Abstract:

Environmental degradation is a problem not only for the European Union but for the whole world. Scientists and climatologists are alarming by showing global warming and predicting a catastrophe threatening life on Earth. Reports on "Ecological policy of the state 2030", "Energy security and the environment - perspective up to 2020", "Report of the Bank of Environmental Protection 2015" indicate the necessity of activities in the macroscale limiting production of greenhouse gases and CO2, improving air quality, etc; with simultaneous educational and information campaign. A tracking study of environmental awareness and behavior of Polish residents, conducted by the Ministry of the Environment in September 2018, showed that Poles pay little attention to nature and natural heritage protection. They see nothing wrong in removing rubbish to forests, heating homes with coal-fired furnaces, not segregating garbage, assigning environmental degradation to large industrial concerns and factories. The studies and reports cited, clearly indicated that education is an important tool that can contribute to improving the quality of environmental protection by providing knowledge on the discussed topic, shaping pro-ecological attitudes and equipping students with competence and tools for effective protection of natural resources.

The research carried out in recent years by the Ministry of Environmental Protection has shown that Polish society does not fully recognize the importance of ecological issues, placing them far behind the health and economic development of the region.

Common cross-border issues related to ecology can be an excellent platform for intercultural and international cooperation, building active participatory attitudes in the social life of both the local community and wider European bodies.

Ecological and civic education, shaping the socially expected attitudes, should start from the first years of school education, when the pupil builds the image of the world, defines its own role, acquires competences for practical action, and the school and teacher is perceived as an unquestionable authority. Early school education is a time for introducing knowledge, building sensitivity to "difficult" topics, shaping needs, attitudes and habits.

Therefore, there are questions about whether Polish early school education takes into account ecological issues in the teaching process, what knowledge is provided by textbooks, what expected competences are indicated by selected educational documents. The second question that arises concerns the manner and the scope of using ecological issues common to all European countries and nations, to building transnational awareness, responsibility for protecting the natural environment and on this canvas, shaping active European citizenship.

In order to answer the above-mentioned questions and discuss specific issues, the author analyzed selected documents of the Polish Ministry of Education and educational content of selected Polish textbooks for the early childhood education stage.
The results obtained for early school education teachers will be an inspiration for the expected curriculum changes and ways of discussing topics related to the protection of the natural environment and shaping civic activity with primary school pupils of grades 1-3.

Keywords:

Elementary education, environmental education, civic education, European active citizenship.