GRAPHIC HUMOR AND ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION: HUMOR AND CREATIVITY IN PEDAGOGICAL PRACTICES WITH CHILDREN

Abstract

This paper is derived from a Master’s thesis entitled “ Humor Gráfico: linguagem e crítica para uma Educação Ambiental sem fronteiras” (Graphic Humor: language and criticism for an Environmental Education without frontiers). The object of research was the 1ª Mostra Internacional de Humor sobre Educação Ambiental (First International Exhibition of Humor on Environmental Education) carried out during the V Colóquio de Pesquisadores em Educação Ambiental da Região Sul do Brasil (V Colloquim of Researchers in Environmental Education in the South Region of Brazil - V CPEASUL) and the IV Encontro e Diálogos com a Educação Ambiental (IV Meeting and Dialogs with Environmental Education - IV EDEA). Both events were organized by the Post-graduate Program in Environmental Education of the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande, located in Rio Grande, RS, Brazil, in 2012. This paper deals with the interface between graphic humor and Environmental Education, through the use of cartoons shown in the event, and also through the work of cartoonists Edgar Vasques and Renato Canini, as examples of how satirical caricatures, cartoons, comic strips and comic books can trigger reflection and the aesthetic production of drawings in order to potentialize the child’s relationship with the environment. In this process, the child’s creative capacity and other ways of thinking, understanding and interacting with the realities of the world will be activated.