Humans and nature relationship : images and text of ecology and environmental e...

• Author(s): Skujiene, Grita ; Valanides, Nicos ; Nisiforou, Olympia ; Kozan, Adrienne ; Branca Tracana, Rosa ; Ferreira, Cláudia ; Carvalho, Graça Simões de ; Horvath, Daniel ; Berthou, Guillemette ; Caravita, Silvia ; Margnelli, Nicola
• Date: 2007
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/1822/6368
• Origin: RepositóriUM - Universidade do Minho
• Subject(s): Environmental education; Textbooks; Comparative study; Human-nature relationship; Environmental ethics; Educação ambiental; Manuais escolares
• Document Type: Conference Object
• Language: English

Description

The present study investigated whether and how ecology and environmental education (EEE) affects the understanding of the Human-Nature relationship by images and historical, ethical and socio-economical textual information existing in textbooks targeting 14-15-year old children. Four subtopics - Uses of Resources; Pollution; Biodiversity; Ecosystems and Cycles – from textbooks of 15 different European and African countries were specifically selected, analyzed and comparisons were made. Results indicated that ecocentrism is the starting position. Historical, ethical and socio-economical dimensions relating to EEE is usually poor. There were also limited references to juridical norms and international agreements concerning environmental protection, biodiversity and sustainability issues.