Ecoliteracia

Um Caso de Estudo no Ensino de Design de Comunicação

Abstract

The concept of ecoliteracy was initially pointed out by Fritjof Capra (1997; 2004) regarding the creation of the Center for Ecoliteracy, based on the propositions of David W. Orr (1992; 2002). Before that, the existing concepts were those of environmental literacy and ecological literacy. All of these approaches have a strong educational focus and ecoliteracy can be distinguished from the previous ones not only by the broader educational objectives, but also by the proposed pedagogical standpoints and strategies (McBride et al., 2013). The article starts with a characterization of this approach, then relating it to a specific application in a Communication Design degree at the Polytechnic of Portalegre. The project brought together three curricular units of the program - Sustainable Design, Communication Design IV and Graphic Production I - with the objective of conceiving sustainable solutions for packaging and labels design. In this context, the approach to ecoliteracy aims to reinforce the relevance of the study of design for sustainability and, at the same time, to facilitate a clear link between theory and practical application in the development of a communication design project. During the project, part of the learning objectives and pedagogical strategies followed a perspective close to what is recommended in ecoliteracy. The article, on the one hand, describes the context of the project, the principles and methodologies adopted, and on the other hand, refers to the development of the research work and presents its first results.