Studies on Scientific Literacy, with a look at the environment theme, in the early years of Brazil: a systematic review

Abstract

The present study consists of a systematic review and aimed to investigate, in the national academic production, how scientific literacy is portrayed in the early years, as well as to verify the forms of articulation between CA and the environment theme. The CAPES/MEC Journal Portal database was used as a source of information. The search was performed following the guidelines set out in the Cochrane Collaboration Manual (2011). As a result, we found 127 articles and after applying the exclusion and inclusion criteria, 20 works were selected, related to the descriptors “Scientific Literacy”, “Initial Years” and “Science Teaching”. Bardin's (2016) content analysis was used, from which categories emerged focusing on teachers, students and guiding documents. It was found that research focused on CA still lacks studies focused on the early years. In addition, most studies had students as the focus of the study, with a predominance of practical interventions. When the focus of the work was on the teachers, most of the articles addressed the conceptions that they have of CA. On the other hand, studies on how AC/Environment is addressed in the guiding documents pointed out the gaps and inconsistencies of public policies. Due to the number of mentions (70% of the articles evaluated), it was possible to link the environment theme to CA, since environmental topics act as facilitators of the students' scientific literacy process.