Is formal environmental education friendly to nature? Environmental ethics in science textbooks for primary school pupils in Poland

Abstract

Due to the increased interest in ecology, global warming and numerous environmental problems, ecological issues are becoming extremely important in education. Many researchers and thinkers believe that solutions to environmental problems are affected by the environmental ethics adopted. This article identifies which of the three branches of environmental ethics (anthropocentric, biocentric and holistic ethics) are present in formal environmental education in Poland. This has been achieved by analysing the content of textbooks used by science teachers in the fourth grade of elementary schools (Stage II of education). The results show that (moderate) anthropocentric ethics is dominant in the content of formal environmental education, while biocentric ethics is less frequent and there is also some focus on holistic ethics and the declaration that man is part of nature.

Keywords:

• Environmental ethics
• philosophical foundations of education
• ecological education
• primary school pupils
• school textbooks

Notes

1. More information about each branch of ecological ethics is presented in the categorization key in the methods section of this paper.