THE ECOSYSTEM CONCEPT IN HIGH SCHOOL BIOLOGY TEXTBOOKS: APPROACH AND POSSIBLE IMPLICATIONS

ABSTRACT: Researches suggest that the textbook has a major role at scholar environments, especially after the creation of the Textbook National Program (TNP). The objectives of this study were to identify and analyze how the ecosystem concept is approached in the collections of Biology textbooks selected from the TNP/2015. Investigating how the ecosystem concept is presented in textbooks is important for the teaching-learning process in Ecology, because this concept foments great part of the environmental politics discussions and the researches in Biology. Besides, the textbook can be used as a guide to structure classes and it is subject to conflicts of interest. In this study, three didactic collections were analyzed using Bardin’s (2011) Content Analysis, with interpretation of how the contents present in the collections of textbooks approach and direct the signification of the ecosystem concept. The results demonstrate a pattern on the approach through all collections that simplifies, do not historicize and neither criticize the ecosystem concept.