustainable tourism, understanding, as Alexandre (2018, p. 18), that “in any of its forms of expression and intervention, tourism interferes in the socio-environmental dynamics of any destination”. Worldviews and practices capable of minimizing these impacts are important, and environmental education is the main expression of the (continuously evolving) “code of conduct” (Lopes, 2006) of what is understood as sustainable practices within our collective social representations.
If at a given moment in the trajectory of the discursive history of environmental education there was a search for universal conceptualization, this search has succumbed to the diversity and plurality of actors that constitute the universe of activities and knowledge of the environmental field, resulting in a multiplicity of practical, pedagogical, epistemological, and political positions; however, there are identifiable political-pedagogical macro trends of environmental education (Sauvé, 2005; Layrargues; Lima, 2014). This plurality is fruitful for environmental education purposes, as much as it is a challenge. In the field of receptive tourism an added challenge is the training of (technical) professionals who come from marginalized social sectors and who often did not have the opportunity to engage critically with socioenvironmental issues, neither theoretically nor practically (Layrargues; Lima, 2014) 17. Thus, the need for including the environmental theme in technical courses for tourism professionals emerges not only from the direct relationship that tourism has with the natural environment but also to overcome the possible lack of environmental education processes in the previous experiences of future tourism professionals.
Technical courses aim to train professionals who will operationally act in the labor market. However, the focus on technical learning should not mischaracterize the need for critical training which enables the professional to question his/her role as a citizen committed with local and global social issues. According to Manfrinato (2006), technical education should lead apprentices to a praxis in which there is a cycle involving action, training, and reflection, imbued with the fundamental principles that lead the future professional to act in a reflexive way regarding professional, ethical, and environmental issues. This line of argument legitimizes the insertion of contemporary (transversal and integrating) themes in the curricula of technical courses, among them, environmental education, as indicated in the Brazilian National Common Core Curriculum (BNCC) (Brasil, 2018). Manfrinato (2006) also brings up the need for critically engaging with environmental issues in technical courses to overcome the superficiality of the ecologically correct discourse.
Incorporating environmental issues and practices in the curricular sphere, either by the emergence of new practices or by the reconfiguration of existing practices, is what is called processes of curricular environmentalization (Lopes, 2006; Carvalho; Toniol, 2010), a social process that focuses on the moral representations of the interrelations between humans and the non-human world (Rodrigues, 2012). Most research on curricular environmentalization is focused on basic education and on higher education courses (important references on curricular environmentalization processes in the contexts of the Global South and North are highlighted in notes 3 and 4). More specifically in the scope of technical courses, Manfrinato (2006) analyzed the inclusion of environmental education in the curriculum of the course for cooks (1044 hours/class) offered by the Commercial Learning Service (Senac) of Águas de São Pedro (São Paulo state, Brazil). The author concluded that the evaluated course does develop environmental education in the curriculum as a transversal theme, but in an informal and disorderly manner.
Studies in the field of curricular environmentalization have the relevant purpose of basing, from contemporary discussions, the choice of contents and methods that will be incorporated by the curricula in the context of environmental issues. As the parameters of what should be addressed by the curriculum are defined the indicators for diagnoses of the level or degree of environmentalization in a given institution (at the broader level, including teaching, research, extension, and administration), or of a given set of curricular units (at a more specific level), are also established. This evaluation of practice becomes even more important when we consider the mandatory inclusion of the environmental theme in the Brazilian school education system, in a transversal way and at all levels, guaranteed by the guiding documents for education since the 1990s (see note 2). This is the direction and meaning of the diagnosis presented in this article, considering the justifications previously presented for performing this diagnosis in technical education courses.
3 METHODOLOGICAL BASIS
The training courses for receptive tourism in Sergipe are offered by the tourist trade of the state. The first methodological procedure to constitute the research corpus was the search for official documents and syllabuses of technical courses that were offered in Sergipe to receptive tourism professionals during 4 years (2015 to 2018) by the institutions of the trade. The search was done through the official websites of the institutions, by sending E-mails to the area coordinators, and, when needed, by pre-scheduled technical on-site visits. As a result of this survey, we analyzed 9 documents from courses offered by the trade in Sergipe between 2015 and 2018, namely:
IFS and Senac are the only institutions offering courses for receptive tourism on a continuous and regular basis and were the only ones to provide complete material for analysis, including description of the syllabuses of all the subjects offered. The other institutions representing the trade offered courses in the period from 2016 to 2018 according to sporadic demands through a partnership with Sebrae. The document available for consultation was a schedule with no syllabuses of subjects in the records, which is why these courses were not part of the analysis. In order for the analysis to be homogeneous among the documents that were found, the analyzed items related to the curricula of the offered courses were: (1) the syllabuses of the set of subjects that make up the course and (2) the mandatory and complementary bibliographic references of each subject.
The selected documents were subject to content analysis from a quantitative perspective, where the frequency of occurrence of certain terms, constructions, and references in a given text is numerically analyzed (Fonseca Júnior, 2006). The basis for the conducted content analysis was the identification of keywords in the corpus related to the development of environmental issues in the specific context of vocational training in tourism (Chart 01). These keywords were created as representations of themes that are repeated in the analysis of the Brazilian legislation on nature tourism (Plano Nacional de Turismo, 2018-2022) and bibliographic references on environmental education (Philippi Junior, 2002; Sauvé, 2005; Rodrigues, 2010, 2018, 2019; Layrargues; Lima, 2014) and Sustainable Tourism (Ceballos-Lascuráin, 1995; Mendonça; Neiman, 2005; Petersen; Romano, 1999; Campos, 2006; Layrargues, 2009; Alexandre, 2018; Blengini et al., 2019; Blengini; Rodrigues, 2019; Khanra et al., 2021).
Chart 01 Keywords used for the analysis of curricular subjects of technical courses in tourism offered in Sergipe between 2015 and 2018.
| CATEGORY | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
| A | Environmental Education |
| B | Sustainable Development |
| C | Sustainable Tourism |
| D | Sustainability |
| E | Environment |
| F | Environmental Protection/Preservation |
| G | Principles of Tourism |
| H | Legislation of Tourism |
| I | Sociocultural Preservation |
Source: Created by the authors.
We analyzed 7 courses (Secondary-Level Technician - Tour Guide IFS; Secondary-Level Technician - Hosting IFS; Secondary-Level Technician - Hosting IFS - EJA; Secondary-Level Technical Professional Qualification - Tour Guide Senac; Basic Course - Cook Senac/Prodetur; Basic Course - Waiter Senac/Prodetur; Basic Course - Chambermaid Senac /Prodetur) and a total of 100 subjects. The data relative to the course “Secondary-Level Technician - Tour Guide IFS” (from now on, “IFS course for guides”) are presented below to exemplify the analytical framework of the research. For each course, a matrix was created composed of the subjects and keywords (Chart 01) addressed in the syllabuses and bibliography (Chart 02, with the categories addressed in the subjects of the IFS course for guides marked with the letter X and highlighted in green)21.
Chart 02 Analysis of the subjects of the IFS course for guides offered in the years 2015 to 2018
| KEYWORDS | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SUBJECTS | Hours | |||||||||
| I- Fundamentals of Tourism and Hospitality | 30 | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |
| II- Interpersonal Relationships | 15 | |||||||||
| III- Legislation Applied to Tourism | 30 | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |
| IV- Field Guidance Techniques | 30 | |||||||||
| V- First Aid and Workplace Safety Notions | 15 | |||||||||
| VI- Environmental Education | 30 | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |
| VII- Tourist Destinations of Brazil and South America | 30 | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |
| VIII - Language and Communication | 30 | |||||||||
| IX- Applied English | 30 | |||||||||
| X- Applied Spanish I | 30 | |||||||||
| XI- Applied Spanish II | 30 | |||||||||
| XII- Ecological Aspects | 30 | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | |
| XIII - History of Sergipe | 30 | X | ||||||||
| XIV- Geography of Sergipe | 30 | X | X | |||||||
| XV- History of Brazil | 30 | X | ||||||||
| XVI- Geography of Brazil | 30 | X | X | |||||||
| XVII- Cultural Heritage | 30 | X | X | X | ||||||
| XVIII- Professional Theory and Technique I | 60 | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |
| XIX- Professional Theory and Technique II | 60 | |||||||||
| XX- Professional Theory and Technique III | 60 | |||||||||
| XXI- Integrator Project I | 60 | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |
| XXII- Integrator Project II | 60 | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |
| XXIII- Integrator Project III | 90 | |||||||||
Source: Created by the authors.
In the case of the IFS course for guides, presented as an example, the keywords were identified in 13 subjects: 7 of the 23 subjects included 100% of the keywords; 1 included 88.8% (8 of 9 keywords); 1 contemplated 33.3% (3 of 9 keywords); 2 included 22.2% (2 of 9 keywords); and 2 contemplated 11.1% (1 of 9 keywords). To calculate the DCE of the course, two sets of data were used:
(X) Of the universe of 100% of the subjects that make up the course, 56.5% of them include at least one keyword of the analysis of curricular environmentalization.
(Y) Comprising the total possibilities of keywords contemplated (207, number obtained from the multiplication of the 9 keywords by 23 subjects), there are 80 indications (cells marked with X and highlighted in green in Chart 02), a representation of 38.7%.
The two percentage representations, identified as X and Y, were transformed into integers, from 1 to 10, with approximation to the first decimal place, with the new values identified as Xf and Yf (the letter “f” as a reference to the “final” value). In the case of the IFS course for guides, 56.5% (X) was transformed into 5.65, approximated to 5.7 (Xf); and 38.7% (Y) was transformed to 3.87, approximated to 3.9 (Yf). The assignment of final value was defined by the simple mean between the two numbers ([Xf + Yf] / 2). In the case of the IFS course for guides, the final value was 4.8 ([5.7 + 3.9] / 2). The final value is considered the coefficient, or degree, of curricular environmentalization of the course.
It is important to highlight that this specific methodological framework for calculating the DCE of higher education courses through a quanti-qualitative22 approach was created by the authors for the means of this research. Using the methodology in other similar research will certainly offer meaningful data for comparative analysis. The methodology could also be used for calculating the DCE in other contexts, such as government documents (e.g. projects, laws, policies) and scientific publications (e.g. academic dissertations from different courses in a higher education institution, or published papers in different journals).
4 SUMMARY OF RESULTS
Following the same evaluation structure presented in the previous section for all analyzed courses, the overall results are presented in Chart 03 (see note 21 on how to access the full set of data of the research as well as the mathematical work to calculate the DCE for each course). The chart also presents the number of students graduated in each course, enabling the analysis between the degree of environmentalization of the course and the number of graduated professionals.
Chart 03 Degree of curricular environmentalization of technical courses offered in Sergipe for tourism professionals.
| Course | X Coefficient | Y Coefficient | Degree of curricular environmentalization | Quantity of graduates |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Secondary-Level Technician - Tour Guide IFS. (duration: 870h) | 56.5% | 38.2% | 4.8 | 110 |
| Secondary-Level Technician - Hosting IFS. (duration: 900h) | 54.2% | 44.4% | 4.9 | 10 |
| Secondary-Level Technician - Hosting IFS - EJA (duration: 2400h) | 40.7% | 24.3% | 3.3 | 13 |
| Secondary-Level Technical Professional Qualification - Tour Guide Senac. (duration: 800h) | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 60 |
| Basic Course - Cook Senac/Prodetur. (duration: 180h) | 12.5% | 9.7% | 1.2 | 525 |
| Basic Course - Waiter Senac/Prodetur. (duration: 180h) | 16.7% | 13.0% | 1.5 | 225 |
| Basic Course - Chambermaid Senac /Prodetur. (duration: 180h) | 20.0% | 15.6% | 1.8 | 50 |
Source: Created by the authors.
Among the analyzed institutions, the courses from IFS have the highest degrees of curricular environmentalization (4.9; 4.8; 3.3, respectively). Considering the 3 courses offered by IFS, the 133 professionals that graduated during the time of the analysis represented only 13.4% of the total of 993 graduated professionals of the whole set of analyzed courses. The courses offered by the partnership between Senac and Prodetur had lower degrees of curricular environmentalization (1.8; 1.5; 1.2, respectively). The added number of graduated professionals from the three courses (total of 800) result in a much larger percentage, representing 80.6% of the total graduates of the analyzed courses. The regular course offered by Senac (Secondary-Level Technical Professional Qualification - Tour Guide) is the only course not to present any degree of curricular environmentalization (0.0), being responsible for the training of 60 graduated professionals during the period of the research, representing 6.0% of the total of graduated professionals in the analyzed courses.
5 CONCLUSION
This research focused on diagnosing the DCE of the technical courses offered in Sergipe to receptive tourism professionals, proposing an analysis of the curricular structures of the courses offered by IFS (public institution), Prodetur, in partnership with Senac (state’s public policies), and Senac (private institution). The analysis of the current DCE of the courses offered in Sergipe to tourism professionals corresponds to the period of 4 years (2015 to 2018). The result of the diagnosis points to a higher DCE in the courses offered by IFS (average degree of 4.3, considering the three courses offered by the institution). However, IFS was responsible for only 13.4% of the graduated professionals of the analyzed courses. The sporadic and short-term courses offered by Prodetur, in partnership with Senac, had a lower degree of environmentalization (average degree of 1.5, considering the three courses offered by the Prodetur/Senac partnership); and the regular Senac course did not have any degree of curricular environmentalization (0.0). Added up, the courses offered by Prodetur and Senac were responsible for 86.6% of the graduated professionals in the analyzed courses. The occurrence of a higher degree of curricular environmentalization in the courses offered by the partnership between Senac and Prodetur than in the regular course offered by Senac can be explained by a probable requirement of the Inter-American Development Bank-IDB, the international organization that funded Prodetur (see Handl, 1988; Mikesell; Williams, 1992 for earlier discussions about the role of international banks in promoting sustainable practices through their loans).
There are a series of normative documents of Brazilian education that refer to the mandatory inclusion of environmental issues, in a transversal way, at all levels and modalities of teaching, even offering the guidelines for such inclusion (see note 2). The diagnosis of courses for training receptive tourism professionals in Sergipe highlighted some problems in this aspect: (a) the courses responsible for the most significant number of graduated professionals (80.6%) show low levels of curricular environmentalization (average of 1.5 DCE); (b) the courses responsible for the most significant number of graduated professionals (80.6%) have the shorter duration, and are offered sporadically through state public policies that are highly susceptible to changes in government; (c) the presence of a regular vocational training course in tourism with no recorded DCE (0.0%); (d) the lack of transversality (presence of the environmental perspective in all subjects of the course) in all analyzed courses. Some questions can be asked based on this finding: What could justify the higher DCE in the courses offered by IFS? What would be influencing this greater inclusion of environmental issues in the curricula of IFS? Is the DCE of the course influenced by the area of vocational training? Would that explain, for example, the difference of DCE between the courses for guides offered by IFS (DCE 4.8) and the courses offered by Prodetur for cooks, waiters, and chambermaids (average DCE of 1.5)? Is this evidence of a certain hierarchy of the areas of activity within the field of tourism? In this context, would courses for hotel and tourist company managers, for example, focus more on environmental issues? Or, since receptive tourism professionals are commonly residents from the tourist regions where they work, many of them having low educational levels23, will curricular environmentalization always be second (or third, fourth, etc.) to more technical topics? Further studies are needed to answer these questions.
Among the recognized limitations of the work, we highlight particularly the restriction of the analysis to normative documents of the courses that were part of the research scope. The survey of data from, for example, direct observations of classes and interviews with teachers and students of the investigated courses could provide important complementary data for the analysis. Another recognized limitation is the definition of keywords that guide the analysis from a significant but limited representation of documentary and theoretical references. However, considering both acknowledged limitations, it is worth pointing out that the same evaluation structure was used for all the analyzed courses. Thus, although other methods could have been used to calculate the DCE (see examples in note 16), the used method as standard allows comparative analyses between the corpus, supporting the study conclusions.
The results of the diagnosis on DCE of technical training courses for receptive tourism in Sergipe show important deficiencies in relation to the processes of curricular environmentalization, providing data that can be the basis for public and private policies for vocational training. In addition, the data of the research located in Sergipe point to the need for further studies that correlate DCE with the variables: (1) public or private sphere; (2) short or long duration; (3) high or low status of the position or function in the professions within the field of tourism; and (4) high or low level of education associated with the position or function in the professions within the field of tourism. Similar studies in the field of technical training for receptive tourism in other locations would also be essential for comparative analyses. Thus, the article offers a direct contribution to the tourist sector of Sergipe, with data that justify and support proposals for changes in the current curricular structure of the training courses of professionals who will directly act in the operationalization of the tourist activities in the state. The article also projects possibilities for future research with generative potential towards sustainable tourism.
