Environmental Education arises in the context of understanding the urgency of the environmental crisis and the need to seek answers for its mitigation. The different perspectives of AE compete for the affirmation of notions of the world, of society, of social well-being, of work and of life. The research investigated the conceptions of Environmental Education (EA) present in the scope of the Federal Institutes, having as corpus the Pedagogical Course Project (PPC) of teacher training courses in chemistry offered in these institutions in 23 states and in the Federal District. The documents were analyzed, in their entire body, with the aid of Textual Discursive Analysis (ATD). The results demonstrate the predominance of a conservative environmental education, of an apolitical and biologizing character, in the analyzed documents, what can be reflected in the profile of the chemical educator to be formed in these institutions.

The change in the way of teaching Chemistry requires, among others aspects, the rupture of established teaching practices and involves the professional development of teachers. Several conditions are necessary for such changes to take place, such as the recognition and legitimation of a specific knowledge to teach Chemistry as the Pedagogical Knowledge of Chemistry Content (PCKC) and the identification and characterization of obstacles that hamper the development of this professional knowledge. In this context, this article aims to describe the characterization of two epistemological obstacles: valorative obstacle and experiential obstacle, identified in the concept of undergraduate students of Chemistry Degree. The identification of obstacles of an epistemological nature in the concept of future Chemistry teachers can contribute to the improvement of the teacher training, since it gives subsidies to promote the learning of professional knowledge in Chemistry and perhaps to strengthen the professionalization of this career.