Trends of the Environmental education in Russia
Russia has recently become a state of the “general ecologization”. Moreover the importance of this sphere of human knowledge and the necessity of the environmental education are admitted by everybody including teachers and ministers. The final aim of the environmental education is the formation of a “healthy environment community” that lives in harmony with nature. Mixing concepts, terms and theories gives a negative phenomenon – representatives of different trends can not speak the same language in spite of the only and identical aim – educating a generation of people who would thinks “ecologically” (in an environment way).
The analysis of the environmental education in Russian schools for the last 10 years helps to come to the conclusion that the environmental education includes at least 5 trends: “school (theoretical) ecology“, “technical (industrial) ecology“, “socio-political ecology“, “playing ecology“, ‘field ecology“. The present classification is rather symbolic and thus we may speak of different ecology, using these word-combinations only in quotation marks and bearing in mind that we don’t speak of ecology as a whole but only of some trends of the environmental education. All these trends are characterized by different approaches to the education of children, a quite different substance forms of work and direct ways of communication with children. Moreover, each of these trends has got its own authors, its own means of communication and its own audience.
The “school (theoretical) ecology trend of the environmental education” is mainly based on studying general environment objective laws and global environmental problems. Textbooks that educators use in their teaching are written in a very “dull” and “global” manner.
The “technical” trend in the environment education is based on studying the results of the industrial influence on the environment and the ways of struggle with pollution by various technical means. As a part of professional education this sphere is certainly very important but is not the main one in forming a correct attitude of a person to the Nature.
The “sociopolitical” ecology is nature preservation through the adoption of “Reduce-Reuse-Recycle” philosophy, and its implementation in industry and everyday life. This trend though spreading quickly throughout the country is inefficient because it causes fear for the future and a social tensions as a result of searching for scapegoats. Positive aspect sociopolitical ecology is that many people start to support the idea of preserving nature and thus can attract the attention of “powerful people of the world” to the ecological problems.
The “playing” trend in education is something new for our country and is spreading fast among educators (especially in schools). Any game including an ecological one is a fine occupation for children that aids to their maturity and an easy way of acquiring useful knowledge for adults. A foreign influence in this field contributes to an active development of the “playing” ecology in our country as our foreign colleagues have gained an enormous experience for many years and it is deprived of national peculiarities and need only a translation.
Nowadays the sphere of the “field” ecology turned out to be a less developed and less simple form of the environmental education in Russia. And it is quite evident: the teachers who have got a special natural sciences education are engaged in the sphere of the “school” ecology. The former engineers and educators of technical colleges are engaged in the “technical” ecology. Everybody can be engaged in the “socio-political” and “playing” ecology including former active members of youth communist movement. But everything mentioned above is insufficient for a “field” ecology educator. The person must combine the qualities of a scientist, an outdoor guide and an entrepreneur to successfully teach “field” ecology.
by Alexander S. Bogolubov
