DOI - Mendel University Press

DOI identifiers

DOI: 10.11118/978-80-7509-963-1-0311

THE “PLACE MEANING” CONCEPT IN EDUCATION: A CASE STUDY FROM THE BOHEMIAN PARADISE PROTECTED LANDSCAPE AREA, CZECHIA

Dominik Rubáš1,2,4, Anežka Nejedlová4, Tomáš Matějček1,3
1 Department of Social Geography and Regional Development, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Albertov 6, 128 00 Praha 2, Czech Republic
2 Department of Geography, Faculty of Science, Humanities and Education, Technical University of Liberec, Univerzitní nám. 1410, 461 17 Liberec, Czech Republic
3 Department of Geography, Faculty of Science, J. E. Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem, Pasteurova 3632/15, 400 96 Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic
4 Department of Primary Education, Faculty of Science, Humanities and Education, Technical University of Liberec, Univerzitní nám. 1410, 461 17 Liberec, Czech Republic

The local landscape is a part of the space that surrounds people from childhood and offers them opportunities for cognitive, emotional, and psychomotor development. Students grow up within this landscape, forming a relationship with it, that can extend over large areas throughout their lives. This relationship can be influenced by the meanings that students attribute to the given territory. There is limited research focusing on the concept of “place meaning” in education. The presented study aims to fill this research gap. The respondents are 257 fifth-grade students from primary schools located in the Bohemian Paradise Protected Landscape Area and its immediate vicinity (44% of all fifth-grade students). Data was collected through field research using questionnaires and supplemented by interviews with students in focus groups. Responses were evaluated through content analysis, descriptive statistics, and statistical analysis. The results indicate that, with regard to specific places, students most commonly associate the term Bohemian Paradise with Trosky and Turnov. Additionally, students most commonly recognized these places in photographs. Students most commonly associate the Bohemian Paradise with adjectives such as “beautiful”, “nice”, and “protected”. Boys recognized a greater number of important places in the Bohemian Paradise than girls, and overall, knowledge of these places significantly increases with the time children spend in nature. The results contribute to research on sense of place – an important theme of environmental education.

Keywords: environmental education, children, sense of place, landscape protection

pages: 311-317, Published: 2024, online: 2024



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