Alienation from Nature and Its Impact on Primary and Pre-primary Education

Abstract

The alienation from nature has a major impact on the education of primary school pupils and pre-school children. In the review paper we focus on research into this phenomena. We chose 79 articles on Web of Science, 39 on Scopus, and two in the Czech database RIV. From this a total number of 21 articles were selected, analysed and presented to the readers in this article. It turned out that alienation from nature is a fuzzy concept. Many experts rely on it. But it is not precisely defined in the literature. Two main topics appeared in the articles that were considered: connectedness and relation to nature and fear of animals and disgust aroused by them. The main findings are: a) teachers and parents are already alienated, b) examples of good practice show ways of bringing nature closer to children, c) children’s attitudes to nature are changing; they are more afraid of animals and disgusted by them, d) a certain degree of fear and disgust is useful, e) differences between the sexes appear only at an older age. This phenomenon needs to be studied further. Keywords: pre-school pedagogy, primary school pedagogy, alienation from nature, generation alpha