1. Introduction
The Textbook has been recognized as one of the learning tools accessible in the classroom. It is a source of information and knowledge that enables intermediation in the teaching-learning process between the teacher and student subjects. For the student, the book needs to have quality content, such as activities that allow supporting their learning. For the teacher, presenting up-to-date scientific knowledge gives him possibilities to reliably transmit the concepts about a given study proposed in school curricula (Bittencourt, 2004).
In recent years, researchers in the field of education have been frequent, and also in the teaching of Geography, greater interest in research dealing with school education and teacher teaching practices. There are also numerous studies that address the different knowledge mobilized by professionals and the resources they use to practice the teaching profession, including textbooks.
With regard to Geography, in addition to these themes, there has been an increasing interest in the teaching materials used in the development of the teaching and learning process. Among the studies, some focus on the evaluation of textbooks (Callai, 2016; Cavalcanti, 2012), the role of the Textbook in the classroom (Albuquerque, 2014; Lajolo, 2007), the teacher’s role in its use (Sposito, 2006; Castrogiovanni & Goulart, 2003), in addition to research, on specific topics present in textbooks that reach schools.
In this context, this essay tries to answer the following question: How has the theme relief been addressed in the Geography Textbooks of Elementary School-Final Years? Can it be said that there are relationships between the theme of curriculum relief and what appears in the textbook? What phenomena of the theme relief are between the local and global scales in the teaching of Geography?
As the main source of written communication, for students, is still the Textbook, and in this sense, the research has as general objective to identify the presence and quality of the theme relief in the geography textbooks of elementary school—final years—adopted in Teresina-PI, in the triennium 2017-2019 and those that will be used in the four-year period 2020-2024.
In turn, the specific objectives of this work aim to: analyze the dimension of the theme relief in the contents of Geography, in two collections of textbooks of Geography of Elementary School final years, recommended by the Ministry of Education/National Plan of the Textbook 2017 and 2020 that were and will be used in the Municipal Education Network of Teresina-PI; to verify whether the theme relief in textbooks of elementary school—final years—dialogues with curricular proposals: national and municipal, in order to present to the reader possible similarities and dissonances between the curricular text produced by the Ministry of Education that is produced and disseminated through the textbook; to study the levels of spatial scales, of the geographic phenomenon of the theme relief that are presented in the contents of Geography in the selected books.
2. Teaching Geography and Important Content in Geography Textbook
Textbooks in Brazil are inserted in a State policy in the context of the so-called National Textbook Program (PNLD), which justifies the importance of research on this subject given its breadth on a national scale, with emphasis on its influence on the daily routine of school practice.
The Ministry of Education—MEC with the FNDE—National Fund for The Development of Education, are responsible for periodically performing the evaluation of textbooks, which are later distributed in public schools throughout the Brazilian territory.
According to Steinke and Fialho (2017: p. 73), the PNLD is characterized as a federal government policy that centralizes “the planning, evaluation, purchase and free distribution of didactic works to students of the public elementary school system in Brazil”. Thus, the Government, through the Ministry of Education, is one of the largest buyers of books in the country, and the materials should also be analyzed, according to their nature, that is, as a commodity to be marketed. Therefore, there are disputes for certain works to be chosen to the detriment of others, given the volume of sales by publishers.
Thus, the PNLD points out that the “dilemma between the individual and the institutional disappears to give way to the dilemma between market freedom and the right of the State to establish parameters for the action of companies” (Sposito, 2006: p. 22). It is believed that the PNLD also presents two contradictions due to its face of the publishing market, which highlights the oligopoly of the large groups that participate in the selection process, which become conglomerates by the merger of family companies, especially since the 1990s (Cassiano, 2013: p. 246).
The way the Brazilian State operates in relation to the textbook policy has similarities with the French and German models. Where the production of the book, from the formulation of the contents to the technical preparation is carried out by private publishers. The State buys the books after their passage through the evaluation committee (Freitag et al., 1993).
The textbook assumed historical importance in Brazilian teaching, especially since the 1970s (Sposito, 2006). Currently, “[…] textbooks continue to be the great reference in the classroom for students and teachers of public and private schools in the country, although they are used in various ways […]” (Pontuschka et al., 2007: p. 340).
In this context, the study of relief is included in the textbooks. It is important to understand that the knowledge of the shapes of the earth’s surface and its dynamics embodies a specific branch of geosciences, called geomorphology. Geomorphology aims to analyze the forms of relief, seeking to understand the current and last processes of its genesis and transformation and how these influence the organization of space.
Geomorphology has great contributions to be made to investigate how relief conditions sustainability. How, for example, relief can contribute to the best alternatives for land use and occupation. To construct this discourse and better understand the phenomena that happen on the surface of the crust, geomorphology is used by concepts and ideas that support its analyses and interpretations about the relief.
Therefore, the study of the relief permeates knowledge related to the general form of the Earth, the specific structures of the irregularity of the earth’s surface encompassing continental and oceanic relief and its modeling processes, which act directly and/or indirectly in the establishment of societies, representing the physical substrate where human structures and actions are based.
The issue of the relief being one of the organizing elements of the geographical space has the potential to be studied in basic education, since this knowledge can help people to understand the dynamics in their spaces of experience, as well as the broader spatial clippings.
In addition to understanding how important morphologies are structured and organized in each place, thinking about and identifying them beyond their forms can help students understand the space more fully, establishing relationships between various factors of society, such as economy, quality of life and urbanization, among others, and, consequently, forming a geographical thought.
The teaching of relief allows the acquisition of certain important cognitive abilities, among them: conceptual thinking, the displacement between different scales of time and space, the analysis of spaces considering the influence of the phenomena of nature and society, even observing the possibility of predominance of one or another type of origin of the event, the capacity for abstraction, the construction of a spatial intelligence and the ability to diagnose environmental problems. Carvalho (2004) states that,
It is understood that the school contents of Geomorphology provide one of the forms of understanding of the earth’s surface, enabling the student to infer the dynamics of the strands, with their variations in form, processes, evolution, area, altitude, inclination, orientation, among others, which would integrate and complement the learning of the spatialization of natural and human phenomena. It would also collaborate to educate the student for aesthetic (scenic), cultural value (…) (Carvalho, 2004: p. 1).
In the context of elementary school, when approached in geography classes, the relief should not be understood as a theme taught through memorized concepts and expressions or contents that have abstract and complex discussions, as is often demonstrated in books and other teaching materials.
3. The Textbooks Used in the Analysis: Selection Criteria and Characteristics
The textbooks analyzed in this research were recommended and evaluated by MEC through PNLD 2017 and PNLD 2020. The Ministry of Education—MEC with the FNDE—National Fund for The Development of Education, periodically conduct an evaluation of textbooks, which are later distributed in public schools nationwide. In a list of eleven collections evaluated and recommended, eight of the Final Years elementary school were highlighted in the PNLD 2017 that had greater acceptance by the teachers of the Municipal Network of Teresina-PI, but in this research will be adopted the most chosen that was the collection Geographic Expeditions—Modern Publishing House with 33% of the choices made by teachers of municipal schools. In total were the following books: Project Apoema Geography; Willingness to Know Geography; To Live Together Geography; Geography Man and Space; Mosaic Project; Geography in the day of today; Geography Space and Experience and, finally, Geographical Expeditions.
The Collection Geographic Expeditions has as authors Melhem Adas who holds a bachelor’s degree and a bachelor’s degree in Geography from the Pontifical University of São Paulo (PUC-SP) and published textbooks and Sérgio Adas, acting as professor and author, holds a Post-Graduation in Geography and Post-Doctorate on Teaching philosophy, from USP, also seeks in photography to a way to expand his worldview. He finds it fascinating to see how Geography provides it with a broad, critical and citizen formation, stimulating greater reflection and social participation.
For the PNLD 2020 in a list of twelve collections evaluated and recommended, only one collection was highlighted that was araribá Mais-Geografia, representing 100% of the choices made by teachers of the municipal schools of Teresina-PI.
Where the 6th grade Student Book has 08 (eight) units, 18 (eighteen) chapters and 244 pages are in total. It approaches the characterization of the physic-natural elements, relating to the concepts of landscape and place. The structure of the Earth, time zones and environmental impacts represent some of the contents depicted, as well as the relationship between countryside and city, especially in the last chapters of the textbook. The 7th Grade Student Book has 08 (eight) units, 19 (nineteen) chapters and 244 pages in total. From the contents worked, the concepts of territory and region, associated with the Brazilian territorial formation, are verified. The 8th grade Student Book has 08 (eight) units, 18 (eighteen) chapters and 276 pages in total. The 9th Grade Student Book has 08 (eight) units, 17 (seventeen) chapters and 260 pages in total. The contents address brazil-world geopolitics.
The data regarding the choices of the books were obtained from the National Fund for the Development of Education FNDE /MEC through telephone contacts and via the Internet.
4. Clippings and Frameworks of Relief in Geography Textbooks
From the reading of the relief carried out in the textbooks some considerations should be made in order to understand with which meanings this theme appears in the teaching of geography of elementary school Final Years. Based on analysis, the theoretical basis presented and the formulation of the general and specific objectives is possible understandings of what was found in these documents.
As mentioned above, the textbooks used in this research are those of the collections: Geographic Expeditions LD1 and the Collection Araribá plus Geography LD2. In this first, the following amounts of clippings and frameworks were verified, as shown in (Table 1) below.
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Table 1. Classification of text clippings extracted from LD1 textbooks.
Source: LD1 6, 7, 8 and 9 ano, prepared by the author (2021).
4.1. Relief in LD1
For the analysis of textual clippings, the following framing categories were thought: 1) thematic relief linked only to natural aspects; 2) thematic relief reduced to the notion of environmental problems or impacts; 3) Thematic relief allows a critical and interpretative reading of the landscape; 4) Thematic relief linked to economic activity.
In LD1 referring to the 6th year, the reading and textual clippings begin in the chapter that discusses the graphic representation of the relief, where it presents in general the forms still in an incipient way. In it is made a division demonstrating first the continental relief: internal agents after continental relief: external peoples.
In the textbook, “[…] the earth’s surface, including the bottom of the oceans, is not smooth as an egg shell; on the contrary, it is quite diverse: there are overhangs such as mountains, hills, mountain ranges, etc., flat areas, among other forms” (LD1 6 year, clipping text 1, p. 62).
This first fragment cut out for analysis and previously cited, there is a potential mention of the theme relief, and due is related to physical aspects of the earth and treated separately. The potential mention clippings in this book follow practically this example, where it is presented in isolation without any explanation.
The sections that will be presented below are considered explicit and in these we have a framework of the theme relief. We start with the clippings of framing 1 that addresses the theme relief linked only to natural aspects.
“[…] the variety of shapes on earth is given the name relief. In the submerged areas it is called oceanic relief and, in the emerged areas, it is called continental relief and presents four main forms: mountains, plateaus, plains and depressions.” (LD1 6th year, text clipping 5, p. 106).
“The settlement of the various regions of the Earth was influenced by natural factors such as climate, water availability, soil quality for agriculture and relief.” (LD1 6th year, text clipping 11, p. 110).
“[…] thus, terrestrial relief is constantly modeled by various external agents. The main ones are weathering, current waters, oceans and seas, winds, glaciers and living beings.” (LD1 6th year, text clipping 22, p. 136).
“Thus, at the same time that there is wear or destruction of the relief, there is the construction of new forms (destruction—transport of sediments—deposition or construction of forms).” (LD1 6th year, text clipping 23, p. 136).
“Rivers are watercourses that run along the earth’s surface and model the landscape they pass through. They are born in higher areas of terrestrial relief, such as plateaus or mountains […].” (LD1 6th year, text clipping 24, p. 140).
“Ocean waters also perform a constant action or ‘work’ of destruction and construction of the relief.” (LD1 6th year, text clipping 25, p. 144).
“There are several forms of relief in Brazil. The main ones are the plateaus, the plains and the depressions.” (LD1 6th year, text clipping 29, p. 155).
In the above clippings it can be seen that the theme relief is described in general and in isolation, only explaining its natural aspect, there is no correlation with man being divergent from what guides the PCN’s that for this cycle, it is indicated that the teaching of Geography has as reference the approach of themes related to the local landscape and the space lived, man as a modeling and transforming relief agent through his actions.
It should be noted that the relief debate often appears in the textbook. However, it is recurrent, most of the time, in texts isolated from the contents and knowledge worked out in the chapters. At the same time, the same has been the window to work on the themes of physical geography, indicating that there is an appreciation in the constitution of this theme.
Following the analysis and already in frame 2, where the theme relief is reduced to the notion of environmental problems or impacts, we have the following clippings.
“They are areas of the earth’s surface less elevated than the mountains and more or less flat, bounded by escarpments. In this type of relief, the process of wear of rocks and soils, caused by rains, displacement of glaciers and wind action, among other factors […]”. (LD1 6th year, text clipping 2, p. 107).
“Agents of external origin act on the outside of the planet. This is the case of running water from rivers and floods and the action of oceans and seas, winds, glaciers and living beings, including humans. It can be said that, therefore, that the relief of any region of the earth is the result of the actions of agents […]”. (LD1 6th year, text clipping 16, p. 112).
The clippings that address the theme relief reduced to environmental problems or impacts are greatly reduced, when observing the amount of content present in the textbook that can deal with it. Also in recent years, even by the blatant growth of the subject in the media, the environmental perspective has grown a lot in Geography. This way of seeing and understanding space follows the assumptions of Geographic Science itself, which aims at the integration of areas of knowledge (nature and society).
The real decrease in natural resources, the destruction of ecosystems and biomes, and the undeniable global warming have made it impossible to ignore that environmental changes are central themes in geography. We have already advanced in the qualification of this discussion among ourselves; we have overcome the limitation of reading “environmental education” focused on “garbage separation” or “protection of animals at risk of extinction”, although still seen as something somewhat superficial or exotic.
The fact is that, due to environmental risks and natural disasters, the school calls for environmental education. As a social science, it is essential to make a plural debate about environmental education, so that it is understood by students as part of the transformations of the geographical space and not only as more discipline or area of knowledge.
Of course, geography does not intend to do the environmental debate alone, nor does it propose to do so in isolation at school. However, if geography—and our textbooks—do not have anything significant to say about this relevant theme, it is an epistemological need of our field of knowledge. It is certain that geography cannot prevent a tragedy such as the dam burst of a mining tailings dam in Minas Gerais, but publishing this discussion is the ethical task of our discipline. And this book treats him in a reductionist way.
The insertions that refer to environmental issues, most often, arise as a clipping at the end of the chapter or a complementary activity of the unit, almost never brought a triggering theme for the analysis of environmental issues, a mobilizing theme that problematizes the relationship nature society.
Frame 3 is the most interesting and we hope to find most of the clippings presented by the textbook, since it demonstrates that the theme relief allows a critical and interpretative reading of the landscape.
“[…] in a volcanic eruption, materials from the planet’s interior are expelled to the surface, transforming relief and aspects of the landscape.” (LD1 6th year, text clipping 3, p. 104).
“They are more or less flat or gently wavy relief forms, usually of great length. In the plains, contrary to what happens in the plateaus, the process of sediment deposition overcomes that of wear.” (LD1 6th year, text clipping 9, p. 109).
“Depressions are relief areas with lower altitudes than those of the surrounding lands or areas below sea level. They are classified as: relative depression: when they are situated at an altitude below the land near it, but above the average sea level; absolute depression: when they are below sea level—it is the case of the Dead Sea […]”. (LD1 6th year, text clipping 10, p. 110).
“The relief forms that are being seed today are not the same as those of the geological past. Throughout the history of the earth, the surface has been changing due to the permanent action of natural forces, called agents of the earthly model.” (LD1 6th year, text clipping 14, p. 112).
“The agents of internal origin occur inside the earth, but influence the surface, modifying the relief. They are tectonicism, volcanism and earthquakes […]”. (LD1 6th year, text clipping 15, p. 112).
“[…] magmatic intrusion, each of them is given a specific name and can give rise to different forms of relief […]”. (LD1 6th year, text clipping 21, p. 127).
“The relief of Brazil presents modest altitudes, compared to the areas of other ages lands of the world, in which many of them show modern folding. This is because there were old (Pre-Cambrian) folding here, which suffered intense erosive process or wear by the agents of the modeled during geological time.” (LD1 6th year, text clipping 28, p. 154).
“[…] Brazilian plateaus are surrounded or surrounded by depressions. This shows that, from a geomorphological point of view, these plateaus are residual forms of relief, that is, they represent more resistant land sections to the action of external agents of the modeled during geological time.” (LD1 6th year, text clipping 30, p. 155).
“Relief research has an important practical purpose. Relief is one of the factors of the natural picture that condition the human occupation of territories. Thus, mountainous areas, in general, impose difficulties of fixation and human locomotion.” (LD1 6th year, text clipping 34, p. 157).
What you can see is that this framework is predominant in this textbook, since the concept of landscape is privileged in the 6th grade book. In the other years are usually not mentioned. In this year, especially, they are associated with what tradition defined with the content of this stage of schooling, although in the following years landscapes from different contexts are addressed. The choice of fragmented view of the contents without what is proposed for each year is articulated may be responsible for this situation. Observation, description, analysis and criticism of the landscape have been highlighted.
In the last framework of the book of LD1 6 year, which is the subject of relief linked to economic activity, we have the clippings below.
“While the plateau, depression and plain regions generally facilitate human fixation (urban sites, agriculture, transport networks, industries, etc.), high mountain regions make it difficult—not only the relief of these regions is restrictive, but also the climate.” (LD1 6th year, text clipping 12, p. 111).
“Relief and agriculture the mountainous regions, or even some areas of plateau or depression, restrict the practice of agriculture, because the slope of its slopes allows the floods to acquire great speed and erosive power, dragging soil and plants, besides preventing the mechanization—the use of machines in planting, harvesting and transporting production.” (LD1 6th year, text clipping 13, p. 111).
“Although agriculture can currently benefit from the great technical and scientific development, it still depends on natural conditions such as climate, soil and relief.” (LD1 6th year, text clipping 37, p. 157).
“Relief can be a restrictive or facilitating factor for agriculture. In mountainous areas, for example, agricultural practice becomes more difficult, because the slope of the slopes gives greater erosive power to rainwater, which can drag soil and plants.” (LD1 6th year, text clipping 38, p. 222).
When analyzing this framework, it was verified that there is a repetition in its clippings, predominantly agriculture as a more present economic activity and presented the relief as a restrictive factor for this practice, where there has to be a greater investment, the concept of relief, equally highlighted as significant, appears as a physical framework where plant complexes are described, climate types, hydrography, and other aspects related to natural conditions.
In the books of the seventh year of the LD1 collection we obtained the following framework to the fence of the theme relief starting with the same linked only to the natural aspects as demonstrated in the following cutout.
“[…] the importance of climate and relief in the definition of the natural landscapes of the Brazilian territory, taking into account that plant formations are the ‘portrait’ of the combinations and interactions of natural elements.” (LD1 7th year text clipping 2, p. 32).
In this section it is perceived that there is no deepening reporting how these combinations occur and interactions only demonstrate that they exist there is a lack of posture of permanent reflection of daily life and life in society, is what the PCN’s indicate.
“It predominates in the Northern Region relief with altitudes of up to 200 meters. These low-lying lands accompany the valleys of the rivers of the Amazon Basin, forming extensive plains”. (LD1 7th year text clipping 4, p. 112).
“Both to the north and south of the Amazon River valley, the relief depressions dominate the landscape, […]”. (LD1 7th year text clipping 5 p. 112).
“The relief of the Mata’s zone is formed mainly by plains, where beaches and coastal boards are located”. (LD1 7th year text clipping 7, p. 145).
“The relief has several altitudes, with highs and depressions, especially the Sertaneja Depression and the San Francisco, through which flows the important São Francisco River, the great permanent or perennial river (which does not dry) that crosses the hare.” (LD1 7th year text clipping 9, p. 159).
“The striking feature of the relief is the set of rounded top saws that form a landscape of sea of hills. This is the case of the Serras do Mar, Mantiqueira and Espinhaço.” (LD1 7th year text clipping 13, p. 179).
“The relief units of the Southern Region: the plateaus of the eastern portion that are part of the East-Southeast Atlantic Plateaus and Mountains, […]”. (LD1 7th year text clipping 20, p. 211).
“As for the relief, the plateaus and plateaus predominate in the Midwest, which make up the units of the Plateaus and plateau of the Paraná Basin and the Plateaus and plateau dos Parecis.” (LD1 7th year text clipping 23, p. 247).
All the above cutouts are only descriptive since the 7th yearbook, deals with the geography of Brazil and presents the regionalization of the Brazilian territory, being thus structured, can limit the power of the choices of pedagogical and geographical approaches, because this structure reproduces the permanence of a curriculum supported by Regional Geography.
The concepts of region and regionalization are treated in the traditional perspective and almost always disarticulated from the whole. There is no concern about the integration of the units. The concept of nature, also highlighted as significant, appears as a physical framework where plant complexes, climatic types, hydrography, and other aspects related to natural conditions are described.
As for the theme reduced the notion of environmental problems and impacts, only one cutout was framed, this does not mean that the environmental theme is reduced in the textbook, the reason is that the framework is only for the clippings that have in explicit the relief.
“What is left of the Atlantic Forest in the Southeast is usually in the stretches of steep and difficult access of the Serra do Mar and Mantiqueira and also in areas transformed into Nature Conservation Units […]”. (LD1 7th year text clipping 14, p. 183).
This insertion that refer to environmental issues, emerges as a clipping at the end of the chapter or a complementary activity of the unit, almost never brought a triggering theme for the analysis of environmental issues, a mobilizing theme that problematizes the relationship nature society.
Related to the theme relief that allows a critical and interpretative reading of the landscape, the following clippings were observed. “The Borborema Plateau is the form of relief that characterizes the wild in its northern part. The wild occupies the eastern façade of this plateau, while the western part corresponds to the outback. The eastern façade of the Borborema Plateau is subject to the left over moisture from the winds blowing from the southeast, which did not precipitate in the Mata’s zone. Thus, wetlands similar to those of the Mata’s zone islanded by areas with average temperatures lower than those in this sub-region due to their higher altitudes.” (LD1 7th year text clipping 8, p. 247).
“The more flat relief of the depressions facilitated the south-north displacements of the drovers, which lasted three months.” (LD1 7th year text clipping 21, p. 218).
“[…] This geographical position and the modest altitudes of the relief, which facilitate atmospheric circulation, that is, do not constitute obstacles to the displacement of air masses, give it the tropical climate with humid summer and dry winter, in most of its territory.” (LD1 7th year text clipping 25, p. 250).
The above clippings are the ones that are most close to what is recommended by the NCP’s, and that concretely assists the student for a meaningful learning, bringing to the reality of it, it is evident that in reading these clippings of texts, students are able to establish relationships between different social and political phenomena, economic and environmental issues.
And these contextualized relationships are put in such a way as to lead to the understanding of space by understanding time. This fact occurs mainly because the texts express the changes in geographic space, both in Brazil and in other scales. Too bad the number of clippings with these aspects is so low, only three.
The eighth year textbook presents the following clippings that are appropriate in the first framework, which is the relief linked only to natural aspects.
“If the intention is to study it from a physical point of view, it is possible to do so from the relief forms, soil and climate types and natural vegetation, in addition to the combination of these elements, which in turn define the natural landscapes of the Earth.” (LD1 8th year text clipping 2, p. 30).
“The coastal relief is rugged, and the coastal plains are narrow and bordered by mountains.” (LD1 8th year text clipping 20, p. 162).
“Based on the relief, two natural regions can be distinguished in Bolivia: the Andean Region, or The West Region, and the Eastern Region, or the Lhanos.” (LD1 8th year text clipping 30, p. 220).
“The altitudes of their reliefs are modest, with predominance of the plains in the Northern part and the low plateaus to the south.” (LD1 8th year text clipping 31, p. 226).
“The Uruguayan relief, low altitude, is formed by plateaus with average altitudes of 300 meters and presents soft ripples denominated in the country of cuchilas.” (LD1 8th year text clipping 33, p. 240).
In the book of the 8th year presents in its entirety a dialogue with the world, but still obeying the regional structure, focusing on the studies of the Americas and this is portrayed in the above clippings only describing the natural environment of the forms of relief, however, despite this limitation it is not proposed that the concept of region be suppressed, but that it should be incorporated into its conceptual advance. In this sense, it should be encouraged that regions (Brazilian regions, the Americas and continents) be approached interrelated and integrated from relevant themes for the understanding of geographic space in its entirety.
A negative point in the LD1 collection of the eighth year is that it does not address the theme reduced relief to the notion of environmental problems and impacts, but makes it clear that the book has the environmental theme in general only does not fit the methodology applied in this research.
In the theme where it is possible to observe that the relief allows a critical and interpretative reading of the landscape, the selected clippings emerged.
“To study the relief of the American continent, one can divide it into three partings: west, east and central. Based on this division, it is possible to establish relations between the relief and the human occupation of this continent.” (LD1 8th year text clipping 4, p. 82).
“The relief of the eastern part of the American continent, due to its lower altitudes, generally does not hinder the advance of moist air masses from the Atlantic Ocean.” (LD1 8th year text clipping 18, p. 90).
Only two clippings have emerged for this framework, this occurs because the content of relief in this series is treated on a larger scale, that is, more focused on the American continent, in this way the relief is presented by this book more generally is more focused on human occupation and a descriptive character of it, highlighting the cut-out 18 which, makes a relationship of relief with climate, where the reason for greater precipitation in this area is justified than in another, it is also possible to understand why nature favored the development of certain activities and not others, and why some places in the world specialized in economic relations due to their potential resources of nature.
The relief as a theme linked to economic activity is presented the cutouts described here. “The flat and undulating relief of the pampas allows the mechanization of agriculture. Among the crops, alfalfa, wheat, corn, soybeans, cotton and fruit products stand out to supply urban centers.” (LD1 8th year text clipping 25, p. 177).
“In this region predominate the wavy plateaus of low altitudes – continuation of the Plateaus and plateau of the Paraná Basin of the classification of relief carried out by the Brazilian geographer Jurandyr L. S. Ross. Formed by fertile soils, resulting from basalt decomposition, it is the main agricultural region of the country.” (LD1 8th year cutout 34, p. 244).
“Its relief is predominantly flat, formed by low plateaus and alluvial plains of fertile soil.” (LD1 8th year text clipping 36, p. 258).
This framework was the second that most prominent in the textbook of the eighth year since it discusses the existing relations in the American continent as: economic relations, the dynamism existing in the continent presents the particularities of each region since the book brings this regionalization of the continent and the economic part has a highlight.
And in general the activity most addressed is centered on agriculture, such as: fertile soils, the activity where machinery can be used because it is a flat area or the existing difficulties because it is a more rugged or higher relief, are all in this sense.
The textbook referring to the ninth year is treated the other continents, in this phase, the space-time clippings can be worked in a way that integrates scales: the global, the regional and the local. In the framework of the theme relief linked only to the natural aspects were selected these clippings.
“In relation to the relief, the Scandinavian Alps and the Lacustre Plain of Finland stand out.” (LD1 9th year text clipping 3, p. 83).
“The Asian continent also has different forms of relief, with emphasis on the extensive and high plateaus and the great plains.” (LD1 9th year text clipping 7, p. 142).
“Great absolute depressions also mark the Asian relief, especially the Aral Sea, the Caspian Sea and the Dead Sea, considered the deepest of the emerged lands, with 395 meters below sea level.” (LD1 9th year text clipping 10, p. 143).
“The relief of Africa stands out extensive plateaus, cut by flowing rivers that form river plains.” (LD1 9th year text clipping 18, p. 211).
“With most of the territory located in the low-altitude or inter-tropical zone, Africa is generally characterized by the warm climate. However, due to the higher altitudes of the relief in certain parts of the territory (the mountains), and because it presents land in the extra tropical regions, it also has a temperate climate in some areas of the continent.” (LD1 9th year text clipping 21, p. 213).
“Even in this formation, the altitudes are not as high and vary between 500 and 1500 meters on average; in its southern part is located the culmination of the Australian relief, Kosciusko Peak, with 2,230 meters of altitude.” (LD1 9th year text clipping 24, p. 257).
“Region facing the Mediterranean Sea, which extends from Spain to the Caucasus, has the following formations of the relief: the High Mountains […]”. (LD1 9th year text clipping 4, p. 85).
The emphasis in this book is demonstrated only on a descriptive character, and which can be justified by the scale since it is global, and thus the content is greatly reduced and once again the concept of nature, equally highlighted as significant, appears as a physical picture where plant complexes, climatic types are described, hydrography, and other aspects related to natural conditions. And because of this the only framing found in the book was this, the other ones are not included.
Therefore, it is noticed that the books offer, for the most part, the same sequence of contents present in School Geography for decades. The verification of this sequence does not seem to take into account the research in the field of Geography Teaching, which has questioned and problematized this curricular structure.
The concepts of place and landscape are privileged in the book of the 6th year due to this the relief is best worked by the book in this series. In the other years it is referred to in an incipient way. In this year, especially, they are associated with what tradition defined as the content of this stage of schooling, although in the following years landscapes and places from different contexts are addressed. The choice of fragmented view of the contents without what is proposed for each year is articulated may be responsible for this situation.
It is important to point out that in Geography there are consolidated studies that indicate the new forms of spatial organization, in particular the reordering of territories from the networks, proposing a spatial reasoning that articulates the events and geographical phenomena in a multi- and inter-escalate way, noddedly, with the new and instigating social organizations. Although studies and research prioritize a less linear School Geography, and in the collection it still appears in this structural logic.
As for the increase in complexity in the approach of content during the books of the collection, it is noted that there was concern to make the study texts more complex over the different years. The content of the texts of the 6th grade book is much more accessible than the content of the most analytical texts of later years such as those of the 9th year book. This increase in complexity related to the construction of the idea about geographic space is gradually recurrent in all years. Similarly, the applicability of the concepts also obeys a certain increase in complexity in dealing with their relationships, during the years of schooling.
4.2. Relief in LD2
The analysis of textual clippings were reflected in the following framing categories: 1) Thematic relief linked only to natural aspects; 2) Thematic relief reduced to the notion of environmental problems or impacts; 3) Thematic relief allows a critical and interpretative reading of the landscape; 4) Thematic relief linked to economic activity.
It is noteworthy that LD2 represents the collection of PNLD2020, Araribá more geography that will be used until 2023 in schools in Teresina-PI, after the analysis was found the following view (Table 2).
We will present initially some text clippings with potential mention of the relief that just as in the previous collection presents only a description of it without any correlation, that is, it presents only the natural aspects of the forms.
“On the earth’s surface are the elements that guarantee the existence of life, such as water, gases, rocks and minerals. This surface is uneven: there are flat and elevated locations, areas in lower regions, mountains valleys and other forms.” (LD2 6th year text clipping 1, p. 48).
“Brazil has extensive planatic areas, a fact that favors the construction of hydroelectric dams.” (LD2 7th year text clipping 9, p. 42).
“Both on the Atlantic coast and on the Pacific coast there are the so-called coastal or coastal plains, formed by the deposition of marine and river sediments. On the west coast, they are narrow, while on the east coast they are usually wider.” (LD2 8th year text clipping 7.p. 89).
“Also found on the continent are some areas of depression, that is, that are below sea level. The best known is that of the Netherlands, a country famous for its dikes and polders.” (LD2 9th year text clipping 3, p. 79).
The BNCC presents a discourse that is necessary for geography to leave this descriptive character and for this, it is necessary to overcome learning based only on the description of information and facts of daily life, whose meaning is restricted only to the immediate context. The overtaking of this merely descriptive condition requires the mastery of concepts and generalizations.
These allow new ways of seeing the world and understanding, in a broad and critical way, the multiple relationships that make up reality, according to the learning of knowledge of geographic science. But the above-mentioned clippings are in the opposite direction, and this factor is recurrent in the books that were the subject of this research.
We will now demonstrate the clippings that fit the explicit mention and how the theme relief is presented in the textbooks, we start with LD2 6th year with the theme relief linked only to natural aspects.
“Relief is the set of different shapes existing on the earth’s surface.” (LD2 6th year text clipping 10, p. 103).
“In this chapter, we will know the main forms of continental relief: mountains, plateaus, plains and depressions.” (LD2 6th year text clipping 13, p. 104).
“The mountains are the most altitude relief forms and steep slopes (quite steep) on the earth’s surface.” (LD2 6th year text clipping 14, p. 105).
“The hills are relief forms with rounded tops and altitudes between 300 and 900 meters.” (LD2 6th year text clipping 18, p. 106).
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Table 2. Classification of text clippings extracted from LD2 textbooks.
Source: LD2 6, 7, 8 and 9 year, prepared by the author (2021).
“Depressions are lower-altitude relief forms than the terrain around them.” (LD2 6th year text clipping 22, p. 107).
“The main endogenous agents are the movements of tectonic plates, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. All of them act in the formation and transformation of terrestrial relief and are also responsible for the origin of some forms, such as mountains, depressions and volcanoes.” (LD2 6th year text clipping 25, p. 109).
“The course of a river presents features related to relief shapes. Rivers that cross plateau areas usually have many falls, as they are areas with much unevenity. They are called Plateau Rivers.” (LD2 6th year text clipping 33, p. 119).
The structural cognitive approach of geographic knowledge is established in principles focused on the need to understand fundamental aspects of reality, namely: the location and distribution of facts, and phenomena on the earth’s surface, territorial ordering, the existing connections between physic-natural components and anthropic actions.
According to the Common National Curriculum Base, these principles are expressed in: analogy, in which a geographic phenomenon is always comparable to others. And the identification of the similarities between geographical phenomena is the beginning of the understanding of the earth’s unit. Connection, where a geographical phenomenon never happens in isolation, but always in interaction with other near or distant phenomena. The above text clippings are not in this same “tuning”, because they treat the relief forms only in their natural aspect without any correlation.
As for Table 2, which addresses the theme of reduced emphasis on the notion of problem or environmental impacts, the following cut-outs are available.
“[…] erosion is a natural process of rock wear and transport of the material resulting from the action of external agents. However, human activities have intensified this process, causing a number of changes in relief.” (LD2 6th year text clipping 31, p. 113).
“The cliffs, escarpment relief forms typical of the coast, are built through the erosive action of the sea. Over time, the waves wear down the slopes and transport the sand to other places.” (LD2 6th year text clipping 32, p. 114).
In the environmental aspect in general it is very small, not only focused on the theme relief that is even smaller with only two clippings and this is worrying, since the environment needs to be worked on in the 6th year, because it is recommended by BNCC, which also addresses this year the development of structuring concepts of the natural physical environment, the relations between phenomena during the times of nature and the profound changes that occur in social time.
Both are responsible for the significant transformations of the environment and the production of geographic space, the result of human action on the planet and its regulatory elements. That would serve as a basis for this theme that is very incipient.
The theme three describes the theme relief allowing a critical and interpretative reading of the landscape in the clippings below.
“The embossed forms influence the places where rivers are born, where they pass and where they flow. The rivers, in turn, model the relief forms. Therefore, relief and hydrography are interdependent.” (LD2 6th year text clipping 11, p. 103).
“Land relief influences the performance of societies in the geographical space. Therefore, the study of relief is essential for the development of societies. For example, to open streets or build houses and buildings in certain areas or land with limitations imposed by the relief, increasingly sophisticated construction techniques have been developed.” (LD2 6th year text clipping 12, p. 104).
“Earthquakes also contribute to the formation and transformation of the relief, because, depending on the intensity, they can lift land or even cause its partial sinking.” (LD2 6th year text clipping 28, p. 109).
“The climate, soil, relief and hydrography influence the diversity of the vegetation present on the planet. In order to survive and develop, plants need water, light and soil nutrients that do not present regularly on the earth’s surface.” (LD2 6th year text clipping 37, p. 150).
The theoretical-methodological approach of the collection works geographical knowledge from the interaction between nature and society, bringing the place of experience of students with regional realities. Besides being anchored in the contextualization of geographic phenomena, it predicts interdisciplinarity as a possible way for the construction/expansion of geographic reasoning, favorable to reflection and the exercise of criticality.
It is proposed the resumption of socio-cultural identity, the recognition of places of experience and the need to study the different and unequal uses of space, for awareness about the scale of human interference on the planet.
It is therefore a question of understanding the concept of nature; disputes over resources and territories expressing conflicts between the ways of life of originating and/or traditional societies; and the advancement of capital, all depicted in the landscape.
Understanding the concepts of landscape and transformation is necessary for students to understand the process of evolution of human beings and the various forms of spatial occupation at different times. In this sense, they are expected to understand the role of different peoples and civilizations in the production of space and in the transformation of society/nature interaction.
The fourth framework that portrays the theme relief linked to economic activity is also exposed in the textbook of the 6th year and thus distributed.
“Relief can facilitate or hinder agricultural practice. Flat areas, for example, favor agriculture by facilitating mechanization and production disposal. In the steepest areas, with greater slope, with hills or mountains, the use of machinery and the transport of agricultural production are difficult.” (LD2 6th year text clipping 40, p. 202).
The only cut-off focused on economic activity, as well as in the previous collection is linked to agriculture, also in isolation, however much the book presents a topic related to the natural conditions necessary for the development of agriculture and well reduced the theme. This does not generally favor the competencies and skills that guide the teaching and learning process and contribute to trigger reflections on geographic space, seen as a result of the actions of men organized in society.
In the 7th year, the objects of knowledge addressed start from the territorial formation of Brazil, its cultural, economic and political dynamics. The objective is to deepen and understand the concepts of nation-state and territorial formation, and also of those that involve the physical-natural dynamics, always articulated to human actions in the use of the territory.
It is expected that students understand and relate the possible connections between the physical-natural components and the multiple scales of analysis, as well as understand the socio-spatial process of territorial formation in Brazil and analyze the transformations in Brazilian federalism and the unequal uses of the territory. In general, this is what the BNCC indicates, for this we present the text clippings taken from THE 7th LD2 and frame them according to the theme relief as follows.
The related clippings where the theme relief is reduced to the notion of environmental problems or impacts, these are.
“According to the classification proposed by geographer Jurandyr Ross (which was based on the data presented in the RadamBrasil Project), the main forms of relief in Brazil are the plateaus, depressions and plains.” (LD2 7th year text clipping 2, p. 22).
“The depressions have relatively smooth relief and with smooth uneven. The Brazilian depressions are all relative, that is, despite being situated at a lower level than that of the land that surrounds them, they are above sea level. These relief forms originated from the wear of the plateaus.” (LD2 7th year text clipping 4, p. 23).
“The plateaus are lands with varying altitudes in which there are varied forms of relief, such as plateaus, hills, hills and mountains.” (LD2 7th year text clipping 5, p. 23).
“Due to the variations in the relief, some rivers drain for themselves all the watercourses of a watershed, an area comprising the main river and all its tributaries, streams and streams that feed it.” (LD2 7th year text clipping 6, p. 24).
“Thanks to the flat-surfaced of this region, the watercourses contain extensive rapids and falls. They also have a very unique characteristic: most of the rivers are born near the ocean, but run inland.” (LD2 7th year text clipping 20, p. 187).
In these aforementioned clippings the physical-natural components and the multiple scales of analysis are demonstrated only in descriptive character, no correlation is applied. In this context, discussions related to territorial formation do not contribute to learning about the formation of Latin America, especially Portuguese America, which are presented in the context of the study of Brazilian geography. It is emphasized that the concept of region is part of the geographical situations that need to be developed for the understanding of territorial formation Country.
It happens that the understanding of the concepts of nation-state and territorial formation, and also what involve the physical-natural dynamics, are not articulated to human actions in the use of the territory, and what is expected is that students understand and relate the possible connections existing between the physical-natural components and the multiple scales of analysis, as well as understand the socio-spatial process of national territory formation, and these clippings do not facilitate this process.
Regarding the theme relief reduced to the notion of environmental problems and impacts, this is very discreet, making it clear that it is not the environmental theme in general, but the one that is related to the relief that is the part that interests this research, in this framework were removed the following cutouts.
“The rounded outs of the relief, very common in the Southeast Region, are the greatest evidence of the occurrence of intense erosive processes, that is, the wear of rocks and soils. […] Human action has intensified these processes through deforestation and the occupation of the strands by poorly executed engineering works, which accelerate soil erosion.” (LD2 7th year text clipping 21, p. 188).
This is an aim that presents itself in a very small way, which proves this fact is to have only one clipping, this until it is well described because it presents a correlation between man and the environment, inserts man as a transforming agent and modeling of relief, a pity that in an incipient way.
The three themes that provides a critical and interpretive reading of the landscape, which entails the understanding of the concepts of landscape and transformation is that it is necessary for students to understand the process of evolution of human beings and the various forms of spatial occupation at different times, these clippings are distributed.
“Located in an area considered tectonically stable, the Brazilian relief is quite old, having been worn by erosive processes for millions of years. Over geological time, the territory has suffered the effects of climate change, alternating periods of glaciations with interglacial periods.” (LD2 7th year text clipping 1, p. 21).
“Climate elements, such as temperature and precipitation, are associated with the transformation and modeling processes of the relief. In addition, they are also strongly related to vegetation types, hydrography, and agriculture and, consequently, influence people’s daily lives.” (LD2 7th year text clipping 7, p. 26).
“The Relief of the Midwest presents planatic shapes, with emphasis on the plateau. Mountains and plateau constitute important water sheds (lines that separate one network of water flows from another) from the main hydrographic regions of Brazil. […] Most rivers in the Midwest have high potential for power generation by presenting rapids and falls.” (LD2 7th year text clipping 15, p. 140).
“Among the natural elements that characterize the landscapes of the region, stand out the relief forms. The elevations of the terrain in this part of the Brazilian territory are mainly configured by medium altitudes and rounded shapes, composing the domain of the ‘seas of hills’. Hills, hills, and mountains extend along the coast of the Northeast and South regions, but in the Southeast region they also occur in the interior.” (LD2 7th year text clipping 19, p. 184).
The text clippings above are the ones that most closely approach the theme relief demonstrated for a sense of a critical and interpretative reading of the landscape it is possible to perceive existing connections between the physical-natural components and the multiple scales of analysis, as well as understand the process of territorial formation of Brazil and its transformations.
It is possible to value the daily knowledge of the student, and enables the active participation of them as subjects in the process of construction of geographic knowledge, from the perspective of them developing their ability to think, decode, analyze and understand the geographical space, based on a whole-world view and the interrelationship between society and nature. Making it clear that in some of these clippings is not so clear, but that can be perceived.
The fourth and final framework for this book, which is the theme relief, linked to economic activity, present the present clippings.
“In the Northern Region, a low-altitude relief predominates, corresponding to the Amazonian depressions and the plains along the great rivers. The formation of the region is quite complex, composed of immense mineral deposits, in which several exploration projects have been installed since the mid-twentieth century, when this activity gained prominence in the economic framework.” (LD2 7th year text clipping 10, p. 121).
“The relief of the Amazon is formed predominantly by low-altitude land, usually flat, which indicates low potential for the construction of hydroelectric dams.” (LD2 7th year text clipping 14, p. 132).
“The relief of Mata’s zone is composed especially of plains and coastal plains of relief that presents flat top and abrupt slopes. It is mainly about them that agricultural activities develop.” (LD2 7th year text clipping 22, p. 223).
These aforementioned clippings are articulated to human actions in the use of the territory, this is interesting because it allows the student to make existing connections between the physical-natural components. What also draws attention that for the first time in the analysis the agricultural economic activity is not the only one to appear and on the contrary here less frequently, demonstrating an economic diversity that can be explored having the relief as a facilitator or obstacle in the execution of them.
BNCC proposes that in the eighth year, the study of Geography focuses on world space. For this, it is part of the understanding that, in the current reality, the international division of labor and the distribution of wealth have become much more fluid and complex from the point of view of spatial interactions and networks of interdependence at different scales.
For this reason, in the study of countries from different continents (America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania), the dimensions of politics, culture and the economy are themed. About all this in the analysis of LD2 8th year we have the following text clipping with the theme relief linked only to natural aspects.
“To study the world from a physical point of view, for example, a regionalization is made, that is, a division of the territory based on elements such as soil, relief, vegetation, etc.” (LD2 8th year text clipping 3, p. 61).
“In America, four large sets of relief stand out, which are distinguished from each other by altitude: the high mountain ranges of the west; the central plains; the depressions of the center; and the old plateaus and mountains worn from the east.” (LD2 8th year text clipping 5, p. 89).
“From a physical point of view, the continental territory of the United States—that is, without considering the states of Alaska and Hawaii—can be divided into four large units: to the east, the relief has worn plateaus, such as the Appalachian Mountains; to the west are the mountain ranges resulting from modern folding […]”. (LD2 8th year text clipping 16, p. 124).
“Due to natural conditions, there are vast, sparsely populated spaces in the country, such as Alaska, with very cold climate; Arizona, of arid and semi-arid climates; and the areas of mountainous relief in the west.” (LD2 8th year text clipping 18, p. 127).
“The relief of the African continent is divided into three main parts: eastern plateau, Northern plateau and South Central plateau.” (LD2 8th year text clipping 28, p. 223).
“Northern Plateau in this part of the African relief is located the Sahara desert, which occupies a quarter of the continental territory. To the northwest of it is the Atlas chain, which extends from the coast of Morocco to Tunisia.” (LD2 8th year text clipping 30, p. 224).
“Coniferous Forest (Taiga) characterized by forests with predominance of shrubs and pine trees in higher areas of the relief, where the climate is usually colder.” (LD2 8th year text clipping 32, p. 226).
The cutouts again only with description of the relief forms, presented in a regionalized way due to the scale with which ld2 8th year works, does not develop the student spatial thinking, which provides opportunities for understanding of the world in which one lives besides not providing the geographical reasoning of it does not promote a debate, where one can defend ideas and points of view that respect and promote socio-environmental awareness, just informs that there are such forms of importance in one point of the world.
To observe how the environment is inserted in the theme relief, the next framework verifies the theme reduced to the notion of environmental problems or impacts.
“Some Caribbean islands have mountainous relief, interspersed with narrow plains and plateaus that make up the most densely populated areas. The region is marked by geological instability, which makes it subject to the activity of volcanoes and earthquakes.” (LD2 8th year text clipping 24, p. 165).
It is observed with concern that the environmental in line with the relief has been demonstrated in such an incipient way, being demonstrated in one or two clippings at most in textbooks, and that there are a multitude of phenomena that are related and omitted in the books, it is worth the caveat that the environmental is present in the same what does not present is explicitly related to the theme.
The cut out is very interesting, as it presents events of small and large magnitudes, such as earthquakes and volcanic activities. It is conducive to the student to know the different conceptions of the uses of the territories, having as reference different social and environmental contexts, through the settlement, way of life, landscape and natural physical elements, which contribute to a more significant learning, stimulating the understanding of these complex approaches of reality.
In the theme relief that allows a critical and interpretative reading of the landscape we had only one cut out that is this.
“Relief and hydrography were very important factors in the process of occupation of the American continent and have a great influence on the current distribution of the population.” (LD2 8th year text clipping 4, p. 88).
This is the first book in which it occurs in the analysis, the existence of only one clipping in this framework and what aggravates is that it is located in the initial pages, which can lead to a purely descriptive material, emphasizing that the concern is how the relief is presented in the textbook.
How to use geographic knowledge through relief to understand society/nature interaction and exercise interest and the spirit of research and problem solving, establish connections between different themes of geographic knowledge? Recognize the importance of technical objects for understanding the ways and how human beings make use of nature’s resources? And how to develop autonomy and critical sense for understanding and applying geographic reasoning in the analysis of human occupation and space production, with only one cutout throughout the book?
Since it is these aspects that the BNCC proposes for the student to have a greater ease in obtaining a geographical reasoning and understanding of the world, at least and quite worrying that such a relevant topic is so suppressed.
Regarding the framework referring to the theme relief linked to economic activity, no clipping was detected.
Finally, in the 9th year, attention is paid to the constitution of the new world order or disorder and the emergence of globalization, as well as its consequences. Because of the study of Europe’s role in economic and political dynamics, it is necessary to approach the worldview from the point of view of the West, especially European countries, from maritime and commercial expansion, consolidating the Colonial System in different regions of the world.
It is also important to address other points of view, be it that of Asian countries in their relationship with the West, or those of the colonized, with emphasis on the economic and cultural role of China, Japan, India and the Middle East. Understanding the socio-cultural and geopolitical dimension of Eurasia in the formation and constitution of the Modern State and territorial disputes enables learning with emphasis on the geo-historical process, expanding and deepening geopolitical analyses, through geographical situations that contextualize the themes of regional geography.
Let’s look at how the LD2 textbook of the 9th year presents these aspects focused on the theme relief, initially discussing the textual clippings that deal with it linked only to natural aspects.
“The relief of the European continent is marked by mountains and plains.” (LD2 9th year text clipping 1, p. 78).
Three relief units stand out on the European continent: “ancient massifs, central plains and recent mountain ranges.” (LD2 9th year text clipping 2, p. 79).
“The predominant type of relief on the continent is the plateaus. In them are the dividers of the hydrographic basins of Asia and the springs of major rivers such as the Ganges, the Indo, the Huang-ho (Yellow), the Yangtse (Blue) and the Ob.” (LD2 9th year text clipping 11, p. 151).
“[…] The mountainous relief also predominates in the Korean peninsula and china, which has high mountains to the west.” (LD2 9th year text clipping 12, p. 151).
“The predominant landforms are the low plateaus and the plains. It is worth mentioning the presence of mountain formations, especially in Indonesia.” (LD2 9th year text clipping 18, p. 159).
“The relief of the Middle East consists largely of plateaus surrounded by mountains. In general the plains are situated between the coastline and the mountainous clusters.” (LD2 9th year text clipping 20, p. 161).
“The region has three major relief units: the Himalayan Mountain Range, the Decã Plateau and the Indo-Gangética plain.” (LD2 9th year text clipping 21, p.162).
“The relief of Japan is characterized by the presence of recent mountains, especially Mount Fuji, with more than 3000 meters of altitude.” (LD2 9th year text clipping 24, p. 163).
“Much of the relief of the Middle East consists of plateaus surrounded by mountains. The plains are generally situated between the coastline and the mountainous clusters.” (LD2 9th year text clipping 31, p. 213).
The description predominates in this clipping, which even becomes repetitive making it difficult to assimilate, the increasing levels of complexity of conceptual understanding about the production and organization of geographic space through the theme relief.
The cut-out content does not express the expansion of knowledge about the use of space in different geographical situations, the transformation of territory and power relations, within the different scales, contributing to the students developing the ability to spatially relate the facts and phenomena, as well as the technical objects and the spatial planning used.
The two frameworks that deals with the theme relief reduced to the notion of environmental problems or impacts is presented in a clipping.
“The action of the planet’s internal and external agents over time has allowed the development of highly mineral-rich subsoil and a widely worn relief, consisting of extensive rocky plateaus, sedimentary plains along rivers and altitudes that do not exceed 500 meters above sea level.” (LD2 9th year text clipping 33, p. 229).
In this case the impact occurs as a modeling agent of the relief, and this allows the student to understand the production and transformation of geographic space, even if in a reduced way physical-natural characteristics and the form of occupation.
The theme relief that allows a critical and interpretative reading of the landscape, in this case the three framework was distributed.
“The relief units of the continent were formed along several stages of the geological history of planet Earth. The geological substrate of the large territorial masses, such as the Australian shield, situated in the center of the tectonic plate, is composed of ancient terrain, dating from the Pre-Cambrian.” (LD2 9th year text clipping 32, p. 229).
“Relief units and different types of climate also influence the great diversity of vegetation present in Oceania. In the Equatorial and Tropical Zones, vegetation characterized by dense and humid forests predominates.” (LD2 9th year text clipping 35, p. 230).
The clippings discuss the relief in an integrated way, relates the difference of landscapes, identifies it based on aspects of geomorphology, biogeography and climatology, the natural dynamics are highlighted. The geographical space is associated with historical time, there is therefore a balanced space-time relationship in the considerations that support the work with the elements of nature. It is possible to observe that the production and reproduction of geographical space is the result of the intrinsic relationship between society and nature, prevailing nature.
In the representation of framework four, where the theme relief is linked to economic activity, it is exposed as follows.
“In its relief, stand out two great plains to Russian, situated in the northwest, and Siberian, in the central-western part. To the east of the Siberian plain is located the Central Siberian plateau, in which there are ancient mountain ranges, with concentration of minerals such as gold and diamonds.” (LD2 9th year text clipping 8, p. 135).
“The main producing areas are in the eastern part of the country, where the low-sharp relief and abundance of water favor the development of agriculture.” (LD2 9th year text clipping 27, p. 184).
“Agricultural activity in Japan faces enormous challenges, including mountainous relief, with several active volcanoes, and small territorial extension, factors that hinder production and, consequently, the food supply of the population. This leads the country to resort to food imports.” (LD2 9th year text clipping 28, p. 194).
“Mountainous relief and water scarcity make it difficult for Hong Kong to develop agriculture.” (LD2 9th year text clipping 29, p. 197).
“Because of the mountainous relief of its territory, South Korea, located on a peninsula, has poorly developed agriculture, whose production is insufficient for the supply of the population.” (LD2 9th year text clipping 30, p.198).
Economic activity linked to the relief is relevant in the 9th grade LD2, and the last three clippings analyze the problem of global inequality of access to food resources and raw materials. It explains the physical-natural characteristics and the form of occupation and land uses more focused on Asia. The relief is demonstrated as an agent that hinders production and impacts its economy, because for the population not to become unassisted imports are high.
5. Final Considerations
It was found the need to give attention to the fact that there is still need to be advances in coherence in the approach to relief. In the collections, they present their approach that has a direct relationship with the student’s life in the first two books, 6th and 7th grade, but in the books of the last two years 8th and 9th the line of approach is diluted in more conceptual and little practical presentations, more descriptive, many of which are little related to the life of the subjects of learning. This does not mean that the themes/contents are wrong, only that there is clearly a difference, for which the search for solution is still important.
It should be noted that the debate on environmental-related relief often appears in the LD1 Collection. However, it is recurrent, most of the time, because the environmental issue was the window to work on the themes of physical geography, indicating that there is an appreciation in the constitution of this theme, which is still in the sixth and seventh year, already in the eighth and ninth occurs in an incipient way.
Interdisciplinarity appears as a constant discourse, seeking to articulate different geographical contents to other fields of knowledge. However, it loses strength since the geographical contents themselves, in many situations, are presented in an isolated, watertight and hierarchical way, with little articulation between the scales, the two collections present this situation.
In summary, it can be said that the approach of the relief present in geography textbooks approved by the PNLD 2017 and 2020 is characterized by the following aspects: conceptualizations, characterizations, descriptions of forms and processes that transform the relief concentrated in the sixth year; dismemberment of the content of the relief by the other volumes of the collections; predominantly macro-scale focus of the relief—mountains, plateaus, plains and depressions; insufficient correlation between environmental dynamics; notion of relief strongly associated with that of natural space; geomorphological understanding that recognizes the importance of the human being in the process of transformation of the relief.