Formation of Ecological and Patriotic Culture in youth through the Project “Green Memory Alley”

Abstract

The paper substantiates the necessity of forming ecological and patriotic culture in the younger generation at the present stage of society development. The purpose of the article is to search for effective forms and methods of formation of ecological and patriotic culture among the representatives of the younger generation. It describes the experience of team work at Saratov regional educational institutions of different levels (schools and universities) in the implementation of the regional project “Green Memory Alley “ for the period 2005-2021. The project includes the following stages: 1. Development of environmental awareness and patriotic feelings and emotions in the interacting participants based on value preferences; 2. Guidance of the project participants to the ecological and patriotic perception of reality; 3. Participants’ awareness of the interaction between the personal and social meaning of environmental and patriotic activities; 4. Interaction of participants in the ecological-patriotic educational space. A significant basis for participants’ work on the project “Green Alley of Memory” is modeling and arrangement of the green alley in memory of the soldiers who died during the Great Patriotic War by means of the artistic, aesthetic, environmental, spiritual, moral and symbolic value of plants. Сonclusion. It has been revealed that the symbolic concepts ‘Social memory of the war’ and ‘Living organisms and plants’ proposed in the project can be system-forming elements of the value bases of ecological and patriotic culture in the younger generation. It is aimed at developing insights into preservation and maintenance of life on a planetary scale. On the basis of the research, ecological and patriotic culture is presented as a personal phenomenon that expresses the essential relationship of such categories as culture, patriotism, ecology and values reflecting involvement in the traditions of civic duty, service to the Motherland and love for nature, life, and the universe. The research singled out, described and validated the cognitive-content, motivational-value, organizational-activity components and the stages that form the structure of ecological-patriotic culture.