Geografia de Mato Grosso do Sul: material pedagógico para o componente curricular geografia regional da rede municipal de ensino de Campo Grande-MS

Abstract

Regional Geography teaching plays a fundamental role in understanding territorial dynamics and strengthening students' identity and sense of belonging to the places where they live. Within the context of the Municipal School System of Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, there is a growing need for specific, updated, and systematically organized teaching materials to support teachers in delivering the Regional Geography curriculum to seventh-grade students in elementary education. In this context, this study aimed to develop a pedagogical resource in the form of a digital handbook to support the teaching of the Regional Geography of Mato Grosso do Sul. The research was motivated by the author's professional experience as a basic education teacher, who identified a shortage of teaching resources focused on the state's regional reality, making it difficult to mediate regional content in the classroom. To provide a theoretical foundation for the proposal, a literature review was conducted on the concept of region, encompassing classical approaches as well as contemporary critical perspectives, with particular emphasis on the contributions of Milton Santos and Rogério Haesbaert. Existing educational resources used by teachers were also analyzed, including the Geografia Morena blog, recognized as an important complementary resource for teaching the geography of Mato Grosso do Sul. The study adopted a qualitative, applied, and descriptive approach, consisting of a diagnostic survey conducted through an online questionnaire completed by 39 Geography teachers from the Municipal School System of Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul. The findings revealed that most participants experience difficulties due to the lack of specific teaching materials addressing the geography of Mato Grosso do Sul, highlighting the need for educational resources that present the state's physical, historical, demographic, economic, and cultural aspects in a contextualized, updated, and pedagogically appropriate manner. In response to this demand, the digital handbook GEO-MS was developed, featuring accessible language and incorporating texts, maps, images, classroom activities, video suggestions, and other educational resources. The handbook is organized into five thematic sections: the concept of region and regionalization; the territorial and population formation of Mato Grosso do Sul; biomes and physical geography; ethnic diversity and territorial conflicts involving Indigenous peoples and Quilombola communities; and Economic Geography, with emphasis on agribusiness, industrialization, tourism, and the Bioceanic Corridor. It is concluded that the handbook represents a significant contribution to Regional Geography teaching by providing updated, contextualized, and teacher-oriented educational material that supports pedagogical practices aimed at helping students understand the relationships between local spaces and global processes, fostering critical thinking about reality and strengthening their territorial identity.