Environmental Education for Air Quality: A Comparative Pedagogical and Methodological Study Between the International Context and Medellín, Colombia

Abstract

[Introduction]: Air pollution is a complex socio-environmental problem in contemporary cities and demands responses that integrate regulation, social participation, and civic education. In this context, environmental education has emerged as a strategic field for promoting critical understanding of the problem, social appropriation of knowledge, and changes in citizen behavior. [Objective]: This article comparatively analyzes the pedagogical and methodological approaches of international environmental education programs for air conservation and local programs implemented in Medellín, identifying convergences, divergences, and gaps in terms of citizen participation, critical thinking, data use, territorial contextualization, and evaluative monitoring. [Methodology]: The study adopted a qualitative-interpretive approach, using comparative documentary analysis. This included, on the one hand, scientific and review articles located in ScienceDirect and Scopus on international programs; and on the other hand, official documents and sources on local programs, organized into bibliographic records and analysis matrices. [Results]: The results show that, internationally, citizen science and low-emission zone programs tend to integrate community participation, intensive data use, technological mediation, and monitoring strategies that strengthen social ownership of the issue. Locally, programs like SIATA and PROCEDA exhibit higher levels of critical participation and pedagogical territorialization, while PIGECA, PEEU, and PPCA demonstrate strengths in cross-cutting themes, governance, and interdisciplinarity, although with less participatory depth and common weaknesses in systematic evaluation. [Conclusions]: The most robust programs are those that combine critical pedagogies, contextualized methodologies, substantive citizen participation, and ongoing evaluation and feedback mechanisms.