THE ACTIVITY OF THE FEDERAL INSTITUTE OF BRASÍLIA ESTRUTURAL CAMPUS AND THE RELATIONSHIP WITH THE LOCAL COMMUNITY FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF SUSTAINABILITY: A CASE STUDY
Federal Institute of Brasília Estrutural Campus. Sustainability. Estrutural City. Sustainability initiatives.
The present study aimed to investigate the sustainability vision and practices promoted by the Federal Institute of Brasília (FIB) Estrutural Campus with the local community to promote sustainability. The Campus is located near Estrutural City, in the Federal District, which is a community marked by high social vulnerability and several socio-environmental challenges, including the lack of quality public education. Until recently, the region also housed the largest dump in the country and in Latin America, known as Lixão da Estrutural (or Lixão do Jóquei). To achieve the objective of the thesis, initially, an integrative literature review was carried out, which analyzed the scientific productions indexed in the SCOPUS and SciELO databases and produced between the years 2015 and 2019. Of the 687 articles found, 82 were selected for analysis . The results reveal that the sustainability practices of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are more concentrated in the dimensions of management and teaching. Despite the variety of strategies identified, in general, the initiatives are individual and compartmentalized. Then, in order to explore the case of the Structural Campus in depth, a single case study was conducted. The following instruments were used for data collection: document analysis, semi-structured interviews, questionnaires and a research diary, which were analyzed based on the assumptions of Discursive Textual Analysis (DTA). The results show that the main efforts of the Structural Campus in sustainability, according to the academic community, are directed towards teaching and, secondly, towards management. Regarding the approach to the theme in the curricula, it is present in the courses on the environment axis and occasionally in the others. In the management dimension, it was also observed that there is little engagement and participation of the academic community in the initiatives, as well as failures in the communication of sustainability actions. Although there is no sustainability policy of its own, in some institutional documents the topic is approached, sometimes approaching the concept of sustainable development, sometimes approaching the concept of sustainability. In the extension dimension, the data reveal that initiatives are mainly concentrated in projects that aim to promote the continued formation of the community. It was also observed that there are different levels of understanding of the extension between managers and teachers, and the servers involved with the territory have a more mature view of the extension and the socio-environmental issues that the community faces. Although the EstruturalCampus has several sustainability initiatives in the four dimensions, in general, they are carried out punctually and conducted by few individuals, which highlights one of the institution's challenges, which is to overcome isolated actions. In addition, regarding the relationship between the Campus and the territory and vice-versa, it was observed that it is necessary to strengthen this relationship and better disseminate the institution's activities within the territory.