O perfil universitário influencia no índice de alfabetização oceânica?

Abstract

Oceans influence ecosystem services and global climate patterns. In recent decades, anthropogenic pressures associated with the unsustainable use of marine resources have threatened the health of the oceans. Considering the importance of the oceans for the economy and maintenance of the diversity of life on Earth, the United Nations (UN) created the decade of the oceans, 2020-2030, aiming to unite actions that can minimize anthropogenic impacts on marine ecosystems. One of the goals proposed in oceanic education is to understand society's level of knowledge about the oceans, establishing oceanic literacy rates that can indicate gaps and suggest public educational policies that favor a better relationship between man and the oceans. In this work, we analyzed the Oceanic Literacy Index (OLI) among students from different areas and levels of education to seek to understand the knowledge acquired with mandatory curricular syllabuses in Brazil. To this end, an oceanic literacy questionnaire, adapted from the UN, was applied to students entering and completing courses in the biological, human and exact areas of two Federal Universities in the central-north region of the state of Rio de Janeiro. In general, graduating students had a higher OLI compared to freshmen. Among freshmen, the OLI of exact science students was significantly higher than those in the biological and human areas, which did not differ from each other. Among graduates, science and biology students had significantly similar and higher rates than humanities students. Our results allowed us to evaluate the gaps between the proposed curricular syllabi and their implementation throughout the training of young Brazilians, highlighting the importance of interdisciplinarity as a means of bringing environmental issues closer to the experience and training of professionals from different areas.