International Studies in Sociology of Education

ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/riss20

Environmental justice in the textbook of sociology

Joana da Costa Macedo

To cite this article: Joana da Costa Macedo (2020): Environmental justice in the textbook of
sociology, International Studies in Sociology of Education, DOI: 10.1080/09620214.2020.1854825

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/09620214.2020.1854825

Published online: 08 Dec 2020.

Submit your article to this journal

Article views: 5

View related articles

View Crossmark data

Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at

https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=riss20
INTERNATIONAL STUDIES IN SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION
https://doi.org/10.1080/09620214.2020.1854825

Environmental justice in the textbook of sociology

Joana da Costa Macedo
Faculty of Education, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

This article discusses the possible effect that schools can have Received 15 March 2020
on students, beyond the socioeconomic factors traditionally Accepted 17 November 2020
researched by the Sociology of Education. Within this con­ KEYWORDS
text, curriculum production can be included as a cross- Global Citizenship Education;
cutting theme to these studies, within the scope of school environmental justice;
effectiveness, once it interferes in the political and social curriculum
construction of civic engagement of its citizens. The discus­
sion argues the principle of Global Citizenship Education
(GCE) can be taught through the school discipline of
Sociology, through the concept of environmental justice. In
this sense, the purpose of this article is to associate the
learning of environmental justice with the increasing of
civic engagement. The analysis of a sociology textbook
leads to the conclusion that the curriculum of environmental
justice can positively impact the increase of global citizenship
and social transformation, and above all, the consolidation of
a democratic culture.

Introduction
The studies on education through the lens of the Sociology of Education
focus on the analytical perspective of the reproduction of social inequalities.
This field of knowledge takes into account the social conditions mediated by
social institutions affecting directly on the categories of race, gender and
class. In this sense, the reproductive perspective of sociological studies of
education has become hegemonic since the 1960s, especially through the
educational studies of Pierre Bourdieu (2014). These kind investigations do
not suggest mechanisms of social change, once they condition a successful
school trajectory to social determinations of origin and social class.
The sociological key to interpret education through the reproduction of
inequalities perspective finds fertile ground in Brazil, since the social pro­
cesses based on class and race create processes of stigmatization within
school’s relation, which reflects on the contexts of school fail, evasion,
learning index, among others. Within this context, the debate around the
criteria of school success or failure has dominated researches in which the

CONTACT Joana da Costa Macedo jocsmacedo@gmail.com

© 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
2 J. D. C. MACEDO

educational categories are designed, and which directly affect the trajectory
of young students.
Studies on school climate contrast, to a certain extent, the reproductive
perspective in the sense that they admit the role of the school and other
school resources as a way to achieve a school trajectory considered success­
ful without the socioeconomic factors and class origin being structured as
the main determinant of this trajectory. In this sense, the school would not
necessarily be a factor in reproducing the social inequalities that structure
a society. Other elements, such as the structure of the school, the role of
managers, the relationship between students and teachers, learning process,
among other factors related to the school climate can positively influence
the trajectory of students, and therefore, it can become a factor of individual
trajectories transformation (Sammons, 2008).
In addition to these factors relation to individual achievement and trans­
formation through school instruments in attempt to reverse some flaws and
difficulties inherited from the socioeconomic condition, this article pro­
poses to include the curriculum, particularly the curriculum of the school
discipline of Sociology, to apply a type of education that is transformative at
the individual level, but above all, connects with social outcomes and global
transformation.
The argument defended here is that the curriculum is an important
element to conceive ways to produce school effectiveness towards the
learning of civics values which stimulates attitudes of social transformation.
Mainly, the curriculum can aim to link social and global themes by con­
necting the school effectiveness of the individual’s success through curricu­
lum learning, and yet, contributing to the development of a civic
engagement that can be applied at the local and global level. Therefore,
the curriculum is considered an important element in the production of
a more egalitarian and democratic society, and not only understood from
the perspective of reproduction of social inequality.
In the face of an external context of discussion on Global Citizenship
Education (GCE), some subjects started to be addressed in textbooks, such
as the environment and sustainability. Social, political and economic global
challenges have been incorporated into teaching-learning instruments.
Theoretically, this article is inserted in the discussions on Global
Citizenship Education (Torres, 2017) and Environmental Justice (Haluza-
DeLay, 2013; Mohai et al., 2009) to indicate how the pedagogical curricu­
lum, presented in a formal education, must be associated with the justice
environmental application of knowledge at local and global level. Therefore,
the transformative character of education which defended Paulo Freire
(Freire, 1967; Torres, 2013) will be considered, especially the nature of
equity that the curriculum must develop (Macedo, 2019) in order to con­
tribute to the construction of a culturally democratic society in which
 INTERNATIONAL STUDIES IN SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION 3

individuals can be civically engaged in social issues aiming collectives

purpose.
The curriculum is a public policy in which the main academic and
scientific knowledge considered essential for processing theoretical forma­
tion of individuals. Through didactic recontextualization (Bernstein, 2003),
this knowledge is made didactic for the school context crystallized, among
other formats, in the textbook. In this sense, the curriculum is a structuring
part of a type of culture within which individuals are socialized despite
formulated within a political and social context involved in a dispute of
interests. Thus, curricular is a channel to develop the conception of global
citizenship.
Since 2012, the school discipline of Sociology became part of the main
national textbook policy, the National Textbook Plan, consolidating a process
of routinization (Meucci & Bezerra, 2014) of the subject’s contents in relation
to its course of institutionalization of the discipline.1 Within a process of
democratization of societies, textbooks have been updated in their content in
order to cope with the most recent social demands. As a result of a historical
struggle of the demands of social movements for an education that is more
inclusive and closer to the reality of young people in the 21st century, they
claimed for new possibilities of well-being, equality and human development.
Some of these issues addressed are specifically related to identity issues, gender
and environment.
In view of the global transformations which societies are going through,
the general objective of the article is to understand how Brazilian education
prepares young people for global social challenges. Specifically, it seeks to
understand how the curriculum on the justice environment present in the
textbook of the school discipline of Sociology can serve as a pedagogical
mediation for the construction of a planetary citizenship through civic
engagement of young students. The curricular issue care for produce
a culture of global citizenship in the face of a country such as Brazil in
which the socio-educational indexes are sharply uneven specially among the
portion of the school-age population who depends on public education
system.
Assuming that the curriculum is a form of mediation of values socialized,
two hypotheses are admitted: 1) the school discipline of Sociology contri­
butes to the creation of a planetary citizenship; 2) the curriculum on
environmental justice can be a channel for promoting social transformation.
From a methodological point of view, the article is based on one of the
perspectives of relational Sociology (Cigales & Oliveira, 2020), namely, the
micro aspects concerning the internal logic of the recontextualized contents.
For that, the authors that were mobilized inside the textbook content will be
mapped, as well as their works, the referenced concepts and their
definitions.
4 J. D. C. MACEDO

The article is structured in five parts, including this Introduction.

The second part, the curriculum design will be analysed as part of
a process of school effectiveness. The third part will be dedicated to the
definition of GCE, as well as the discussion of environmental justice and its
educational importance in the formation of active, creative and engaged
citizens in the face of new global challenges. In the fourth part, the didactic
recontextualization of the textbook content will be analysed, and final, the
Conclusions.

The curriculum as school effectiveness

It draws attention to the fact that the Sociology of Education has become
hegemonic around mid-twentieth century in relation to studies on macro­
social processes in which focused on the reproduction of social inequalities
and division of class through the role of school. Althusser (1970, as cited in
Silva, 1992) analysed a social tradition anchored in the belief in the manip­
ulation of consciences, with the notion of ideology as the key to interpreta­
tion. Bowles and Gintis (1976, as cited in Silva, 1992), in turn, understood
the school context as constituting a specular image of the workplace, and
Baudelot and Establet (1971, as cited in Silva, 1992) comprehended the
existence of different curricula for different classes. Regarding cultural
aspects, the code of cultural transmission appears in the analysis of
Bourdieu and Passerron (1970 as cited in Silva, 1992), which hide the real
dominant relations that are in the basis of the imposition of a particular
culture.
The Sociology of Education was influenced by a functionalist view
(Giddens, 2004) in which school appears as a demand of the system. In
this sense, the sociological dilemma between the agency and structure in
which individuals act based on a normative framework was imposed on
individual choices, which therefore reproduces a social structure. However,
there is a ‘new’ sociology of education that looks at a microsocial scale of
studies linked to the classroom, as well as the functioning of the school
curriculum and its role in the social constitution. In this sense, some
investigations are close to the interactionist or phenomenological perspec­
tives. Through the understanding of symbolic interactionism, the metho­
dological emphasis falls on the processes of social construction of reality, in
which culture and experience are part of the process of individuals choises
without regard social order, so to negotiate a collective utility (Collins,
2009).
However, it is necessary to look at the productive aspects of education
and not only to the reproductive ones (Silva, 1992). In this sense, studies on
school effectiveness at the microsocial level seeking to understand the school
climate, with a view to a more interactionist and localized view within the
 INTERNATIONAL STUDIES IN SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION 5

school and the relationships that permeate the classroom in the production
of interactions with social actors, such as teachers, managers and students.
School effectiveness means that each school must be analysed based on
the results of the teaching-learning process and the factors related to the best
results highlighted, such as the school establishment, internal policies and
practices. Initially, the research was directed towards school management,
presenting quantification of the school effect in order to identify differences
in the performance of students of the same socioeconomic level from
different schools. These surveys used to be associated with a managerial
view of the school and a conservative ideological position.
More recent studies on the effectiveness of the school present new
dimensions to account for the role played by education in a world in
which social values are constantly changing, indicating that there is not
a single dimension of the school climate, but different components together,
recognizing the school climate as a cyclical and multidimensional phenom­
enon (Wang & Degol, 2016). Therefore, the dimensions of the school
structure are combined with the behavioural and dynamic variable involved
in social and school relations (Brunet, 1992). Within this context, the
element referring to civic learning is inserted as an interpretive key for the
analysis of school effectiveness (Cohen, 2006; Moro, 2018; Thapa et al.,
2013).
It is understood in this article that one of the ways to apply a type of civic
learning is through the curriculum. Civic learning is part of the process of
building a democratic culture in the sense of polis in which students develop
values of solidarity, tolerance, collective spirit, participation, among others.
Political education through curricular content presupposes production in
which thought and action, structure and agency, can be provoked as con­
comitant and non-exclusive elements. The construction of this democratic
citizenship must go through a process of socialization in which these values
are introjected into individuals, transforming themselves into intergenera­
tional cultural aspects.
The formulation of curriculum implies the production of meaning that
forges the relationships to be established in the classroom. Thus, curriculum
is viewed as a way to structure everyday school activities, in the sense of
organizing the relationships between subject and scientific object in the
teaching-learning process (Lopes & Macedo, 2011). One way of producing
curriculum is through textbooks.
The production of textbooks content was interpreted as a process of
transposing academic or scientific content to the material used in schools.
The so-called pedagogical recontextualization was first analysed by Basil
Bernstein (2003), who tried to understand the passage from a formalized
content in academic institutions to school patterns, and the implications
that this transposition may have for the formulation of curriculum. In this
6 J. D. C. MACEDO

argumentative line, Desterro (2016, p. 19) interprets Bernstein’s didactic

recontextualization as ‘a complex process in which a certain type of knowl­
edge/discourse, when leaving its original sphere of production, gains new
meanings’.
Within this context, the content of the textbooks is part of a political
competition process in which the ‘curriculum is always the result of
a selection: of a wider universe of knowledge and knowledge, selecting
that part that will constitute, precisely, the curriculum’ (Silva, 2011, p. 15).
In this sense, the construction of the curriculum involves notions of power
when operating a process of selecting which content will be prioritized, and
consequently involves a movement to obtain hegemony over this chosen
knowledge (Silva, 2011). The choice of content to be recontextualized in
didactic materials is part of a process of power struggle between the various
actors involved in the process of formulating content, such as ministries and
education departments, publishers and specialists.
The choices made regarding the content of this curriculum are not
disconnected from the historical and cultural trajectory of each society.
For the reproduction point of view, curriculum development is considered
a social process; therefore, it may end up being bound by the determinations
of a stratified society. So, the curriculum is no longer a simple method but
a space for symbolic and/or material reproduction (Lopes & Macedo, 2011).
The way in which countries adopt a curricular format is related to
a cultural policy and, therefore, to a type of public policy that will directly
affect the formation of the citizens of each country. Michel Young (1971,
apud Silva, 1992) problematizes school curriculum, stating that the curri­
culum is a temporal sedimentation over which there were conflicts over the
content that should be addressed. In the end, it represents knowledge
selected as worthy of being transmitted via the school as a structuring part
of the culture of a society. The choice of content in the elaboration of the
curriculum indicates that, through the textbook, ‘those who have strength in
this policy impose their representations on the world, on the symbolic
universe of their particular culture’ (Costa, 2005, p. 35).
Thinking about the curriculum, and in the formation of citizens that is
culturally inserted in the world of the 21st century, the content of the
curriculum must be in accordance with issues present in today’s society,
such as the justice environment issue. In this sense, the production of the
curriculum must be thought not only from the point of view of the repro­
duction of inequalities, but above all, it must be formulated and thought
from the perspective of the production and transformation of students into
active subjects and players in the transformation of their own society, while
it is associated with global changes that affect the planet.
Considering the mandatory subjects that students must study in high
schools, each of them addresses specific content framework and factors.
 INTERNATIONAL STUDIES IN SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION 7

However, within a perspective of transforming the world towards greater

democratization, the curriculum needs to go hand in hand with social
changes. The content of the textbook of the school discipline of Sociology
addresses the classic and contemporary sociological theories characteristic
of this field of knowledge, as well as contents that cover the most current
issues, such as demands for egalitarian and inclusive institutional spaces in
favour of minority groups, issues of identity, and other more recent phe­
nomena caused by the globalization process, such as currents global migra­
tory, global warming and the discussion of sustainability.
To stay within the proposed scope of this article, one of the contents
included in the Brazilian school textbook, analysed in this research, con­
templates, since 2012, the theme of sustainability and environmental justice.
It is important to note that in 2012, in the international context, the Global
Education First Initiative (GEFI) was implemented, which materialized a set
of programs in which Global Citizenship Education was indicated as
a necessary condition to spread world peace, the sustainable development
of the planet, and the creation of collective and common goods (Torres,
2017).
Even though it still appears in a limited way, as will be analysed in the
third part of this study, it is a step in the direction of socializing values that
prioritize civic values in view of the perspective of cultural diversity, and
global citizenship. Those questions urge due to reframing of the notion of
space and time by the new information and communication technologies,
simultaneously interconnecting different realities and constituting a ‘society
of knowledge’ in which it requires creative, qualified and innovative worker
(Castells, 1996).
The school and the implemented curriculum are responsible for the
formation of citizens in order to fit into this modern world. The school
content on environmental justice is a mean of mediation in the formation of
a common civility (Torres, 2017), in which socialization through the learn­
ing of this content connects local and global issues in order to produce
transformative and engaged citizens, producing a democratically multi-
cultural and egalitarian culture.

Global citizen education and environment justice for social

transformation
Paulo Freire (1967) conceived the concept of liberating education in think­
ing how the curriculum can affect the teaching-learning process of students,
in order to fulfil the basic objective of education, so to promote social
inclusion and social ascension. This idea of educating individuals through
an educational emancipation process is part of a political education project
8 J. D. C. MACEDO

in which education would lead people to participate effectively in decision-

making processes (Freire, 1967).
In a context of liberal conception, in which the principle of equal oppor­
tunity prevailed, universal education fulfilled its role in the promote school
access of thousands of individuals but did not take into account the socio­
economic differences of the students’ families. Freire (1967) envisioned that
education and the content taught, and foreseen, by formal education needed
to have a meaning for the students.
Within this line of thought, it is possible to think of an education that is
liberating within the model of formal education in which global issues
prevail, and this can be done through the analysis of curriculum. Torres
(2013a, 2013b) defends a transformative social learning in which the author
conceives a becoming scenario when a society is reconfigured as ‘post-
colonial, critical-transformative, and value-creating GCE-curriculum
beyond a Westernized, market-oriented and apolitical practices towards
a more sustainable paradigm based on principles of mutuality and recipro­
city ’ (Bosio & Torres, 2019, p. 745). The author directs his reflection to an
alleged ‘el buen vivir’ (Torres, 2019) in which a way of living and the
production of knowledge are based on the principle of social justice and
the construction of a multicultural democratic society (Torres, 2013a,
2013b).
Oxlay and Morris (2013, p. 302) deepen the concept of Global Citizenship
Education by stating that, like the concept of citizenship, the GCE is
‘entwined with a number of overlapping ideas including development
education, democratic education, education for cosmopolitan citizenship,
peace education and human rights education’. Analysing the possible
expressions that this concept can appear in the specialized literature, the
authors create an analytical typology that classifies the literature in cosmo­
politan types or types of advocacy. Most studies are identified with the
advocacy type, whose conceptions orbit in the social, critical, environmental
and spiritual aspects (Oxlay & Morris, 2013; Yemini, 2017).
Through programs that identify Global Citizenship Education, it is pos­
sible to think about social transformation and overcome global problems
currently facing societies, such as poverty, social inequality, and the depre­
dation of the environment (Torres, 2019). In this sense, curricular guide­
lines can contribute to the formation of a planetary society in which global
peace prevails, a more sustainable lifestyle is taking into account and civic
values are shared.
Within this perspective of analysis, the concept of Ecopedagogy
(Misiaszek, 2016; 2020) has a similar purpose. This concept aims to propose
thinking about a new form of approach with regard to the teaching-learning
process. Ecopedagogy presupposes a critical environmental pedagogy that
 INTERNATIONAL STUDIES IN SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION 9

centralizes efforts in understanding the relationship between social conflicts

and actions that can jeopardize the environment caused by human beings.
Therefore, is a pedagogical form of research and teaching that aims to
promote social transformation. In his words, the Ecopedagogy ‘focus on the
politics behind environmentally harmful actions, the normative systems and
structures of society guiding these actions, and the deeper, transformative
steps needed to end these actions’ (Misiaszek, 2016, p. 590). The importance
of thinking about ecopedagogy implies the fact that the world is becoming
increasingly globalized, and therefore interconnected. The actions of indi­
viduals affect societies and the environment in an unimaginable way, and in
this sense, it becomes urgent to have a praxis (Misiaszek, 2016) that is linked
to an environmentally conscious action. The Ecopedagogy model draws
attention to the need to align attitudes related to the microsocial world of
individuals with planetary concerns and phenomena. Thus, it is possible to
correlate all these aspects as part of a system of lives which need to be
preserved and cared for.
The main point is that this awareness can be present in the education
systems in order to promote an education that is transformative, insofar as it
takes into account the scale of environmental impact that the actions of
human beings can reach, at the same time that concatenates with a teaching
practice that makes this possible. The education can be responsible for the
process of individuals socialization within this concept through a process of
teaching-learning. The Ecopedagogy model contributes to thinking about
other forms of societal development not only the economic one, and it also
questions the idea of sustainable development in order to think about how it
is taught and defined in education systems (Misiaszek, 2016). The question
that must be resolved is how to transform Ecopedagogy into a concept
linked to the construction of citizenship.
This theoretical framework becomes relevant to the curriculum of
Brazilian public schools focused on the education of citizenship once it
allows universal values of solidarity and social justice through the aspect of
building a democratic culture. The public education system is not based on
the pillar of internationalization (Torres, 2015), in the same way, the
national curriculum plan does not explicitly address the concept of global
citizenship, despite conceiving the insertion of global issues through its
curriculum content on environmental justice.
The concept of environmental education encompasses mainly the critical
learning of lifestyle that modern and capitalist society imposes as a role
model. It does not refer only to issues related to the natural and animal life
of the fauna and flora of the existing biomes. In this sense, education
through the analytical key of environmental justice contemplates the dis­
proportionate effects that the environment has on social groups (Haluza-
DeLay, 2013). The visibility of the understanding of social justice comes
10 J. D. C. MACEDO

together with social movements, especially those related to combating

racism and inequality (Haluza-DeLay, 2013; Mohai et al., 2009).
Therefore, environmental justice comprises the articulation between envir­
onmental exposure and social factors, more especially, they express the
impacts of environmentally oriented social inequalities, such as poverty
(Haluza-DeLay, 2013).
Pedagogically, the theme of environmental justice is a curricular bridge to
address issues related to citizenship, especially the education of global
citizenship. In this context, Sant and Valencia (2018) for the case of school
curriculum in Latin American countries, corroborates that citizenship edu­
cation is a consolidated element over time, and usually is included in the
contents of social and civil studies (Sant & Valencia, 2018; Oxlay & Morris,
2013; Yemini, 2017). In Brazil, studies on the concept of citizenship and
other related topics of the GCE such as human rights, multiculturalism
globalization and environmental justice are present in the school discipline
Sociology.
Within the scope of citizenship, the National Curriculum Parameters –
High School2 (PCN +), a document that structures the curriculum of
education systems in Brazil, express expectation to students, when partici­
pating politically, “is building his social identity and acting for a democratic
and solidary society “, explaining the ‘youth protagonism aimed at making
full citizenship feasible’ (Ministério da Educação, 2002, p. 92). In addition,
in the PCN + the theme of citizenship appears within the issues related to
the political sphere, within which it is presumed to live politically in society,
in the sense of the power relations that are waged in people’s daily lives
when identifying political practices more ethical. In all these moments of the
document, the objective in the construction of a politically engaged citizen­
ship in which the civic spirit is strengthened in contexts of social conflict
management:

Expanding the notion of politics, as a decision-making process on the social problems

that affect the community, allows the student, on the one hand, to realize how power
is also evident in everyday social relations and in the various social groups with which
he comes across: the school, the family, the factory etc. (Ministério da Educação, 2002,
p. 41)

Thus, among possible school subjects to elaborate a work that involves the
concatenation between the individual’s life and a more planetary conception
the discipline of Sociology shows viability. However, it is necessary to study
its content more deeply to discover the extent to which the curriculum can
be a channel for enabling an education that is more emancipatory.
This article presents the manifestation of this content implicated in the
institutionalization of school content on the environmental justice.
However, it is possible for Global Citizenship Education to be present in
 INTERNATIONAL STUDIES IN SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION 11

other educational modalities3 (McCowan, 2009). The interests of global

citizenship education can be promoted by education entrepreneurs, by non-
governmental organizations, policy and curricula makers, among others
(Yemini, 2017).
From the point of view of a more generalized curricular study, there is an
increase in the mention of the term global citizenship and related themes in
the textbooks of some countries; however, this curricular expression tends
to be narrow, being operated in different national contexts (Yemini, 2017),
not allowing students to engage critically in global problems (Goren &
Yemini, 2017a). Even so, this circumstance ends up being representative
in the sense of indicating that there is a spread of the discussions on the
aspects concerning the Global Citizenship Education.
Regarding the official curriculum, globally oriented contents can be
manifested in several ways even though they are grouped under the denomi­
nation of education of global citizenship (Goren & Yemini, 2017b).
Although the concepts around Global Citizenship Education have
a universalistic nature, the particularities with which it is manifested in
the pedagogical curriculum of different countries seem, in principle,
a contradiction (Yemini, 2017). Goren and Yemini (2017a, p. 180) analyse
similarly when they state that ‘our regional analysis showed that in fact, in
each region GCE is adapted to fit the local needs, pushing aside most issues
concerning any sort of supranational polity or cosmopolitan ethics’. Next
part, the specific content of environmental justice will be analysed in the
context of Brazilian curriculum.

Textbook analysis
The Sociology school discipline proposes to study the phenomena of society
by denaturalizing them through an intellectual exercise of sociological
imagination. The content of Sociology present in textbooks is recontextua­
lized in a conceptual and theoretical way (Macedo, 2019) privileging the
history of sociological ideas (Maçaira, 2017). However, the textbook serves
as a mediator of the contents and its recontextualization indicates the type of
cultural direction and social values of a specific subject to which students
will be socialized.
It is proposed to analyse a chapter of a textbook of the school discipline
of Sociology in which they address issues related to the justice environ­
ment. The book chosen for the analysis is called ‘Sociology in Movement’
(Silva et al., 2016), a book written by teachers of basic education, and
which presents, since the beginning of their participation in the National
Textbook Plan in 2012, a unit entitled ‘Life in cities in the 21st century –
central issues of a society under construction’, in which issues of gender,
the environment and urban space are addressed in their most
12 J. D. C. MACEDO

contemporary way. The chapter chosen for analysis of didactic recontex­

tualization is called ‘Society and Environment’ in which socio-
environmental themes, sustainability and environmental justice are
addressed (Silva et al., 2016).
In the macro contextualization of content about the environment, Brazil
has a history of participation in international agreements on the environ­
ment, as it has a huge portion of its territory provided with natural
resources, one of the most extensive parts of which is the Amazon rain
forest. Because of this, the country is constantly part of international agree­
ments concerning the environment promoting discussions on ecological
and human forms of development. However, the country is marked by
strong social inequality in terms of income of its population, and faces
extreme poverty in a significant number of citizens.
To face international discussions on the environment and environmental
justice, this textbook has a chapter dedicated to this theme. The definition of
environment appears not only as nature and its native and animal life, but
also to its social and cultural aspect, stating that:
the development of human culture and the way in which its different manifestations
interact with the surrounding physical environment characterize the concept of
environment for Sociology. In this sense, a conception of the environment that is
only naturalistic, dissociated from human beings and society, is not sociologically
supported (Silva et al., 2016, p. 359)

From the point of view of planetary citizenship, the content points out the
interconnected conception that socioenvironmental factors have beyond
national territories, and briefly comments on the role of international
organizations in the possibilities and resources of development, indicating
the importance of these issues as sociological study object:
The understanding that a country’s development model affects the international
community through the planetary effects of the use of natural resources and the
emission of polluting gases (as well as their effects on migratory processes and
international trade) has led Sociology to explore the meaning of development and
the responsibility of each country regarding the means of survival of future genera­
tions (Silva et al., 2016, p. 364)

The content recognizes an intersectionality of public policies and the con­

sequent interdependence of elements to combat social and environmental
injustices. In this sense, it admits the need for interdisciplinary studies to
account for the understanding of socio-environmental phenomena and
conflicts. In this regard, authors from different areas are mobilized such as
the physician and geographer Josué de Castro, the economist Ricardo
Abramovay, the physicist and philosopher Vandana Shiva, and the sociol­
ogists Antonio Candido, Henri Acselrad and Robert Bullard (Silva et al.,
2016). All of them analyse the issue of the environment and sustainability
 INTERNATIONAL STUDIES IN SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION 13

from the perspective of social inequality accentuated by the process of

capitalist modernization established in societies.
These examples make sense within a larger subtext of the didactic content
that focuses on social inequalities and how environmental issues directly
impact the most vulnerable and economically marginalized populations in
urban areas, but above all, the rural population, bordering Brazilian people
and indigenous organizations. As the Brazilian socioeconomic context is
marked by profound social inequalities as a result of an exclusive capitalist
development and income concentrator, the textbook privileges the debate
on social injustices, defined as ‘[. . .] the condition of inequality, operated
and sustained by social mechanisms -politics, which allocates most of the
environmental consequences of development to underprivileged social
groups [. . .] ’(Silva et al., 2016, p. 375).
The text reinforces, at all times, the fact that socio-environmental injus­
tices are caused by the capitalist means of production used in the country’s
industries, as well as the type of consumption developed in society. In this
sense, the content presented in the text is directed towards a politicization
regarding public policies and the conquest of rights, reinforcing a posture of
citizen responsibilities. Furthermore, the content associates the social
impacts of global issues affecting the less privileged social groups, and,
therefore, affecting the citizen social contract. However, it does not explicitly
relate to global citizenship, since it locates civic behaviour within the
country’s reality.
This perspective on environmental justice is reinforced by the use of an
example of the diverse and unequal realities found in the Brazilian territory.
Two examples that dominate the exposed content are, on the one hand,
hunger with the discussion around food sovereignty and food as a human
right, and, on the other, the importance of family farming and family
agriculture as a way of transforming the type of capitalist production within
a globalized world.
Environmental justice, specifically, will only be effectively defined in the
penultimate paragraph of the chapter as one that:
it is based on promoting a culture of rights and criticizing the consequences of the
utilitarian environmental position, which advocates an ecological modernization of
contemporary capitalism without addressing the social issue linked to environmental
conflicts. The organization of material and spatial conditions for the production and
reproduction of society must be related to the construction of a more just society,
based on a culture of rights. In this sense, a union between social justice and
environmental protection is promoted, a practice that understands that, to prevent
destructive action on the environment, it is necessary to start protecting the most
vulnerable (Silva et al., 2016, p. 380)

Within this context, this chapter presents a didactic recontextualization

based on highlighting the social inequalities of the Brazilian population
14 J. D. C. MACEDO

caused by global environmental events. The content promotes a reflection

on the socio-environmental impacts in the reality of Brazil, focusing speci­
fically on the context of environmental injustices in the lives of individuals.
Thus, the text predisposes a narrative focused on the need for public policies
that combat these inequalities and guarantee human rights, which reinforces
the advocacy vision that advocates the defence of social, cultural, moral and
environmental conflicts to think about citizenship (Oxlay & Morris, 2013).

Conclusions
The textbook provides resources to work on environmental justice, enga­
ging individuals in the reflection on the impacts on socially and globally
oriented inequalities. Despite being a small part of the disciplinary school
content of Sociology, it emphasizes the country’s problems, especially the
inequality that is still perverse in the Brazilian reality, such as hunger,
poverty and poor housing conditions.
The curriculum is a way to promote critical thought on individual
attitude on social outcomes, and to induce school effectiveness in promoting
a democratic culture among its citizens. However, further research must be
taken on the role of teachers in stimulating critical thinking by identifying
teaching practices that can apply school knowledge and measure the impact
of pedagogies in building a civic and globally democratic culture.
Environmental justice in an element of Global Citizenship Education, in
which are purposed the formation of active citizens and protagonists of the
global transformation. This article proposes to contribute to a reflection on
the production of a democratic and global culture through the curriculum
analysis of the concept of environmental justice. The education of environ­
mental justice through internalization of civic values can be conceived
through the pedagogical curriculum.
The content of environmental justice is still linked to the national reality
itself, but it is a step towards social change that represents the desires of
minority and underprivileged groups. It is not intended to exhaust the
discussions on environmental justice in this article, but it does present
some curricular questions to think about how to shape the political culture
of a country that has on the horizon the construction of an eminently
democratic and egalitarian society.

Notes
1. In Brazil, the school discipline of Sociology is only part of the regular curriculum in
high school level and became mandatory as a school subject through Law No. 11. 684
of June 2nd, 2008. Before that period, the subject Sociology appeared in school
 INTERNATIONAL STUDIES IN SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION 15

curriculum since 1925 on an intermittent basis. To learn more about the intermit­
tency of the Sociology subject in Brazilian elementary schools, see Oliveira (2011).
2. Part extracted specifically in relations to the discipline of Sociology in the area of
Human Sciences and its Technologies.
3. The author gives the example of the Landless Workers Movement, the Plural School
in the city of Belo Horizonte and the Elector of the Future program (McCowan, 2009).

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

References
Althusser, L. (1970). Ideologies et appareils idéologiques d`Etat. Paris: La Pensée.
Baudelot, C. & Establet, R. (1971). L`école capitalist en France. Paris: Maspero.
Bourdieu, P. & Passeron, J. C. (1970). La reproduction. Paris: Minuit.
Bowles, S. & Gintis, H. (1976). Schooling in capitalist America. New York: Basic Books.
Bosio, E., & Torres, C. A. (2019). Global citizenship education: An educational theory of the
common good? Policy Futures in Education, 17(6), 745–760. https://doi.org/10.1177/
1478210319825517
Bourdieu, P. (2014). A escola conservadora: As desigualdades frente à escola e à cultura. In
M. Nogueira (Ed.), Escritos de Educação (pp. 43–72). Vozes.
Bourdieu, P. & Passeron, J. C. (1970). La reproduction. Paris: Minuit.
Bowles, S. & Gintis, H. (1976). Schooling in capitalist America. New York: Basic Books.
Brunet, L. (1992). Clima de trabalho e eficiência da escola. In A. Nóvoa (Ed.), As
organizações escolares em análise (pp. 121–140). Dom Quixote.
Castells, M. (1996). Sociedade de Rede. Paz e Terra.
Cigales, M. O., & Oliveira, A. (2020). Aspectos metodológicos na análise dos manuais
escolares: Uma perspectiva relacional. Revista Brasileira de História da Educação, 20
(1), e099. https://doi.org/10.4025/rbhe.v19.2019.e099
Cohen, J. (2006). Social, emotional, ethical and academic education: Creating a climate of
learning, participation in democracy and well-being. Harvard Educational Review, 76(2),
201–237. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.76.2.j44854x1524644vn
Collins, R. (2009). Quatro tradições sociológicas. Vozes.
Costa, M. (2005). Currículo e política cultural. In M. Costa (Ed.), O currículo nos limiaresdo
contemporâneo (pp. 37 - 68). DP&A.
Desterro, F. (2016). Sobre os livos didáticos de Sociologia para o ensino médio (Master`s
thesis, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil). Retrieved from http://
www.labes.fe.ufrj.br/?cat_id=7&sec_id=20
Educação, M. D. (2002). Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais Ensino Médio. Ministério da
Educação.
Freire, P. (1967). Educação como política de liberdade. Paz e Terra.
Giddens, A. (2004). Sociologia. Fundação Calouste Gulbenkia.
Goren, H., & Yemini, M. (2017a). Citizenship education redefined - a systematic review of
empirical studies on global citizenship education. International Journal of Educational
Research, 82, 170–183. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2017.02.004
16 J. D. C. MACEDO

Goren, H., & Yemini, M. (2017b). The global citizenship education gap: Teacher perceptions
of the relationship between global citizenship and student's socio-economic status.
Teaching and Teacher Education, 67, 9–22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2017.05.009
Haluza-DeLay, R. (2013). Education for environment justice. In R. Stevenson, M. Brody, &
J. Dillon (Eds.), International Handbook of Research on Environmental Education (pp.
592). Routledge.
Lopes, A., & Macedo. (2011). Currículo. In A. Lopes (Ed.), Teorias do Currículo (pp. 19–42).
Cortez.
Maçaira, J. (2017). O ensino de Sociologia e Ciências Sociais no Brasil e na França:
Recontextualização pedagógica nos livros didáticosDoctoral dissertation, Federal
University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil). Retrieved from http://www.labes.
fe.ufrj.br/?cat_id=7&sec_id=18
Macedo, J. (2019). A socializalização politica nos livros didáticos: Uma discussão curricular
em perspectiva comparada. CABECS - Revista Da Associação Brasileira De Ensino De
Ciências Sociais, 3(2), 26–47.
McCowan, T. (2009). Three Brazilian Experience. In T. McCowan (Ed.), Rethinking
Citizenship Education: A curriculum for participatory democracy (pp. 105–120)
Continnum International Publishing Group.
Meucci, S., & Bezerra, R. G. (2014). Sociologia e educação básica: Hipóteses sobre
a dinâminca de produção de currículo. Revista de Ciências Sociais, 45(1), 87–101.
Misiaszek, G. (2016). Ecopedagogy as an element of citizenship education: The dialectic of
global/local spheres of citizenship and critical environmental pedagogies. International
Review of Education, 62(5), 587–602. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-016-9587-0
Misiaszek, G. W. (2020). Ecopedagogy: Teaching critical literacies of ‘development’, ‘sus­
tainability’, and ‘sustainable development’. Teaching in Higher Education, 25(5), 615–
632. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2019
Mohai, P., Pellow, D., & Roberts, J. T. (2009). Environmental Justice. Annual Review of
Environmental and Resources, 34(1), 405–430. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-environ
-082508-094348
Moro, A. (2018). A construção e as evidências de validade de instrumentos de medida para
avaliar o clima escolar. (Doctoral dissertaton, University of Campinas, Campinas, Brazil).
Retrieved from https://aut.ac.nz.libguides.com/APA6th/theses
Oliveira, A. (2011). Sentidos e dilemas do ensino de sociologia: Um olhar sociológico.
Educação E Sociedade, 1(9), 25–39. https://periodicos.ufrn.br/interlegere/article/view/
4402
Oxlay, L., & Morris, P. (2013). Citizenship: A typology dor distinguishing its multiple
conceptions. British Journal of Educational Studies, 61(3), 301–325. https://doi.org/10.
1080/00071005.2013.798393
Sammons, P. (2008). As características-chave das escolas eficazes. In N. Brooke (Ed.),
Pesquisa em eficácia escolar: Origem e trajetória (pp. 335–382). UFMG.
Sant, E., & Valencia. (2018). Global citizenship education in Latin America. In I. Davies,
L. Ho, D. Kiwan, C. Peck, A. Peterson, & E. Sant (Eds.), The Palgrave handbook of global
citizenship and education (pp. 67–82). Palgrave Macmillan.
Silva, A., Loureiro, B., Miranda, C., Ferreira, F., Ferreira, L., Serrano, M., . . . Esteves, T.
(2016). Sociologia em Movimento. Moderna.
Silva, T. (1992). O que produz e reproduz na educação. Artes Médicas.
Silva, T. (2011). Documentos de Identidade: Uma introdução às teorias do currículo.
Autêntica.
 INTERNATIONAL STUDIES IN SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION 17

Thapa, A., Cohen, J.-D., Guffey, S., & Higgins-D’Alessandro, A. (2013). A review of school
climate research. Review Od Educational Research, 83(3), 357–385. https://doi.org/10.
3102/0034654313483907
Torres, C. (2015). Global citizenship and global universities. The age of global interdepen­
dence and cosmopolitism. European Journal of Education, 50(3), 262–279. https://doi.
org/10.1111/ejed.12129
Torres, C. (2017). Education for global citizenship. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of
Education. 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.91
Torres, C. A. (2013a). The secret adventures of order: Globalization, education and trans­
formative social justice learning. Revista Brasileira de Estudos Pedagógicos, 94(238),
661–676. https://doi.org/10.1590/S2176-66812013000300002
Torres, C. A. (2013b). Political sociology of adult education, international issue in adult
education. Sense Publisher.
Wang, M., & Degol, J. (2016). School climate: A review of the construct, measurement, and
impact on students outcomes. Educational Psychology Review, 28(2), 315–352.
Yemini, M. (2017). A systematic conceptual of global citizenship education empirical studies
between 2005–2015. In M. Yemini (Ed.), Internationalization and Global citizenship (pp.
59–93). Palgrave Macmillan.
Young, M. (1971). Knowledge and control: new directions for the sociology of education.
Londres: Collier-Macmillan.