Environmental Responsibility Of Teacher: Professional Involvement In A Common Cause

Abstract

The preamble to the Earth Charter affirms the shared responsibility of every citizen for the present and future well-being of humanity and life on Earth. Each person, regardless of any factors, criteria, must take on personal environmental responsibility and be guided by it in everyday life, in socially significant activities and other activities. Taking environmental responsibility, a person becomes involved in solving a problem on a planetary scale. Genuine environmental responsibility should act as an internal regulator of personality behaviour, including in the professional sphere. The essence of environmental responsibility, structure, and its qualitative indicators are different for representatives of different professions. This article examines the phenomenon of "ecological responsibility of a teacher" as a type of professional involvement in a common cause for the inhabitants of the planet – the creation of a community based on respect for nature and human rights. Purpose of the study follows: based on the study of literary sources, theoretical analysis, the method of logical generalizations and modelling, to determine the essence, content, functions of the teacher's environmental responsibility, criteria and levels of its formation, to present a graphic model of this category.

Keywords: Co-evolution, teacher responsibility, environmental responsibility

Introduction

Realized by humanity, the need to move to a new qualitative stage of its development, based on the implementation of the principles of co-evolution and sustainability, has consolidated significant international resources: political, economic, socio-cultural, financial, educational, technological and other resources. However, despite the ongoing efforts, the issue of transition to the co-evolutionary stage of development is still not removed from the global agenda of the 21st century. This process is primarily because the actions of different countries, organizations, foundations, companies are often determined by location, small tasks of a particular field of activity, and corporate interests. In the mass consciousness, a sense of the involvement of each individual in a common cause, namely, the creation of a community based on respect for nature and human rights, has not yet been formed.

Considerable interest in the study of the problem of philosophical aspects of responsibility in the field of interaction between society and nature and social ecology is reflected in international studies by Benton and Benton (2004), Bykova, (2016), Sychev (2014), Panov (2009) and other scientists.

The value-normative and ethical-applied aspects of man's relationship to nature have been studied in detail by Sychev (2014) in work "Ethics of Environmental Responsibility". Sychev (2014) carried out with the support of the Grants Council under the President of the Russian Federation, which emphasizes the recognition of the importance of this issue at the state level.

Problem Statement

In modern science, the phenomenon of "environmental responsibility" quite often becomes a subject of study (Benton & Benton, 2004; Raymond et al., 2010 Panov, 2009; Sychev, 2014; Tarsney, 2018;), as well as research in the field of professional-pedagogical responsibility (Bykova, 2016).

The contradiction that needs to be resolved, in our opinion, is that there is a need for everyone together (the teaching community) and each separately (the teacher) to "be environmentally responsible". However, there is no unified approach to understanding the essence of the teacher's environmental responsibility, criteria have not been developed, and the levels of its manifestation. This contradiction reveals the problem of determining the essence of this category. In other words, it is necessary to answer the question: what is the ecological responsibility of a teacher?

Research Questions

This article is the result of a search for the essential characteristics of the teacher's environmental responsibility, which would allow identifying indicators of its formation. The article attempts to substantiate the essence of the teacher's environmental responsibility as the ability of the individual to feel a sense of belonging to a common cause – the co-evolution of humanity and nature, to understand the relationship between the results of one's activity with nature and the goals adopted by society or the collective. Our research is based on the views of Orekhovsky (2015) on the philosophy of responsibility. In this regard, for this study, it is significant to conclude that responsibility is:

a phenomenon that reflects the spiritual and practical nature of personality;

a valuable stimulus to the civic activity of an individual, which determines his readiness to act based on free choice and foreseeing results;

the moral quality of a person manifested in his ability to self-control based on personal moral principles, conditioned by the accepted social and legal norms;

the ability of an individual to be aware of involvement in a common cause, the relationship between the results of his activities and the goals adopted by society or the team.

Responsibility has several characteristics that define its essence:

any responsibility (professional, legal, environmental and other types of responsibility) has a social orientation and arises as a response to the needs of society;

the subject of responsibility is a person; collective responsibility is a set of personal "responsibilities";

to take responsibility for what / someone or before what / someone, a person must have cognitive, activity and axiological resources.

Responsibility is presented by us as the interconnection of inherent, essential, inalienable properties – attributes the subject, the instances to which it is addressed, the resources of the individual.

Purpose of the Study

The article is aimed at defining the essence, content, functions of the teacher's ecological responsibility, criteria and levels of its formation, and presenting a graphic model of this category.

Research Methods

For the study, the method of studying literary sources, theoretical analysis, the method of logical generalizations and modelling were used.

Findings

Having studied the works of Benton and Benton (2004), Raymond et al. (2010), Tarsney (2018), we believe that the ecological responsibility of a teacher should be understood as an integrative professionally and socially significant moral quality of the teacher's personality. The ecological responsibility of the teacher is manifested in his readiness and ability to carry out ecological and pedagogical activities to form the ecological responsibility of students. The ecological responsibility of the teacher as an integrative professionally and socially significant moral quality of the teacher's personality performs several key functions:

This function allows a person navigating in the system of universal ("Nature – Man – Society") and pedagogical values. The teacher's acceptance of environmental responsibility determines the development of internal grounds for the preference of moral values ​​associated with the awareness of the need to perform professional activities in a quality manner to form the environmental responsibility of students and other participants in educational relations. Based on such a system of values, the most significant moral lines of the behaviour of the teacher are identified.

Environmental responsibility orients the teacher's personality towards cognition as a result of the practical development of not only the objective characteristics of the process of environmental education but also their meaning and interrelationships. This function predetermines the totality of personally, socially and professionally significant ethical knowledge, principles, norms, codes that form a model of teacher's moral behaviour in the process of organizing students' environmental education.

Environmental responsibility regulates the teacher's behaviour following the rules of ethics and regulatory requirements for the organization of environmental education in different age groups.

. Based on the acceptance of environmental responsibility, the teacher evaluates and adjusts his professional activities and educational results of students from the standpoint of good or harm to the environment.

Environmental responsibility sets the educational system of one's moral norms, habits, customs, morals, generally recognized models of interaction with nature, which, in turn, has an educational influence on students.

Environmental responsibility is a specific stimulus for the civic activity of an individual, which determines his readiness to act based on free choice and foreseeing the results of environmental pedagogical activity.

Acceptance of environmental responsibility has a significant impact on various forms and directions of teacher communication both in the educational process and beyond.

Environmental responsibility as a moral quality of a teacher is manifested in the relationship between the teacher and society and the relationship between the teacher and himself. Therefore, it performs a specific set of functions in socially significant and personally significant aspects.

Functions of environmental responsibility in socially significant terms:

• formation of environmental responsibility of new generations to achieve sustainable development of humanity and the environment in the future. Taking into account the point of view of Sychev (2014) on the types of the modality of responsibility (responsibility for what is real, responsibility for what is due, responsibility for what is possible), we consider the ecological responsibility of the teacher as responsible for the possible, since the teacher is responsible for what can only be;
• dissemination of ideas of environmental ethics among various social groups not directly involved in educational relations: in the student's family, in the teaching staff, in partner institutions;
• initiation and implementation of environmental-oriented actions, research projects aimed at improving the environmental situation in a particular region, city, village.

Functions of the teacher's environmental responsibility in a personally significant aspect:

• designing your own, including professional activities based on the values ​​of environmental and pedagogical ethics;
• mobilization for the implementation of environmental pedagogical activities, the achievement of its results;
• self-control in the course of solving ecological and pedagogical problems.

The environmental responsibility model includes several components that reflect their interrelationships (Fig. 1).

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The central component of the model is the personality of the teacher as a subject of environmental responsibility, which accumulates theoretical, activity, deontological and axiological resources of a general cultural and professional nature. The resources allow the individual effectively implementing the environmental education of students and pupils at the instrumental level in order to form their environmental responsibility. The formation of a teacher's environmental responsibility can be judged by the quality of the response (response) to the internal (oneself) and external (society) instance to the society's request to develop massive environmental responsibility, expressed concerning the result of one's own environmental and pedagogical activity.

It seems logical to single out four criteria for the formation of a teacher's ecological responsibility: theoretical, activity-based, axiological and deontological.

for the formation of a teacher's environmental responsibility can be assessed based on two groups of indicators: mastering the system of theoretical knowledge and the system of knowledge in the field of environmental education. The system of theoretical knowledge includes the following types of knowledge:

• ecological knowledge about the conceptual foundations of modern ecology, connections and dependencies existing in ecosystems, evolutionary processes of the biosphere; biological, physical, chemical bases of ecological processes; sources of environmental hazards at the global, national and regional levels, the nature of the impact on humans of negative environmental factors, errors and misbehaviour of people when interacting with the environment;
• worldview knowledge about the global environmental problems of humanity, the reasons for their occurrence, ways of solving them, the role of man in the evolution of the Earth;
• normative and legal knowledge about the economic and legal aspects of environmental management, the rights and obligations of citizens in the field of interaction between man and nature.

The knowledge system in the field of environmental education assumes knowledge of state documents on environmental education and education of the younger generation, knowledge of the essence and content of environmental education; modern concepts of environmental education, knowledge of the methodology of environmental education.

for the formation of a teacher's environmental responsibility involves assessing the ability to interact with the environment and mastery of methods and technologies of environmental education by several indicators. The skills to interact with the environment include the following: to establish causal relationships in the "Human-Society-Nature" system, to use rational methods of independent work to obtain environmental knowledge, to carry out self-analysis, self-assessment of the information received, to assess the ecological state of one's area, to carry out environmental activities, predict the possible results of their activities in the environmental aspect, observe the system of norms and rules of behaviour in nature.

The formation of abilities assesses possession of methods and technologies of environmental education:

• select, analyze, synthesize teaching and educational material following the program objectives,
• independently choose the forms, methods, means of environmental education,
• to organize leisure activities of environmental orientation,
• to evaluate the results of environmental education of pupils and students,
• to predict the results of the educational work of an ecological orientation,
• to create an ecologically developing environment in an educational organization,
• carry out environmental education of parents,
• to model pedagogical interaction in the course of environmental education.

for the formation of a teacher's ecological responsibility can be assessed based on

• emotional and value attitudes towards nature, harmony between man and nature, the values ​​of nature,
• biological, economic, epistemological, psychological and aesthetic, religious, pedagogical, ethical and the value of sustainable development,
• a sense of attachment to the place, and environmental and educational activities;
• eco humanism, education as an ecological, educational environment, the ethnoecological orientation of education.

for the formation of a teacher's environmental responsibility allows tracking the quality of the response to the request of society to develop mass environmental responsibility through the need to meet the requirements of environmental and pedagogical duty.Its indicators are:

• awareness of their involvement in the change of mass environmental consciousness through the implementation of professional activities;
• the need for the dynamic development of the environmental responsibility of pupils and students;
• the need for high-quality compliance with the regulatory requirements of educational standards in the field of environmental education.

Based on the proposed system of criteria and indicators, four levels of the formation of the teacher's environmental responsibility are distinguished, which correspond to its types:

• the increased level corresponds to the creative type,
• advanced level – initiative type,
• model level – performing type,
• low level – unscrupulous type.

The following indicators characterize of the teacher's environmental responsibility:

• the teacher has a system of theoretical ecological, ideological, regulatory knowledge, knowledge in the field of theory and methodology of ecological education;
• the teacher owns the technologies of interaction with the environment;
• the teacher is familiar with the methodology and advanced technologies of environmental education;
• a teacher can be an active member of a public ecological organization, accepts the value of Nature as equal to a Human, refers to the unity of "human - nature" as the highest value, he experiences anxiety about the state of Nature;
• the teacher is aware of his involvement in changing the mass environmental consciousness through the implementation of environmental and pedagogical activities;
• the teacher is ready to independently develop and implement environmental-pedagogical projects that do not have a directive nature, and he can assess the need for their implementation and anticipate the results;
• the teacher experiences a steady need for the dynamic development of the environmental responsibility of pupils and students, as well as for the qualitative fulfilment of the regulatory requirements of educational standards in the field of environmental education, is able and ready to be responsible for the results of his own environmental and pedagogical activities in front of himself and the society.

The following indicators characterize of the teacher's environmental responsibility:

• the teacher possesses theoretical ecological, ideological, regulatory knowledge, knowledge in the field of theory and methodology of ecological education;
• the teacher owns the technologies of interaction with the environment; methods and technologies of environmental education;
• the teacher accepts the value of Nature as equal to Man, feels anxiety about the state of Nature;
• the teacher can be a member of a public environmental organization, realizes his involvement in changing the mass environmental consciousness through the implementation of environmental and pedagogical activities;
• the teacher is ready to implement environmental and pedagogical projects of a directive nature creatively, and he can foresee their results;
• the teacher feels the need for the dynamic development of the environmental responsibility of pupils and students, as well as for the qualitative fulfilment of the regulatory requirements of educational standards in the field of environmental education;
• the teacher is able and ready to be responsible for the results of his environmental-pedagogical activity in front of himself and society.

of the teacher's environmental responsibility has the following indicators:

• the teacher has sufficient theoretical environmental, ideological, regulatory knowledge, knowledge in the field of theory and methodology of environmental education;
• the teacher owns the technologies of interaction with the environment; methods and technologies of environmental education;
• the teacher is worried about the state of Nature;
• the teacher can formally belong to the ranks of public environmental organizations;
• the teacher is partially aware of his involvement in changing the mass environmental consciousness through the implementation of environmental and pedagogical activities;
• the teacher is ready to participate in the proposed environmental and pedagogical projects of a directive nature;
• the teacher periodically feels the need to develop the environmental responsibility of pupils and students, as well as to fulfil the regulatory requirements of educational standards in the field of environmental education, and he can be responsible for the results of his own environmental and pedagogical activities in front of society.

of the teacher's environmental responsibility has the following indicators:

• the teacher possesses fragmentary theoretical ecological, ideological, regulatory knowledge, knowledge in the field of theory and methodology of ecological education;
• the teacher is aware of the technologies of interaction with the environment;
• the teacher partially owns the methodology of environmental education;
• the teacher does not realize the value of Nature as equal to Man, does not consider the unity of "man-nature" as the highest value, does not feel anxiety for the state of nature;
• the teacher is partially aware of his involvement in changing the mass environmental consciousness through the implementation of environmental and pedagogical activities;
• the teacher is not ready to participate in the proposed environmental-pedagogical projects of a directive nature;
• the teacher does not feel the need to develop the environmental responsibility of pupils and students, to comply with the regulatory requirements of educational standards in the field of environmental education, he is not able to be responsible for the results of his own environmental and pedagogical activities to himself and society.

Conclusion

Taking into account the above, we consider the ecological responsibility of the teacher as an integrative professionally and socially significant moral quality of the personality of the teacher, which manifests itself in his readiness and ability to carry out ecological and pedagogical activities based on:

1) a system of theoretical ecological, ideological, regulatory and legal knowledge, knowledge in the field of theory and methodology of environmental education;

2) mastering the technologies of interaction with the environment, methods and advanced technologies of environmental education;

3) acceptance of the value of Nature as equal to Man;

4) awareness of their involvement in changing the global environmental responsibility of society;

5) a sustainable need for the dynamic development of the environmental responsibility of pupils and students, for the qualitative fulfillment of the regulatory requirements of educational standards in the field of environmental education and be responsible for its results before oneself and society.

Thus, the main goal of the article is realized. The article defines the essence of the teacher's ecological responsibility, defines the content, functions, criteria and levels of its formation. The results obtained in the course of this theoretical study are initial for the design of mechanisms for the formation of this quality in the process of professional training of teachers.

References

• Benton, R., & Benton, C. S. (2004). Why teach environmental ethics? Because we already do World Views. Environ., Culture, Relig., 8(2/3), 227–242. http://ecommons.luc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1010&context=business_facpubs

• Bykova, S. S. (2016). Professional responsibility of the future teacher: content and structure of the concept. Yaroslavl Pedag. Bull., 3, 49–53.

• Orekhovsky, A. I. (2015). Philosophy of Responsibility. Methodological, conceptual and theoretical, legal, analytical and prognostic aspects. LLC Algorithm.

• Panov, V. I. (2009). Environmental responsibility in the context of different meanings of the concept of “nature”. Russ. Sci. J., 6(13), 267–278.

• Raymond, C., Brown, G., & Weber, D. (2010). The measurement of place attachment: Personal, Community, and Environmental Connections. J. of Environ. Psychol., 4, 422–434.

• Sychev, A. A. (2014). Ethics of Environmental Responsibility. Alpha-M.

• Tarsney, C. (2018). Moral Uncertainty for Deontologists. Ethical Theory and Moral Pract., 21, 505–520. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10677-018-9924-4#citeas