The university and environmental education professionals learning: paths of the specialization courses in the Brazilian context

The university, considered as a place of scientific investigation, is an important center for environmental education, particularly due to its ability of (re) organizing knowledge with the purpose of getting more involved with the socio-environmental problems of our society. In that sense, extension courses are acknowledged to be a more open knowledge production center to the incorporation of the interdisciplinary dimension of environmental issues. It is one of the major channels that provide access to environmental education, especially due to the provision of new "lato sensu" (extension), specialization. This paper's objective is to discuss university and its role in developing environmental education, with a special focus on extension courses (specialization), which will be analyzed in order to be understood. This way, from diagnosis of the environmental courses of specialization in Brazil, we notice that there is a significant number of professionals, of many different knowledge, who look for the opportunity to improve and consolidate their carriers, acquiring additional knowledge while they investigate the relationship that exists between our society and nature.