Incidence of environmental education on environmental thinking in a context of mining activity

Incidencia de la educación ambiental en el pensamiento ambiental en contexto de explotación minera del carbón

The article presents the result of research on environmental education as a determining strategy for reducing environmental impacts derived from mining practices. The objective was to analyze the effect of environmental education on the environmental thinking of high school students in the context of mining exploitation, which takes place in an educational institution. The qualitative methodology was developed taking into account three phases: the first, descriptive, dealt with the purposes of environmental education; the second, explanatory, on teaching practices for the application of environmental education; and the third one is comprehensive and sought to reveal the rationality that underlies the students' thinking and practices. The results show the existence of a dominated environmental thought based on instrumental rationality and weak sustainability. It is made evident by the naturalization of concepts and habits that ignore the reality of the environment in the mining context. It also reveals critical thinking in students that emerges as a reflection in favor of socio-environmental change in the territory based on participation and training in values.