Student Perceptions of Water in a Rural Environment: Unveiling Social Representation

Abstract

The article identifies and characterizes social representations of water quality in a rural school in Bogotá. The grounded theory method was done from a qualitative approach and an interpretive hermeneutic paradigm. The analysis was developed from the associative letter, questionnaire, qualitative interview, field diary, drawings, and graphic supports. The data show that a central nucleus predominates where water quality converges as a globalizing aspect, demonstrating a synergy between the knowledge built and learned from school and families, which are diverse in their composition and origin; this rural sector has welcomed population migrants nationally and nationally. In the field of representation, the agreed naturalistic and anthropocentric typology is privileged, and a favorable attitude towards the conservation of water quality is evident through participation in actions that tend to conserve the water quality in the territory.