A critical look at the sustainable development goals from an experience carried out by elementary school students: To be or not to be, is that the question

This study analyzes the limitations, possibilities, conditioning factors, and qualitative substrates for the significance of sustainability approaches in global discourses such as the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). In order to do this, an Environmental Education workshop was held with elementary students in two public schools in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The students (n = 103) were divided into five groups. Each group received a kit containing a photograph of a work of art, a photograph of Rio de Janeiro, and a news report. As a result of the activity, the participants made a drawing about the construction of a sustainable world. In order to identify their drawings, a qualitative analysis strategy was used through systemic networks and classification into levels of representation. The results indicate that the students relate some SDGs to each other, although the drawings concentrated on the level of representation as description. In School 2, greater sophistication and complexity are observed in the drawings, which include symbolic, syntactic, and semantic aspects. Finally, the conclusions indicate that the drawings include imperative verbs, prescribing modes of change and action for the children to participate.