Education Journal

Special Issue

Ecology of Education

  • Submission Deadline: Oct. 10, 2015
  • Status: Submission Closed
  • Lead Guest Editor: Irena Katane
About This Special Issue
The philosophically methodological base of this Special Issue will be Ecology of Education.

The philosophical-methodological basis of the various trends of modern Human Ecology became also the grounds for the development of Ecology of Education as an interdisciplinary trend of scientific research. Ecology of Education is one of the trends of human ecology; the interdiscipline integrating natural, social sciences and the humanities, which studies the interaction between a human being as individual and/or social systems and the multidimensional environment from the holistic perspective, viewing education as the facilitator of the sphere, process, result and development of human activity in the aspect of human and environmental quality/trait. Due to the variety of the trends of human ecology, the varied explanations and interpretation of the concept environment are also transferred to educational ecology:

1) environment — its us (social environment);
2) environment is everything that surrounds us and is outside us;
3) environment — the totality of the reflections of real things, phenomena, processes in the human psyche;
4) environment is a multilevel ecological system (ecosystem), within which a human being as an endosystem, sub-structure of ecosystem;
5) environment is a multi-component and multi-functional system of interaction, where the human being is an integral part of environment;
6) environment as an interaction process;
7) environment as the sphere of human activities;
8) environment as the field of semantics;
9) environment as a resource;
10) environment as a means for social stratification.

Ecology of Education possesses the significant potential for interdisciplinary research and several developmental perspectives, as a result of which through research it is possible to solve several modern topical problems:

1) promotion of human development, self-realization in the educational environment;
2) studies and development of different human qualities and their totality (viability; competitiveness; competences; creativity; thinking, mental and emotional flexibility; attitudes, etc.) in the educational environment;
3) education for: human socialization and culturalization; the successful human adaptation, integration and development in the changeable and multi-functional environment: social, cultural, different professions, etc. environment; the development and improvement of home environment;
4) education for the development of human basic competencies for living under changeable conditions, in the rapidly changing human-built, including environment of information and latest technologies;
5) ensuring of lifelong learning in the varied educational environment for the development of knowledge society;
6) sustainable development of education environmental systems, including schools, higher educational establishments, under the changeable conditions;
7) the development, experimental approbation and implementation into practice of the conceptions and models of an open, accessible, appropriate and developing educational environment which conform with the needs of modern society and each individuality,
8) education for the sustainable and balanced development of social, economical, natural environment;
9) environmental, values, career education as a over-content and the contextual approach to its integration into the study process; respecting of the balance principle I – Ego and I – Eco in the thinking and activity of a human being and all society, in the development of values and attitude systems for the sustainable development;
10) Environment of Distance Education; etc.

Lead Guest Editor
  • Irena Katane

    Faculty of Engineering, Latvia University of Agriculture, Jelgava, Latvia