Significados del concepto medio ambiente en profesores que enseñan geografía en contextos rurales de Chile

In the Chilean Basic Education, the most relevant Geography contents are spatial location, identification of elements of the Landscape, system of cartographic references and Environment. This concept has the greatest presence in the curriculum, lacking a clear conceptualization and dispossessed of relationships with other geographic concepts. An approximation to the concept of the Environment is presented in this text, based on the meanings given by the professors, investigating the relationship between the Environment and the contents of the School Geography. This, in the framework of an interpretative research with an intentional sample of 45 rural teachers from 3 regions of Chile, conducting semi-structured interviews, Data Content Analysis and Theoretical Triangulation. The results show three meanings of Environment: linked to care-recycling-cleaning, synonym of environment and linked to the concern for deterioration. Finally some professors relate Environment with problems that School Geography should teach.