World Environment Day at Daugavpils University by DU UNESCO chair
Aktualizēts 05.06.2015 12:49
Every year World Environment Day is celebrated on June 5. It is one of the ways how United Nations facilitate understanding about environment issues in the world. On June 5, 2015 we celebrate the 43rd anniversary of World Environment Day and this year the slogan is “Seven Billion Dreams. One Planet. Consume with Care”. On this day everyone is asked to pay attention to environmental problems and promote understanding about environmental issues in the world. Environmental protection is the priority in EU Constitution and there are several aims in the environmental sphere: to save, to protect, to improve environment quality, to protect people’s health, to use natural resources reasonably and rationally and to organize activities for solving environmental problems in regions and in the whole world.
Within the framework of Global Universities Partnership on Environment and Sustainability (GUPES) network students of professional bachelor programme “Teacher” and professional master programme “Education” and “Career consultant and youth specialist” (The faculty of Educational and Management at Daugavpils University) in cooperation with UNESCO Chair and Centre of Sustainable Education at Daugavpils University took part in World Environment Day activities. The students participated in photo competition “My Latvia” as well as poem and essay competition, they made posters and participated in identification and cleaning of the most polluted places in the neighbourhood. Their works motivate every of us not only to pay attention to the beauty around us but also to increase it.
Preparation of the activity included educational action research study about relations between humans and nature and individual practical theory foundation for our future pedagogical activity. Educational action research was integrated in study course Education for Sustainable Development as one of the complex issues which students were working on in cooperation with doctoral student of Daugavpils University – Laima Āboliņa.
The cooperation was started in February and lasted until World Environment Day as a complex dialogue between students from two different level study programmes: bachelor’s and doctoral. Discussions about environmental education, education, mission of pedagogy, their individual significant experience in integrative and pedagogical wisdom seeking educational action research were organised in parallel with the study course. The participants used technological devices as Prezi.com and google.doc having the possibility in such way to work individually, to cooperate in smaller or bigger groups, to study the phenomenon showing the human attitude towards environment and the way an individual interacts with environment. During the research and dialogue sessions the participants found complex phenomenon related to evolution of their experience. Acquiring of the experience was as an exciting trip during learning well-known theories in environmental pedagogy – ecological me, ecological identity, eco-feeling, bio-feeling and eco-philosophy.
The research participants named the individually significant phenomenon as one of the issues which should be felt by a teacher and used in realisation of their pedagogical activity. Unexpectedly appeared he topic of surviving in the research. Within this topic the participants found out and evaluated deeper nuances: surviving, wise surviving, human surviving realising their potential and survival in respectful to human mission. Detailed analysis of these nuances gave possibility to assure oneself about the relation between ecological attitude and understanding of human surviving.
Reflection on interconnectedness of these two complex phenomena allowed using methodological method named by students as “dance”. The method was used for the first time some years ago when research participant Laima was a master level student and her group was trying to find out the interconnectedness among ecological attitude and understanding of surviving and possibilities for teachers to use this nuanced interconnectedness in explanation of human and environment relations and realising pedagogical tasks.
The dialogue lasting four months between bachelor’s programme students and a doctoral student will be concluded as a complex conversation on conclusions and benefits which were gained for further action of a teacher and a researcher. The activity takes place on June 5 – World Environment Day.
Additional information about World Environment Day activities is available here.
More information:
Prof. Ilga Salīte
DU UNESCO chair
E-mail: ilga.salite@du.ces.lv