INTEGRAÇÃO FÉ–ENSINO EM CIÊNCIAS DA NATUREZA:

FUNDAMENTOS EPISTEMOLÓGICOS E PROPOSTAS PEDAGÓGICAS PARA A EDUCAÇÃO BÁSICA

Abstract

This article examines Faith-Learning Integration (FLI) in the context of Natural Sciences education in Basic Education, taking Christian confessional schools as its primary reference. It starts from the assumption that the opposition between faith and science, when treated as a necessary antagonism, impoverishes both the understanding of scientific knowledge and students' holistic development. Methodologically, the study is characterized as an oriented narrative review of the literature on FLI and related themes, complemented by an exploratory application in a real school context. The analysis draws on national and international studies on faith-learning integration, integral education, teacher mediation, critical thinking, practices in scientific areas, and teachers' perceptions in Christian contexts, organizing them around three structuring axes: teacher, curriculum, and school environment. In parallel, historical-epistemological and didactic literature is mobilized to discuss the history of science as a relevant mediation for addressing sensitive topics, especially in the field of geology. The analysis indicates that FLI becomes pedagogically more consistent when it operates through qualified teacher mediation, an intentionally organized curriculum, and a school environment capable of sustaining investigative, comparative, and dialogically responsible practices. The exploratory application, carried out with first-year high school classes, suggests the didactic viability of activities that articulate observation, hypothesis formulation, model comparison, and guided argumentation, without aiming to prove effectiveness in a strict sense. In confessional contexts, this pathway makes it possible to address readings of the natural record, cultural memory, and biblical text in a pedagogically oriented way, without dispensing with public criteria of argumentation. The article concludes that FLI can contribute to a more contextualized, critical, and formative teaching of Natural Sciences, provided that it is not reduced to the superimposition of religious language onto school content, but rather understood as a pedagogical architecture committed to intellectual honesty, rigorous analysis, and students' holistic development.