Images, Scores, Conceptions, and Perceptions: Basic Sanitation in the view of Middle School Students

Resumo

This article aims to investigate the conceptions and perceptions of students from the 8th and 9th year of the middle school regarding the four scopes of basic sanitation articulated with the themes addressed in the curriculum each year. Forty-nine students from a state school in Estância Velha/RS participated with activities involving questionnaires application, photovoice and image evaluations from the perspective of Mixed Method Research. Qualitative data were from observations present in the logbook and answers to the open-ended questions of the questionnaires. The quantitative are the scores attributed by the students analysed with the tools of descriptive statistics and with the non-parametric test of Kruskal-Wallis. The results showed that the use of images and the attribution of scores articulated with qualitative data were fruitful to understand the perceptions and conceptions of the students. It was evidenced that sewage and water supply were the most frequently remembered elements regarding basic sanitation, followed by solid waste. However, drainage was not remembered as a component of basic sanitation, requiring the construction of integrative educational practices from the four scopes seeking to expand students' perceptions and conceptions about basic sanitation and its relevance in contemporaneity.