Senior Citizens, Birth rates, and Environmental Education, from an Intergenerational and Arendtian Perspective

Abstract

The paper presents a study to evaluate the including of elderly people as actors in environmental education (EE). The research is based on Hannah Arendt’s concept of birth and Paulo Freire’s dialogical education. In the initial information gathering stage, a mapping was carried out of the environmental changes through the oral history of eleven senior citizens. The second stage was based on the principles of action research and forms part of the study of memories gathered in interviews, followed by two intergenerational encounters, with seventy-one students in fi fth and sixth grades of elementary school, and four senior citizens. Analysis of the data demonstrates that the elderly take responsibility for the new generations, and the students understand the meaning of the environmental transformations that have occurred over the past fi fty years in the city, and that intergenerational dialogue is part of the EE.