A água e o desenvolvimento sustentável
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.57883/thij9(2)2017.30455Keywords:
Sustainable development, Education for sustainable development, Water, Community of practiceAbstract
This paper is based on research that took place between 2008 and 2012, research that was sustained in the belief that education is the most effective mean that society has to face the challenges of the future (UNESCO, 1997), and sought to contribute to teacher self-training in education for sustainable development.
A virtual community of practice was created, composed by teachers of Basic Education of Physics and Chemistry from Portugal and from African countries where Portuguese is the official language, and also from different contexts. Education for sustainable development was the community purview. The water was the motivating and unifying theme because it established an ethical challenge simultaneously social, economic, environmental and political.
Asymmetrically distributed, over the surface of the Earth and in the temporal period, water is a priority, almost of all times and cultures. Today, in an era when the global perception of phenomena is meaningful, the priority of a fair and equitable distribution of water is urgent, to ensure consumption in quality and quantity to all mankind and all living beings.
On the other hand, the fight against poverty is a major challenge to achieve equitable and sustainable development and water plays an important role here (Heerden, Blignaut & Horridge, 2008) being considered one of the limiting factors for development (Aronson, Blignaut, Milton & Clewell, 2006). When people do not have access to safe drinking water at home or when they do not have access to water as a productive resource, their choices and freedoms are limited by health, poverty and vulnerability problems. Water brings life to everything, including human development and freedom (United Nations Development Program [UNDP], 2006).
The research concludes that water is considered an essential asset to life and particular attention is now required to it due to environmental attacks to which is targeted, as well as economic, social and political attacks related to access and quality of drinking water.
Due to the experiences motivated by the different cultural and geographical contexts, the perceptions of the African teachers were different from those of the European ones. Due to these differences the sharing of ideas made in the virtual community of practice, between European and African teachers, created a new approach and more diversified learning strategies on the theme of water and sustainable development issues.
This experience opens the way for future projects such as the creation of partnerships between educators and professionals around the world on water and sustainable development.
References
Aronson, J., Blignaut, J., Milton, J., & Clewell, A. (2006). Natural capital: The limiting factor. Ecological Engineering, 28, 1-5.
Blanc, D., & Perez, R. (2008). The relationship between rainfall and human density and its implications for future water stress in Sub-Saharan Africa. Ecological Economics, 66 (2-3), 319-336.
Bokova, I. (2015). Foreword. In United Nations World Water Assessment Programme, WWAP. The United Nations World Water Development Report 2015: Water for a Sustainable World (p. v). Paris: UNESCO.
Bouguerra, M. (2005). As batalhas da água: Por um bem comum da humanidade. Bissau: Ku Si Mon Editora.
Caporali, R. (1998). Do desenvolvimento económico ao desenvolvimento sustentável. In R. Villas Boas, e J, Kahn. (Eds), Technological assessment and zero emissions in a global world (pp. 143-145). Rio de Janeiro: IATAFI/IMAACUNIDO/ CETEM. Accessed http://200.20.105.7/imaac/Publications/Books/Zero%20Emissions%20in%
Global%20World.pdf
Centre for Environment and Development for the Arab Region and Europe - Global water partnership Mediterranean - CEDARE-GWP (2002). Water for the 21st Century: Vision to action. Framework for action for North Africa. Accessed http://www.gwpmed.org/files/FFA%20North%20Africa.pdf
Dervis, K. (2006). Foreword. In United Nations Development Programme, UNDP. Human Development Report 2006. Beyond scarcity: Power, poverty and the global water crisis (pp. v-vi). New York: UNDP.
Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety e Federal Ministry for Economic Co-operation and Development – FM (2001). Conference report: Water – a key to sustainable development. International conference on freshwater. Accessed www.un.org/esa/sustdev/sdissues/water/Bonn
ConferenceReport.pdf
Flint, R. (2004). The sustainable development of water resources. Water Resources Update, 127, 41-51. Accessed http://www.ucowr.org/updates/127/Flint.pdf
Heerden, J., Blignaut, J., & Horridge, M. (2008). Integrated water and economic modelling of the impacts of water market instruments on the South African economy. Ecological Economics, 66(1), 105-116.
International Hydrological Programme - UNESCO-IHP (2014). Water in the Post-2015 Development Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals . Discussion paper. Paris: UNESCO-IHP.
Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Meadows, D., Meadows, D., Randers, J., & Behrens, W. (1972). Os limites do crescimento. Lisboa: Publicações Dom Quixote.
Miletto, M. & Connor, R. (2015). Preface. In United Nations World Water Assessment Programme, WWAP. The United Nations World Water Development Report 2015: Water for a Sustainable World (pp. vii-viii). Paris: UNESCO.
Pinto, B. R. (2007). A importância da água em África. Água e cultura, 0, 30-31.
Rodríguez Illera, J. (2007). Como as comunidades virtuais de prática e de aprendizagem podem transformar a nossa conceção de educação. Sísifo/Revista de Ciências de Educação, 3, 117-124.
Santos, F. (2007). Que futuro? Ciência, tecnologia, desenvolvimento e ambiente. Lisboa: Gradiva.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization - UNESCO (1997). Educating for a sustainable future: A transdisciplinary vision for concerted action. Accessed http://www.unesco.org/education/tlsf/mods/theme_a/popups/mod
t05s01.html#pre
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization – UNESCO (2007). The Ahmedabad declaration: A call to action. Education for life: Life through education. Accessed http://www.tbilisiplus30.org/Ahmedabad%20
Declaration.pdf
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization – UNESCO (2008). UNESCO publishes first world map of underground transboundary aquifers. Accessed http://rabat.unesco.org/article.php3?id_article=1492
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization – UNESCO (2009a). Bonn Declaration. UNESCO World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development. Bona: UNESCO & Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Accessed http://www.esd-world-conference-2009.org/fileadmin/download/
ESD2009_BonnDeclaration080409.pdf
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization – UNESCO (2009b). Proceedings. UNESCO World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development. Bona: UNESCO & Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Accessed http://www.esd-world-conference- 2009.org/fileadmin/download/ESD2009
ProceedingsEnglishFINAL.pdf
United Nations – UN (2011). The Millennium Development Goals Report 2011. New York: United Nations. Accessed http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/11_MDG%
Report_EN.pdf
United Nations - UN (2012). Rio+20 Outcome Document “The Future We Want”. United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development. Accessed http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/66/288&Lang=E.
United Nations - UN (2015). Transforming our world: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Accessed https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/
documents/21252030%20Agenda%20for%20Sustainable%20Development%20web.pdf
United Nations - Water/Africa – UN-W/A (2006). African Water Development Report 2006. Addis Ababa: Economic Commission for Africa. Accessed http://www.uneca.org/awich/AWDR%20full.pdf
United Nations Development Programme – UNDP (2006). Human Development Report 2006. Beyond scarcity: Power, poverty and the global water crisis. New York: UNDP. Accessed http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/HDR06- complete.pdf
Villeneuve, C. (1998). Qui a peur de l'an 2000? Guide d'éducation relative à l'environnement pour le développement durable. Quebec: UNESCOMultiMondes.
Wenger, E. (1991). Communities of practice: Where learning happens. Benchmark Magazine. Accessed http://www.ewenger.com/pub/pubpapers.htm
Wenger, E. (1996). Communities of practice: The social fabric of the learning organization. HealthCare Forum Journal, 39(4), 20-26. Accessed http://www.ewenger.com/pub/pubhealthcareforum.htm
Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning and identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wenger, E., McDermott, R., & Snyder, W. (2002). Cultivating communities of practice: A guide to managing knowledge. Boston: Harvard Business Scholl Press.
World Commission on Environment and Development - WCED (1987). Our common future. New York: Oxford University Press.
World Tourism Organization – UNWTO (2013). Message by UNWTO Secretary-General Taleb Rifai. Accessed http://wtd.unwto.org/en/content/unwtosg.
World Water Assessment Programme – WWAP (2006). The United Nations World Water Development Report 2: Water, a shared responsibility. Barcelona: UNESCO-Berghahn Books. Accessed http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001454/
E.pdf
World Water Assessment Programme - WWAP (2015). The United Nations World Water Development Report 2015: Water for a Sustainable World. Paris: UNESCO.
World Water Council - WWC (2006). Final report of the 4th World Water Forum: Local actions for a global challenge. México: National Water Commission of Mexico. Accessed http://www.worldwatercouncil.org/index.php?id=32.
World Wide Fund for Nature - WWF (2008). Living Planet Report 2008. Accessed http://awsassets.panda.org/downloads/living_planet_report_2008.pdf.
World Wide Fund for Nature – WWF (2010). Living Planet Report 2010:Biodiversity, biocapacity and development. Accessed http://awsassets.panda.org/downloads/wwf_
lpr2010_lr_en.pdf
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons - Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
![Creative Commons License](http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/4.0/88x31.png)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This work is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.