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From Economics to Resources: Teaching Environmental Sustainability in Peru's Public Education

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Date Issued:
2007
Summary:
This dissertation examines the teaching of environmental awareness in Peru's public educational system and how it needs to be consciously taught and improved in order to overcome contamination and pollution of resources and decrease poverty. This is a situation afflicting a significant percentage of Peruvians, who face difficulty in surviving and living well because the scarcity of clean air and water, unpolluted land, and affordable energy, which are basic environmental resources. The teaching of environmental awareness, as mandated by Educational Peruvian Laws and curriculum, should be redesigned to promote environmental ethical awareness and sustainability to guard Peru's natural and cultural resources, bounty and beauty before it is too late. In this way, education will promote a better level of life for the majority of Peruvians. Peruvian public education is presently in a state of emergency, as has been recognized by the former minister of education Javier Sota Nadal (2004-2006). Only 1 0% of students leaving high school understand what they read and only 4% do well in mathematics. A number of reasons contribute to this tragedy. Among them is principally the low quality of teaching and the inadequate budget available for public education. Peru's laws, echoing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and mandate good and free education and guarantee the right to live well. The reality is that none of these rights are properly given to the majority of poor Peruvians. This dissertation offers a course of action to teach and spread out not only environmental awareness, but also environmental ethics and sustainability from a personal perspective. This rounded concept, if applied, will form citizens able to guard, protect, and preserve natural and cultural resources. The needed environmental ethics and sustainability education will gradually guarantee, from early in life, a truthful way to love, care, protect and preserve the ecosystem. Also encompassed within this concept is to positively influence the behavior of professionals, economists, politicians, and citizens. It envisions interconnectedness between humans and the environment based on the teaching of environmental ethics and sustainability, educating children to develop critical thinking, and creativity, as well as adopting eco-design principles. This different approach could definitely better the new generation's contribution to preserve natural and cultural resources and to reduce poverty as well as contribute an example to other countries. Present and future Peruvian generations will be able to connect, care, protect, and sustain resources, so when it comes to sustainable development, they will be fully aware of the consequences of their actions toward the environment, themselves and their children's well being. In this way, education would truly fulfill its responsibility.
Title: From Economics to Resources: Teaching Environmental Sustainability in Peru's Public Education.
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Name(s): Adriazola-Rodriguez, Ana
Keaton, Kenneth, Thesis advisor
Diaz, Carlos F., Thesis advisor
Florida Atlantic University, Degree grantor
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Date Created: 2007
Date Issued: 2007
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Fla.
Physical Form: application/pdf
Extent: 197 p.
Language(s): English
Summary: This dissertation examines the teaching of environmental awareness in Peru's public educational system and how it needs to be consciously taught and improved in order to overcome contamination and pollution of resources and decrease poverty. This is a situation afflicting a significant percentage of Peruvians, who face difficulty in surviving and living well because the scarcity of clean air and water, unpolluted land, and affordable energy, which are basic environmental resources. The teaching of environmental awareness, as mandated by Educational Peruvian Laws and curriculum, should be redesigned to promote environmental ethical awareness and sustainability to guard Peru's natural and cultural resources, bounty and beauty before it is too late. In this way, education will promote a better level of life for the majority of Peruvians. Peruvian public education is presently in a state of emergency, as has been recognized by the former minister of education Javier Sota Nadal (2004-2006). Only 1 0% of students leaving high school understand what they read and only 4% do well in mathematics. A number of reasons contribute to this tragedy. Among them is principally the low quality of teaching and the inadequate budget available for public education. Peru's laws, echoing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and mandate good and free education and guarantee the right to live well. The reality is that none of these rights are properly given to the majority of poor Peruvians. This dissertation offers a course of action to teach and spread out not only environmental awareness, but also environmental ethics and sustainability from a personal perspective. This rounded concept, if applied, will form citizens able to guard, protect, and preserve natural and cultural resources. The needed environmental ethics and sustainability education will gradually guarantee, from early in life, a truthful way to love, care, protect and preserve the ecosystem. Also encompassed within this concept is to positively influence the behavior of professionals, economists, politicians, and citizens. It envisions interconnectedness between humans and the environment based on the teaching of environmental ethics and sustainability, educating children to develop critical thinking, and creativity, as well as adopting eco-design principles. This different approach could definitely better the new generation's contribution to preserve natural and cultural resources and to reduce poverty as well as contribute an example to other countries. Present and future Peruvian generations will be able to connect, care, protect, and sustain resources, so when it comes to sustainable development, they will be fully aware of the consequences of their actions toward the environment, themselves and their children's well being. In this way, education would truly fulfill its responsibility.
Identifier: FA00000564 (IID)
Degree granted: Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2007.
Collection: FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
Note(s): Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
Subject(s): Education and state--Peru
Environmental education--Peru
Sustainable development--Study and teaching--Peru
Held by: Florida Atlantic University Libraries
Sublocation: Digital Library
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00000564
Use and Reproduction: Copyright © is held by the author with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.
Use and Reproduction: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Host Institution: FAU
Is Part of Series: Florida Atlantic University Digital Library Collections.