Abstract:

Since the 1970’s, education is internationally recognized as the main path to tackle the growing environmental crisis. In Portugal, forty years after engaging in Democracy and, at the same time, in Environmental Education, it still a matter of discussion and calls for an analysis on the path that have been followed. Despite a reality since the very beginning of Democracy in Portugal, after the 25th April 1974, it was only in 1986, with the accession to the European Economic Community and the publication of the Portuguese Education System Law, that Environmental Education started to be included in the goals of Public School. However, since then, the course of Environmental Education has been driven mostly by external forces, from outside the education system, and has been more dependent on the involvement of teachers, individually, than on the school institution as an all. In a time in which Portuguese Public School, as many other State public services, is deeply affected by an ongoing process of “slimming” due to the financial and economic crisis, we need to understand the Environmental Education past decade’s route and analyze the most probable consequences due to the current situation.

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