School Space and Sustainability in the Tropics: The Case of Thermal Comfort in Brazil

Abstract

This work aims to discuss thermal comfort and school architecture in Brazil, within the Anthropocene framework. The objective traverses the fields of school management, curriculum, and educational policy. The importance of the environmental emergency in the context of the Anthropocene is recognized, understanding it as a space-time in which climate change biopolitically impacts both local and global daily life. In this way, we consider that the curricular dimension together with school architecture, in the Anthropocene scenario, tends to respond to the demands of biosecurity. The methodology of this article is the analysis of documentary sources, particularly current Brazilian legislation on school architecture, thermal comfort, and public funding. The initial hypothesis of this work operates with the argument that in Brazilian legislation there is a predominance of HVAC (Heating, Ventilating and Air Conditioning) systems over sustainable forms such as natural ventilation, design of classrooms, placement of windows, use of trees and vegetation and management of the student’s schedule. The assumption of the research lies in the need for reconfigurations of the principles of school architecture, considering both biosecurity and bioclimatic architecture essential for the future in the scenario of climate extremes along the Anthropocene.

1. Introduction

This text is motivated by the problem of thermal comfort in Brazil and how this relates to curriculum, school architecture and climate change.

In the first part of the text, we focus on the context of the problem: climate change and the school space in Brazil. Next, we will discuss the literature on school architecture and curriculum, focusing on the UNESCO report [1]. Following the UNESCO document, the assumption of this article lies in that the curricular policy that prevailed in the 20th century is exhausted. If we look at the contemporary dynamics of science and art, we will easily find new disciplinary arrangements. This text works on the hypothesis that climate changes impact the ways in which schools are organized temporally and spatially.

The dramatic context of climate change is felt by the population, but there is a lack of climate education to mobilize public opinion, only palliative responses by the government, such as, in the face of extreme heat, purchase of air conditioners. The initial hypothesis of this text resides in the fact that facing the environmental crisis demands the consolidation of climate education, which would imply another meaning about the relationship between thermal comfort and school space.

The justification lies in a scenario in which school spaces in Brazil assume also functions of social justice, such as food security. Thus, allowing quality school architecture is part of the right to education and training of future generations. School is not just the place for learning about climate. The spatial experience at school also mobilizes environmental senses in favor of the public debate on the climate emergency.

2. Methodology

This text operates with three methodological steps. The first is a bibliographic review of school architecture and thermal comfort and a global educational document as ways to functionalize the school space. The second step is the collection of reports in newspapers of great circulation that denounce thermal discomfort in schools. The third step is an inventory of Brazilian documents on school climate control. With respect to this point, we identified the following types of documents:

(i)

Law and bill initiated by state deputies and sanctioned by the governed,

(ii)

Actions and programs exclusively from the state and municipal executive branch, based on federal funds from the National Education Development Fund (FNDE),

(iii)

The budget of federal deputies directed to the purchase of air conditioning.

The purpose of the text is to triangulate the analysis of these sources to discuss the relationship between school space, curriculum, and thermal comfort. The time frame for collecting sources is limited to the last fifteen years, considering the increase in treaties on climate change. The spatial scope of the exercise considers the totality of the 26 states and the federal district in Brazil.

The quality of indoor environments in buildings is increasingly relevant as we carry out more indoor activities. In Latin America, there is a lack of studies concerned with building users sensitive to indoor environment quality [2]. Brazil’s extended area and wide range of climates make it necessary to develop methodologies and solutions specific to each region [3]

A bibliographic analysis was produced with the objective of examining publications related to the theme of thermal comfort in Brazilian schools. Indexed publications on three scientific bases: Web of Science (WoS), Scopus, and Scientific Electronic Library Online (Scielo) were consulted using each database search tool. The articles were retrieved by the authors, using the following logical search: Thermal AND Comfort AND School/University Building AND Brazil, in the WoS and Scopus bases and the corresponding Portuguese terms for the Scielo base. The research fields were title, abstract and keywords. The criteria for selection were (a) papers published between 2006 and 2022, and (b) papers written in English or Portuguese. All papers must be published in peer-reviewed journals or be peer-reviewed conference papers.

The results obtained from each database were as follows: WoS, 13 papers; Scopus, 15 papers; Scielo, 9 papers. Of these results, there was considerable overlapping between the WoS and Scopus bases (six documents).

Each database classifies the documents by subject area, and these areas vary according to the database. A paper can also be classified under various areas so, after reviewing the papers and considering that the search yielded a low number of results, we opted for a manual analysis of the documents. To this end, we carefully reviewed each of the 31 documents (six documents were duplicates in the WoS and Scopus databases) and classified them into main areas or categories:

WoS: 6 Environmental Science/Health, 5 Engineering/Construction Building, 2 Thermal Comfort and Learning.

Scopus: 7 Engineering/Construction Building, 3 Environmental Science/Health, 3 Thermal Comfort and Learning, 1 Economics, 1 Bioclimatic analysis.

Scielo: 5 Engineering/Construction Building, 2 Environmental Science/Health, 2 Thermal Comfort and Learning

As we can see, most papers (17) deal with the space structure of schools (Engineering/Construction Building) and Environmental Science/Health (11), and a few (7) are on the area of Thermal Comfort and Learning. There are no articles dealing with laws or public policies on Thermal Comfort.

In view of these results, our focus is to analyze the response of the federation units and the Federal District regarding thermal comfort in schools, in a scenario where the continental country faces months of extreme heat. The argument of the text is based on the concern of the Brazilian government with the multifunction of the school space:

3. Results and Discussion

According to data from the WMO Global Annual to Decadal Climate Update [4], the prediction of the annual mean global temperature for each year in the upcoming period (2023–2027) will be between 1.1 °C and 1.8 °C higher than the average over the period of 1850–1900. Added to this picture is the fact that half of the population lives under climate risk, and people living in the most vulnerable and peripheral regions will be more affected by these extreme impacts. This will lead to a very high number of fatalities in these areas. According to data from the report: “Children, adolescents and climate change in Brazil” [5], about 40 million boys and girls are exposed to climate risks, most of which impacted the quilombola population, black and indigenous population This fact evidences a scenario of profound injustice and environmental racism.

3.1. The School Space in Brazil

According to the 2022 School Census [6], Brazil has a total of 47.4 million students in Basic Education, distributed in 178,300 schools. From 2021 to 2022, there were 714,000 more students, an increase of 1.5%. Of the total enrolment of students in the 1st to the 9th Year (06 to 15 years), only 14.4% are in full-time schools (The Ministry of Education considers a full-time school to be a stay of 7 hours or more at school). The expansion of enrolments in full-time schools is a main youth policy of the country, as observed in the speech of the current Minister of Education Camilo Santana:

“A young teenager staying at school all day, for me, is one of the greatest prevention policies that we can implement, in the face of violence and public safety issues in this country”.

Available on: https://agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/educacao/noticia/2023-07/nao-se-pode-falar-em-meritocracia-com-educacao-desigual-diz-lula (Accessed on 22 August 2023).

It is important to describe the function of the school space in Brazil. The public school concentrates several actions to assist children and young people in a situation of socioeconomic vulnerability, namely:

(i)

Food security policies.

(ii)

Public health policies (such as universal vaccination program),

(iii)

Emergency shelter, in cases of environmental disasters (floods and landslides), during episodes of climate calamity.

(iv)

Policies and actions to assist students in extreme social vulnerability.

In this sense, the public school space is a territory for multiple actions that guarantee basic rights to the working-class family (A recent Law [7], signed in 2023 by the President of the Republic, Ministries of Education, Economy, Justice and Planning, reinforce the conception of the multiple functions of the public school space, for implementation of a full-time school program). In this way, the quality of this space is fundamental to ensure the universal principles of citizenship.

School feeding in Brazil is one of the main food security policies in the country, guaranteeing the basic rights of children and adolescents regularly enrolled in public schools throughout the country. The Brazilian State ensures that children and adolescents are fed as a principle of quality education.

In reality, collective hunger is a much more generalized social phenomenon. It is a geographically universal phenomenon, with no continent escaping its disastrous action. The whole land of men has also hitherto been the land of famine. Even our continent, called that of abundance and symbolized to this day in the legends of Eldorado, suffers intensely from the scourge of hunger.

(de Castro, [8]).

In the Brazilian Federal Constitution, especially in chapter 208, in addition to Law No. 11.947, of 16 June 2009, the National School Feeding Program is guaranteed. In this last law, there is a guarantee that 30% of the total amount to be transferred by the National School Feeding Program (PNAE) must be invested in the direct purchase of products from family farming, a measure that stimulates the economic and sustainable development of communities:

Art. 208. The State’s duty to education will be carried out by guaranteeing:

VII—Student care, in all stages of basic education, through supplementary programs of school didactic material, transportation, food and health assistance.

(Constitutional Amendment No. 59, of 2009)

In the fragment above, in addition to an evident commitment by the State to the right to education, there is a close relationship between the school space, health and food security of children and adolescents, which also denotes a guarantee of quality, sustainable food, to the detriment of buying food compromised with pesticides and monoculture.

Also important is the presence of the National Civil Defense in the school space during environmental disasters. Schools, in general, are the support territory for national forces to act in very serious situations, sometimes assuming the role of shelter for the vulnerable population. The Civil Defense, guided by the National Policy for Protection and Civil Defense recognizes the importance of using the school space as a need and a right, as temporary shelter, in the face of environmental disasters.

In general, the use of the school as a temporary shelter has the challenge of managing the school space and, at the same time, planning the return to regular activities. Among the many actions performed by the school manager, are those related to social assistance, such as helping families who have lost their homes to find a safe place to stay or forwarding surplus donations to the municipal assistance agencies. Managers must also rethink the school calendar, as well as rearrange content and accompany the school movements of students, and sometimes, seek psychological support for students, families, and employees.

It is worth noting that climate extremes have a high impact on a society vulnerable to climate extremes and where the State is responsible for mitigating damage and ensuring life safety. Therefore, in the face of climate extremes, the school space has been forced to re-functionalize not only the curriculum but also the space and community responsibilities. In the next section, recognizing that, the most vulnerable groups depend on the full use of the school, we will discuss the problem of thermal comfort, in unhealthy situations like very hot humid days, and how national legislation responds to the problem.

3.2. Thermal Comfort in Schools—A Global Debate

During the 19th century, the process of universalization of schools in the United States guided the relationship between environmental parameters and school performance. In these studies, [9,10] there was a focus on the environmental comfort of the school building and its relationship with more effective teaching and learning. Modern studies highlight the importance of ventilation and lighting in the academic performance of students [11,12,13,14,15]. Perceptions of the students are not the same for people in different climates, this perception will determine the optimal temperatures for a typical classroom. Also, quantities as little as 1C can affect the performance of the students [16].

The National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities report (2002) relates student performance to the categories of indoor air quality, temperature and humidity, ventilation, lighting conditions, acoustics, and school and classroom size [17,18]. The report reveals that spatial configuration, noise, heat, cold, light and air quality interfere with students’ learning and the ability of teachers to conduct the content and highlights the knowledge of technologies and materials as allies in improving these parameters, highlighting the use of solar panels, skylights, and green roofs.

An important fact in the Global South is the number of students per classroom, a serious concern of educational policy, as there is overcrowding in many schools. It should be noted that this framework has a serious impact on architectural planning and the spatial configuration of its environments. Larger classes require more classrooms or the construction of more schools, a fact that may seem obvious, but is often lost in the public spending debate. Different unions and civil organizations show the acceptable limits of these conditions for academic results. The environmental requirements of the building are special aspects that must be considered in the conception and design of the school building and the safety of students and education workers.

In Brazil, the changes in the weather have been well documented:

Observational data in Brazil point to an increase in average temperatures in virtually all historical series from meteorological stations. The data also show that in some locations, heavy rain events were more frequent in the last two decades, parallel to episodes of drought and severe drought in other regions. This shows the complexity and diversity of the meteorological issue and its socioeconomic effects in a country with continental dimensions and very different climatic, topographical and biome characteristics…

[19].

Figure 1 shows the temperature anomaly of average air temperature in Brazil. Temperature anomaly indicates the departure from a mean reference value average. We can observe a positive anomaly value from 1993, indicating that the temperature was warmer than the reference value.

3.3. The Relationship between School Architecture, Curriculum, and Climate Change

Physical infrastructure must be able to offer adequate spaces and environments for all types of teaching and learning activities, optimizing the various demands met by the public school [20].

The 2021 UNESCO report was written in the context of the health crisis and summarizes the efforts by the international organization to restructure the school. In this sense, for the discussion of this text, it is relevant to focus on the relationship between school space and curricular purposes. One of the document’s most intriguing points is the statement that a new social contract for education demands diverse and sustainable spaces. Furthermore, it adds to the fact that, in the face of the environmental crisis, the idea of school life contained exclusively in the classroom should be abandoned. In the report, there is ample argument about the exhaustion of the Enlightenment school model that predominates on the planet based on pedagogical activities within the classroom. The project of more collaborative spaces and times is based on this argument.

They need to become places where students learn to live sustainably and take these messages home and in their communities. There is enormous potential for “green” schools and for bringing education to carbon neutrality. Students can lead this work, developing the knowledge and skills that will help them build the green economies our world desperately needs

[1]

Nóvoa [21] revives the debate that the exhaustion of this model is accompanied by the emergence of politically organized trends of deschooling. He identifies in this, initiative models of education that deepen social injustice, mainly because learning is not an individual act. Although the emergence of new technologies (and their diffusion during the pandemic) favors self-education learning models, it does not focus on a social and collaborative approach, on a public and well-being perspective. Therefore, in defense of the school, the author reinforces UNESCO’s argument that a new social contract for education is essential. In the words of Audrey Azoulay, Director General of UNESCO, the new social contract with education is “to rebuild our relationships with each other, with the planet and with technology” [1].

However, despite the enormous social importance that lies in the relationship between school space, curriculum and climate change, little adequate treatment has been given to measures and protocols to mitigate the problems.

Focusing on public schools, where the easily identifiable “stamp effect” is a preponderant factor, Azevedo [22] states that throughout the history of Brazilian education, there has been little commitment to the relationship between the quality of the physical space and the quality of education. Such disregard for school space is deepened by the impacts of climate change, such as extreme heat. The survey of state laws for the purchase of air conditioning shows the logic of the rubber stamp effect, as warned by Azevedo.

The relationship between school constructions and curricula is inserted in a context of social significance, with a relevant role in the ethical, cultural, and psychological formation of the community. As an example, Walshe, Moula and Lee [23] have been warning about eco-capabilities and the well-being of children in open spaces. Based on this work, we can observe how intensely experienced space ends up promoting such an effective relationship with the child, impacting their cosmovisions. Hence, the memories of the educational institution are perpetuated for years in their lives. The space of the school makes a decisive contribution to the education of future participating individuals.

Another point to be highlighted would be the ideological decision of conservative governments to purchase HVAC equipment as the sole solution. This internal contradiction of conservative governments is observed in this decision-making without investigating sustainable measures to mitigate the problem of thermal comfort, which highlights the political mismatch of dealing with the effect of climate change with solutions that cause more environmental impacts.

3.4. Education Policy and Response to Extreme Heat in Brazil

The National Education Plan (PNE) is the plan of educational goals (2014–2024), voted by the National Congress and sanctioned by the Presidency of the Republic. It is important to note that in the last edition, particular attention was paid to school infrastructure and conditions for Brazilian students. However, even though there was already a broad debate on sustainability in various areas of government regarding school infrastructure, there is no special concern about the cooling and/or heating system. In this sense, in relation to the pursuit of sustainable development, there is still a lack of proposals exclusively dedicated to the air conditioning system for cooling and/or heating in Brazilian schools and higher education institutions; both in terms of bioclimatic procedures or solar energy or water reuse. Ventilation, refrigeration, and maintenance of adequate temperature in the school environment were already addressed, in even more detailed terms, in the former National Education Plan (PNE, 2001–2010). In the current PNE (PNE 2014–2024), the infrastructure was considered an important element of quality, as set out in the following articles:

(7-5) formalize and execute the articulated action plans, in compliance with the reinforced quality goals for public basic education and the technical and financial support strategies implemented to improve educational management, the training of teachers and school service and support professionals, the extension and development of pedagogical resources and the improvement and expansion of the physical infrastructure of the school network

[24].

(7.21) the State, in collaboration with the subnational federated entities, will establish, within a period of 2 (two) years from the publication of this Law, minimum parameters of quality of basic education services, to be used as a reference for the infrastructure of schools, pedagogical resources, among other relevant inputs, as well as an instrument for adopting measures to improve the quality of teaching

[24].

The implementation of the projects and actions foreseen by the PNE to meet its goals are focused on funding from the FNDE. The National Education Development Fund (FNDE), a federal autarchy created by Law No. 5537, of 21 November 1968, and amended by Decree-Law No. 872, of 15 September 1969, is responsible for implementing educational policies in the Ministry of Education (MEC). The main mission of the FNDE is to transfer financial resources and provide technical assistance to states, municipalities, and the Federal District, to guarantee quality education for all. In addition to innovating the model of government purchases, the various projects and programs in execution, with strong and comprehensive action, make the FNDE a reference institution and the main body for the execution of educational policies. Currently, the FNDE, from the federal government, launched the National Pact for the Resumption of Basic Education Works, to improve school buildings throughout the country. The demand is for thermal comfort in schools and more environmental-centered characteristics of the projects, whether through ecological and bioclimatic interventions or through the installation of air-conditioning devices.

What calls our attention is that none of the initiatives signal a commitment to converting to more sustainable buildings. This work analyses state legislation, air conditioning programs for schools proposed by the education departments and even parliamentary menus.

Also, according to the FNDE, school buildings must observe the bioclimatic characteristics of the land. Adequacy of the building to the environmental parameters and the regional climate: Observe the thermal adequacy, allowing adequate natural lighting and ventilation to the environment, according to the comfort recommendations for the bioclimatic zone where the land is located. Also consider climatic characteristics due to the vegetation cover of the land, water surfaces, winds, sun and other elements that make up the landscape and microclimate that interfere with the comfort of building users [20].

The other two documents articulate school architecture with sustainability. We will discuss these two documents in detail.

In 2019, there was a bill no. 1185/2019, which is pending at the Brazilian Federal Chamber, which states: “… the adoption of a cooling and/or heating air-conditioning system, powered by photovoltaic solar energy, in the construction of new classrooms in schools and institutions of public education”. This bill is waiting for voting and implementation. There is another example of the reuse of water dispensed by air conditioning units not only in schools but in other public buildings, sanctioned by the progressive government in Ceará, one of the states where the semi-arid climate predominates, which suffers from the consequences of hydric crises.

In this sense, we can say that there are only two examples that seriously articulate thermal comfort with the sustainability of school buildings. This fact demonstrates how necessary the curricular debate on climate change is to support the demands for changes and protocols for coping with extreme heat. To this end, we list some examples of how extreme heat affects school life, in a dramatic scenario of climate change in the tropics. The following quotes were taken from newspapers with large circulation in the country.

“We’ve been asking since 2021, we called the city hall and received only the usual answers: that there’s a budget, bidding, company to do maintenance. Children stay in the heat for seven hours of class. Sometimes they can’t go out to drink water as they want”, said father of a student. Rio de Janeiro, 27 March 2023.

Available online: https://g1.globo.com/rj/rio-de-janeiro/noticia/2023/03/22/alunos-de-escolas-em-vila-isabel-contam-que-salas-tem-ar-condicionado-mas-aparelhos-nao-funcionam.ghtml (accessed on 7 August 2023)

“At this time of year, our school gets very hot. We had the implementation of the new secondary education, which is a new teaching method. Two days we stay full time, and the school is very hot. Students and teachers are sick. The heat is so strong that the communication fails. You can’t study like that”, said the 16-year-old student. Porto Alegre, 8 June 2023.

Available online: https://g1.globo.com/rj/regiao-dos-lagos/noticia/2023/03/27/alunos-de-cabo-frio-fazem-protesto-e-cobram-ar-condicionado-em-sala-de-aula-de-escola-da-rede-municipal.ghtml (accessed on 7 August 2023)

“It’s been a while since we’ve had classes under the trees because we couldn’t stand the heat inside the room. Meanwhile, the other room is full of air conditioners inside the boxes”, reports the student, while he takes his chair through the corridors to the trees. “Rio Grande do Norte, 8 June 2023.

Available online: https://g1.globo.com/rn/rio-grande-do-norte/noticia/2022/03/31/com-aparelhos-de-ar-condicionado-novos-encaixotados-ha-3-anos-estudantes-tem-aula-embaixo-de-arvores-por-causa-do-calor.ghtml (accessed on 7 August 2023).

It is interesting to note that there are dozens of reports on thermal discomfort in schools every summer. The tone of the reports is denouncing the heat in the classrooms, the illness of the school community and protests from parents and students alike. We could not identify any reports that associated thermal discomfort with climate changes. This again leads us to consider the necessary expansion and implementation of climate education that would certainly problematize thermal discomfort, in addition to the demand for air conditioning.

In the absence of protocols for coping with extreme heat by schools, the last quote from Rio Grande Norte calls our attention. Located in the Brazilian semi-arid region, the school community mentioned in the report provided an ecological response to thermal suffering. It should be noted that to face the thermal discomfort of the tropics, different actions, projects and, above all, a curriculum that engages students in climate education must be implemented. From the use of open spaces to the suspension of classes, there is a lot of improvisation to deal with thermal discomfort.

Thinking curricularly about the climate and the reorganization of new school spaces will not arise spontaneously. Facing the thermal discomfort and dissatisfaction of the school community with the installation of air conditioning is insufficient in the face of the climate crisis. For this reason, it is urgent to expand to the debate on climate education in Brazil and the impacts of extreme heat, involving school architecture, curriculum, and educational policy.

3.5. Brazilian Legislation and Air Conditioning in Schools and the HVAC Fetish

In this sense, it is important to acknowledge how decontextualized Brazilian legislation on thermal comfort seems to be and what we call here a fetish for mechanical air conditioning. In fact, mechanical acclimatization measures are necessary in situations of extreme heat, however, such actions are not accompanied by public debate on the environmental costs of these operations. It is important to note that the bills in the states of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Espírito Santo were developed within the scope of conservative governments and parties that ignore the environmental debate in the framework of these proposals.

Table 1. Laws and programs by state (Data was retrieved from the sites of the 27 federal legislative assemblies of Brazil between March 2023 and July 2023).

South-East Region	Law	Year	Political Ideology
Minas Gerais	Lei No. 17159	2007	Conservative
Rio de Janeiro	Lei No. 8.712	2020	Conservative
São Paulo	Lei No. 62/2021	2021	Conservative
Espírito Santo	Lei No. 142/2022	2022	Conservative
North-East Region
Maranhão	Only municipality laws	-	Progressive
Piauí	Only municipality laws	-	Progressive
Ceará	Lei No. 16.603	2018	Progressive
Paraíba	Only municipality laws	-	Progressive
Pernambuco	Lei No. 13.450	2008	Centre
Alagoas	Draft law	(2022)	Centre
Sergipe	Only municipality laws	-	Centre
Bahia	Only municipality laws	-	Progressive
North Region
Amazonas	Lei n 3989	2014	Conservative
Rondonia	Only municipality laws	-	Conservative
Acre	Thermal comfort program	2017	Progressive
Amapá	Thermal comfort program	2017	Conservative
Pará	Only municipality laws	-	A
Tocantins	Mandatory air-conditioned law	2022	Conservative
Centre-West Region
Mato Grosso	Thermal comfort program	2021	Conservative
Mato Grosso do Sul	Only municipality laws	-	Conservative
Goiás	Thermal comfort program	2017	Conservative
Distrito Federal	Only municipality laws	-	A
South Region
Paraná	Thermal comfort program	2012 & 2017	Conservative
Santa Catarina	Only municipality laws	-	A
Rio Grande do Sul	Only municipality laws	-	A

shows the laws and programs related to thermal comfort in Brazil.

Faced with the need for evaluation and for the creation of qualitative indicators on the perception of health and territorial security in schools, the premise of this study is the observance of the adoption of protocols and the response capacity of the school community to extreme events, considering the school architecture. We noticed that the Brazilian educational literature is scarcely dedicated to the debate about the school community’s response capacity to the protocol demands for extreme heat events.

This discussion is restricted to the field of school administration, still focusing on HVAC as the main solution. We note that the equipment installation is not linked to the debate on biosafety, and sustainability or accompanied by protocols aimed at thermal comfort with heat waves. That is, there is little debate about the school’s ability to respond to the reorganization of the school calendar in the face of an extreme event.

It is important to note that in Brazil, school buildings tend to adopt standardized projects that do not consider the climatic zones and, consequently, there are (regional) problems in relation to thermal comfort, which demand the adoption of artificial conditioning systems [25]. Indeed, the refurbishing of buildings originally conceived for other purposes is still frequent, without the necessary adaptation for educational activities, disregarding the attributes of the environment that may have an impact on learning performance.

Our survey of Brazilian legislation on the universalization of HVAC indicates how public agents give little importance to the use of passive strategies for thermal comfort. This results in higher energy consumption, due to the use of fans and air conditioners, with higher costs of maintenance and operation of school units. However, in many cases, even active climate control strategies are made unfeasible due to restrictions on budget, which makes the environment inadequate for pedagogical activities.

When analyzing the documents of national and international organizations on the reopening of schools during the last health crisis (2020–2021), we noticed how much school architecture and curriculum were objects of redefinition of the schools’ operating protocols. These documents (Table 1) manage the use of spatial practices in decisions about the functioning of schools, locally and globally. The physical presence in the school building impacts curriculum policy, for example, on the use of external spaces. It is worth remembering that in countries that returned to face-to-face classes in 2020, the use of areas outside the school was a predominant recommendation in biosafety documents. This fact significantly highlights how the spatial practice at school involves local policy decisions (management, teachers), agreeing in this case with health protocols of biosafety.

Indeed, the body-territory-body relationship developed by Haesbaert [26], guides us in analyzing the processes of opening and closing of the school in the face of an event, be it sanitary or caused by urban violence. That is, the events of the school’s territorial operation, be it a pandemic, be it an extreme climate event (such as floods, for example), deserve to be questioned in the light of the Anthropocene as the space-time condition that imposes itself on the meaning of school.

In this direction, the proponent is committed to the feminist theories [27] of geography, especially by Doreen Massey (1944–2016) to outline the object, considering that the social function of the school demands meeting places. Such a theoretical option also helps justify this project due to the stories of professors—whether mandatory internship supervisors or friends—who described the health crisis in Brazil, in which they reveal how the government (does not) protect the body and the territory of children on the outskirts of a violent city like Rio de Janeiro.

Considering the debate that living on the edge of territories in Latin America, as Rogério Haesbaert [26] teaches us, is to seek resistance strategies. Thus, the possibility of rethinking the re-functionalization of school architecture and curriculum becomes imperative to question how the bodies of the school community produce territories of comfort, affection, and care at school. This element of analysis and territorial practice, however, is little explored in the educational literature when it comes to biosafety in schools.

4. Conclusions

According to UNESCO, it is necessary to promote interaction between the architectural object and the physical, climatic, and cultural conditions for a new social contract with education, focused on ecological learning. The influence of climatic factors is quite relevant to the quality of the physical space in pedagogical environments. It is essential to establish spatial characteristics that favor open spaces curricula with a focus on cooperation between students. This means spaces that meet the needs of users and ensure desirable levels of comfort and health.

Poorly thermally structured environments can cause discomfort and make it difficult for the occupants to perform activities. The excess heat of the environment will cause physical and psychological wear, impairing the student’s concentration and contributing to inefficiency in the performance of school tasks.

It is interesting to note the mismatch between the laws regarding school buildings and the parameters recommended by the public financing agent—FNDE. The FNDE parameters center on sustainability, considering the bioclimatic zones while the congress initiatives are aimed exclusively at the purchase of air conditioners. In these laws, there are no measures that contemplate, for example, bioarchitecture or vegetative cover of schools.

The analysis of state laws on air conditioning in schools reveals two political aspects involving the relationship between education and climate, in two respects. First, the scales of policies that impact the relationship between education and climate. While on a global scale, there is a progressive initiative to functionalize schools in the face of polycrises, in Brazil, on a state scale, thermal comfort initiatives focus on the purchase of air conditioning, with flagrant misuse of public resources. This is regardless of political ideologies, (although conservative governments tend to apply more straightforward HVAC policies, like the cases of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Espírito Santo mentioned earlier). This leads us to stress the importance of climate education, sustainability, and scientific communication actions for decision-makers to deepen the debate on thermal comfort measures in schools.