Education for ecological identity in the function of sustainable development

Abstract

Modern way of living has brought many different problems referring to living environment such as climate changes, shortage of available natural resources, changing in functioning of the most important natural processes etc. which has begun dangerous for living of the human kind. On the other side, technology, economy, society have their own interest. Sustainable development has emerged based on the need for making optimal interaction between mentioned systems. One of the basic elements which is referring on the human being is development of the ecological identity. There are several connected terms, like biophilia, naturalistic intelligence, ecological identity and all of them are related to the special type of connection with nature which is characterized by loving nature, positive attitudes to it and having the consciousness of the importance of nature and living environment in the aim of surviving of human beings. This also includes development of ecological consciousness, ecological literacy and ecological ethics which should be incorporated in ecological identity. Development of the ecological identity is unfolding in the educational process, especially in the process of socialization which begins from the earliest period in one's life and lasts through the whole life. The goal of this article is to analyze the role of education in forming of ecological identity and its consequences on decision making process about proenvironmental behaviors in making efforts for achieving of the goals of the sustainable development.