NON-FORMAL EDUCATION IN ASTRONOMY: ANALYSIS OF NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL ACADEMIC ARTICLES

Abstract

This work analyzes articles on non-formal education in Astronomy, published between 2009 and 2019, in national and international academic journals. In this state-of-the-art research, Laurence Bardin's content analysis was used. 225 scientific articles were identified from a survey on the Portal of Journals of the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES). The categories of analysis were: year of publication, country of origin of the articles, institution, magazine, contents and thematic focus. It was observed that non-formal education can be approached in several ways and in different places, expanding the offer of activities, actions and projects on Astronomy that involve people with different levels of education. The articles presented as trends the increasing use of technology, activities in non-formal spaces and the approximation between formal and non-formal education. However, several problems were detected, such as the small amount of research on Amateur Astronomy, Indigenous Astronomy, Astronomy history, Astronomy's relations with the environment, inclusion and gender equality. Although international production is diverse and present in many countries, the United States has most articles, institutions and magazines, while other countries lave little academic production. Likewise, a concentration of Brazilian articles was identified in the Southeast and South regions and the absence of articles in the North region.