Inconsistencies between Knowledge and Environmental Practice: A Reflection from Environmental Epistemology DOI:

Abstract

Caring for the environment is of the utmost importance for humanity, and through environmental education, learning processes have been implemented in the search for sustainable development. This essay is framed under the inductive method in the humanist paradigm, with a qualitative approach of an interpretative type and with a topical narrative design. It critically reflects on the inconsistency between the environmental knowledge acquired through environmental education processes and the daily praxis of the holders of knowledge. Environmental discourses have not transcended beyond simple theories since, in daily life, bad social and individual environmental habits are evident, generating doubts about the practical application of the knowledge acquired. Based on the postulates of environmental epistemology proposed by Leff and analyzing various investigations on environmental education, sustainable development, and its real practices in different contexts, conclusions are reached about the need to understand nature beyond a simple physical place. There are epistemic strategies that take environmental education and sustainable development as basic tools to achieve praxis and thus demonstrate the knowledge apprehended by students, which must be reflected in their behaviors or habits in their daily life.