El tratamiento de los bienes y servicios que aporta la biodiversidad en manuales de la educación secundaria española: un estudio epistemológico

This paper examines the treatment of the concept of ecosystem services in textbooks of middle and high schools from Spain. We reviewed scientific publications from a "community of experts" in order to define their conceptual frameworks, which act as epistemological referents along the didactic transposition. The majority of 50 analyzed textbooks mentioned some particular goods or ecosystem service examples, but only 10 % of these defined their concept (especially earth and environmental science textbooks). These findings are related to the lack of conceptualization in the official curriculum. Direct services from ecosystems were treated more frequently than indirect ones. In addition, rainforests were found to be almost the sole providers of ecosystem goods, as there being an under-representation of the social, cultural and religious values of biodiversity.Este trabajo estudia el tratamiento del concepto de servicios ecosistémicos en libros de texto de la educación secundaria obligatoria (ESO) y bachillerato de España. Con el objetivo de definir su marco conceptual se recopilaron publicaciones científicas de la “comunidad de expertos”, que actúa de referente epistemológico en el proceso de transposición didáctica. El concepto de servicios ecosistémicos estuvo presente sólo en el 10 % de los manuales analizados (de un total de 50); sin embargo, en la mayoría de ellos se mencionó algún bien o servicio (sobre todo en libros de ciencias de la tierra y medioambientales). Estos resultados se relacionan con la ausencia de la conceptualización en el currículo español. Los servicios “directos” de los ecosistemas fueron tratados con mayor frecuencia que los “indirectos”. Aun así, se encontró un centrismo en las selvas tropicales como las únicas proveedoras de bienes, y escasa representación de los servicios sociales y culturales de la biodiversidad.Palabras clave: servicios ecosistémicos; bienes ecosistémicos; libros de texto; transposición didáctica; biodiversidad.Treatment of goods and services provided by biodiversity in Spanish secondary education textbooks: an epistemological studyThis paper examines the treatment of the concept of ecosystem services in textbooks of middle and high schools from Spain. We reviewed scientific publications from a "community of experts" in order to define their conceptual frameworks, which act as epistemological referents along the didactic transposition. The majority of 50 analyzed textbooks mentioned some particular goods or ecosystem service examples, but only 10 % of these defined their concept (especially earth and environmental science textbooks). These findings are related to the lack of conceptualization in the official curriculum. Direct services from ecosystems were treated more frequently than indirect ones. In addition, rainforests were found to be almost the sole providers of ecosystem goods, as there being an under-representation of the social, cultural and religious values of biodiversity.Keywords: ecosystem services; ecosystem goods; textbooks; didactic transposition; biodiversity