Art as a discipline for ecological sensitization, beyond mere rational awareness

Environmental Education didactic proposal  is based on four fundamental dimensions for the aim of a transformative, critical, sensitive, and
democratic education: (1) Personal Dimension; (2) Social Dimension; (3) Socio-environmental Dimension; and (4) Eco-spiritual Dimension.

The personal dimension focuses on the learner’s intimate experience including their bodies, emotions, perceptions, and inner reflections. Here, the emphasis is on cultivating self-awareness as an integral part of network, recognizing that the body and mind are the first environment we inhabit.

Society and the school community are seen as a human ecosystem in constant interaction and interdependence: school, family, community groups, virtuais networks, institutions, and political forces. It involves recognizing and valuing human diversity — especially socially marginalized and historically excluded groups.

The socio-environmental dimension addresses the relationship between human beings and the physical, chemical, and biological environments that surround them, this represents the traditional and one-dimensional perspective of Environmental Education—focused on the preservation and sustainability of natural elements. Eco-spirituality recognizes the existence of a symbolic or spiritual dimension in the human relationship with the planet by embracing practices, beliefs, and rites connected to Indigenous people, traditional communities, Afro-descendant spiritualities, and Indigenous worldviews that affirm the sacredness of the Earth and the interdependence of all beings. This contribution recognizing that human beings exist within networks of interdependent relationships — personal, social, environmental, and eco-spiritual.