Environmental education in the initial teacher training: a mapping of the Brazilian researches in theses and dissertations

This article proposes as study object the relationship between the Environmental Education (EE) and the initial teacher training. In that sense, this state of the art’s study aims to analyze the main characteristics of the EE researches in the initial teacher training, starting from the scenery of the scientific productions (theses and dissertations), among the years of 2006 and 2016, involving EE in the higher education. For so much, it opted for the qualitative approach with base in theoretical-reflexive presupposed, with data collection from the Brazilian Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations. This research type is important to evidence the themes, methodological approaches and procedures more employed, such as to indicate possible gaps that still need to be explored. Its theoretical basis includes legislations that orientate EE in Brazil (Lei n. 9.795, 1999; MEC, 2012) and authors that approach subjects about the initial training.The main results point that the methodological focus described in the researches is essentially qualitative and the instruments are varied, with prominence for the interviews and questionnaires. In spite of the significant increase in the width of courses researched in relation to EE, there are challenges, suitable for the productions, as the fragmentation of the contents, the formation that still doesn’t promote the criticality that is necessary to the society, and the continuity of the anthropocentric, traditional, naturalist, conservationist and preservationist vision inside of the universities.