Abstract
Abstract: Th e theoretical part of the paper introduces environmental ethics and points out its most frequent issues. It shows that the objective of education is to support pupils in their autonomous decision making. Th e objectives of this research study were a) to implement the environmental activity “At the Swallow’s Nest” with primary school pupils and to verify its functionality, b) to find out what decisions were taken by pupils and how these decisions were justified, and c) to discover what influenced the pupils’ decision making. For these purposes, the method of action research was used, based on records of children’s statements, a description of their behaviour, and a questionnaire survey. Overall, the author conducted the activity with 380 primary school pupils. Th e questionnaire was collected from 158 pupils. Th e results show that: (a) primary pupils can already discuss environmental problems and learn how to solve them; b) the pupils’ decisions are influenced by a number of variables, c) there is no correlation between a decision and any of the controlled variables (age, family background, religion, etc.). A single dependency was detected, namely the dependency on the group (if it was a permanent group), which (given that the voting was anonymous) can be interpreted as the influence of the class teacher on their pupils’ decisions. Conclusions: Although solving similar types of activities is not common in the conception of environmental education in Czech schools (let alone on the primary school level), similar pedagogical interventions seem to be a suitable tool in environmental moral education.
 Keywords: environmental ethics, environmental education, decision-making processes, primary education.
Highlights
Environmental ethics connects ethics with environmental education. It does not have a stable theoretical and terminological basis yet, as a) it is a relatively young discipline (that emerged in the second half of the 20th century in connection with the environmental movement, b) its issues are solved by scientists with various theoretical backgrounds and education, and c) non-scientific approaches intervene
Environmental ethics focuses on human relationships to nature, animate and inanimate systems, specific organisms, populations, ecosystems, and elements of inanimate nature
For example, as “gentlemanship to nature” or “a set of principles and rules that indicate to humankind how they should behave in their communion with the whole nonhuman world” (Kohák, 2000) or “trying to tread the ground lightly”, which includes respect for all living things, efforts to maintain the self-sufficiency of families and countries, and the promotion of community life and development of environmental sensitivity (Næss, 1973/1995)
Summary
Environmental sensitivity is understood to be the fundamental objective of environmental education It is described as an emotional aspect of the relationship to nature, a personality component of character consisting of a) a disposition, or predisposition towards an interest in nature – the desire to learn, observe, and look for patterns in systemic functions and structures, b) the awareness of damage to nature, c) the need to protect nature, and d) genuine activity targeted at environmental protection. It is a complex interaction between the amount of life experiences and their interpretation by an individual (Chawla, 1988; Franěk, 2004)
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