Forests and forestry in the current kindergarten and primary school core curriculum in Poland

Abstract

Abstract The aim of this work was to present topics related to forest and forestry in the current core curriculum of pre-school and general primary school education in Poland. For this analysis, teaching content related to forests and forestry was selected from the first three annexes of the Regulation (2017). This content is intended for children starting from the kindergarten age all the way to 8th grade as well as pupils with intellectual disabilities. In the current core curriculum, there are more topics devoted to forests and forestry than in previous analogous documents. This applies in particular to themes related to forest management, sustainable development and forest functions. Nevertheless, many topics related to biology and forest ecology remained in the curriculum, while little of the teaching content is related to threats and protection of the forest, hunting or harvesting of wood. In recent years, these have been issues that caused a number of social conflicts and controversies. Therefore, the content of forest education, which is not included in the core curriculum, should be thoroughly discussed in particular in non-formal education, because students most often have not previously been exposed to these issues. The broadened scope of themes related to forests and forestry in the current core curriculum for kindergartens and primary schools is the result of good cooperation between the State Forests and the Ministry of National Education. It would be worthwhile to continue this cooperation to implement coming changes of the above-mentioned document, supplementing the missing content as well as possible.