Educación para el Desarrollo Sostenible a Través de las Huertas Escolares en Escuelas de Primaria Rural Multigrado en la Región del Guavio - Cundinamarca

Abstract

This research aimed to establish curricular guidelines to strengthen Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) through school gardens in multigrade rural primary schools in the Guavio region, Cundinamarca, Colombia; It was carried out using the socio-critical paradigm, employing a qualitative approach and the action research method. This methodology facilitated the identification of curricular orientations related to Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in the participating institutions. This was achieved through the use of instruments such as documentary analysis of the PEI, PRAE and Study Plans. The documentary review, combined with semi-structured interviews carried out with teachers of rural multigrade schools that incorporate school gardens, allowed us to recognize the importance of this strategy in rural multigrade education. It also revealed the similarities and differences between official documents of educational institutions and teachers' practical experience with school gardens. For its part, when examining national and departmental public policies in a documentary review, it became evident that there are important disparities between Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and multigrade rural education in these documents. When analyzing the participation of these groups in the research, it was feasible to triangulate the data collected. This analysis revealed that there was a general lack of attention paid to Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), with greater emphasis placed on the environmental aspect in educational institution documents and government policies. On the contrary, the semi-structured interviews revealed various features belonging to the dimensions of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). These characteristics encompassed not only environmental factors but also social and economic factors, which teachers took into account when implementing school gardens in the context of rural multigrade education. Through this research, the pertinent findings are then offered to integrate ESD in multigrade rural schools through school gardens as a pertinent strategy given the context of multigrade rural education for the region and the country.