ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION AND ITS ROLE IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF RESPONSIBLE CITIZENSHIP

Abstract

Environmental education is configured as a transformative pedagogical process aimed at fostering critical awareness of contemporary socio-environmental and psychological challenges. This approach promotes the development of ethical values, civic competencies, and responsible attitudes oriented toward sustainability, understood as an integral practice that interweaves environmental care with social justice and territorial equity. This essay-based article presents a reflective analysis grounded in a critical review of national and international research that addresses environmental education from diverse pedagogical perspectives, including critical pedagogy, situated learning, and ecosocial education. The central objective was to examine the relevance of environmental education as a formative tool for cultivating eco-citizens committed to the planet’s future. Methodologically, the study was conducted through interpretative analysis of academic literature that reveals advances, epistemological tensions, and best practices in the implementation of environmental strategies within school contexts. The article highlights experiences that connect the curriculum with community processes, the use of local knowledge, and active student participation. The findings affirm that environmental education should be conceived as a transversal axis of the school curriculum and as a transformative praxis that bridges theory and action. This perspective fosters the formation of critical, sensitive, and ethically engaged individuals dedicated to the defense of life, biodiversity, and the construction of sustainable futures from a territorial and contextualized standpoint.