Vzťah žiakov k svojmu miestnemu regiónu = Pupils' relationship to their local region regulation

Abstract

Local landscape is a part of the real world that surrounds a person from an early childhood. It offers opportunities for their cognitive development, stimuli for emotional development, shapes their views. A positive relationship with the local region should be developed in Geography education as one of the affective educational goals. The aim of this paper is to evaluate pupils' perception of the concept of a local region and to find out their relationship to their local region based on the results of a questionnaire survey of pupils of lower secondary education in the Czechia and Slovakia. The data were collected using an online questionnaire, which was completed by 4 673 pupils in the Czechia and 3 980 pupils in Slovakia. The results show that pupils perceive their local region most often as the whole district or the whole region in which they live. Pupils' attitude to the local region decreases with their age and was stronger among boys. Slovak pupils identify with their region more and there are significant differences in their relationship to the region across regions. In particular, pupils are most proud of the natural environment and cultural monuments. The findings are beneficial in the field of regional identity research, but also in educational settings, as the local region and a deeper knowledge of it is not only the goal, but also the means of Geographic education.