Developmental decline in Environmental Education Policies in Latin America / Abya Yala: Developmental decline in Environmental Education Policies in Latin America / Abya Yala

Abstract

This paper addresses the discourse of sustainable development in public policies for environmental education in Latin America / Abya Yala. The systematization of these policies was carried out through a discourse analysis, using the saturation of qualitative information, matrix analysis and the senses to understand the orientation of the EA in the studied policies such as that of Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Mexico. This study is situated in the decolonial perspective and in the Latin American critical geography as a basis to understand the cover-ups, contradictions and modern paradoxes associated with the question of why developing modern content, not only do we underdevelop, but we dehumanize ourselves? The developmental decline consists of this. Four elements are discussed: the categorical framework that supports the policies, the diagnosis of the environmental crisis, the proposed civilizational transition, the role of interculturality. As a consequence, an interpretation of why the colonization of Nature is constitutive of these policies is proposed. Likewise, a decolonial, intercultural and reproductive environmental education is put into discussion.