Children's attitude to nature as seen through school educational systems in Norway and Ukraine: children's perception in relation to educational objectives

Abstract

Human-nature connection has changed drastically since the Industrial revolution, with technological development alienating people from natural environment. Educational institutions have major responsibility for how future generations form attitudes to nature and nowadays nature is often experienced and learned about in artificial environments. This research aims to identify how children perceive nature in Norway and Ukraine through public education systems. One class in one public school in each country has been chosen for the research. Both schools are located in urban areas and sample consisted of a total of about 40 sixth grade pupils aged 11-13 years old. Taking into account the historical background and educational approaches in both countries I assume that Ukrainian children do not form as strong connection to nature through schools as Norwegian children do. Therefore the following questions were identified as central to the research: What are the similarities and differences in children‟s attitudes to nature in Norway and Ukraine as seen through school setting? What are the main similarities and differences in the approach to education about nature in both countries? What are the possible effects of the curriculum design and educational objectives on the way children experience and form attitudes to nature in schools? I feel there is something strange with this sentence, but I am not sure what it is The qualitative research was chosen to generate data, which was collected in form of essays written by pupils. Comparative Education Research was done on the national level by analyzing and comparing national educational policy documents and subject curriculum between the two countries with the short historical description of the contexts in two countries provided.