Perception of the future Social Workers about environmental issues

Abstract

Environmental issues are very important for all the people thorough the world. They impact the quality of human life. Each of us must protect the environment and must take part in preventing problems. The social workers have a great role regarding environmental issues. The paper aims to obtain opinions of students of the Faculty of Educational Sciences, Social Work branch, Bachelor degree, third academic course regarding environmental issues. The research question are : “What are the perceptions of students of the Faculty of Educational Sciences, Social Work branch, Bachelor degree, third academic course about environmental issues?” and ““What are their perceptions about their contribution to environmental protection as future social workers?”. It is used the focus-group method and technique of interviewing the students of Social Work branch, Bachelor degree, third academic course. In the study, we had the participation of 39 students of the Faculty of Educational Sciences, Social Work branch, and third academic course. There are given the appropriate conclusions. All the students consider very serious thes issues related to the environment. They accept that environmental protection is very important. Regarding the quantity of information that the students have about environmental issues, 10 students accept that they are very informed and the rest of the respondents said that they are less informed. The students affirm that they must contribute as future social workers in the environmental protection and they list a lot of actions for solving environmental problems, including: a)recycling, choosing the best products for the environment, c)avoiding travelling by car, d)the use of public travel, e)saving electricity,b)f)becoming a member and contribution to environmental organizations, g)giving donations for environment protection. The students will contribute as future social workers for environmental protection in their city/village residence in a lot of ways, as:a)population informing, b)raising public awareness about environment keeping clean, c)organizing activities for cleaning their city/village, d)implementation of environmental protection legislation, e)participation in environmental organizations, f)organizing awareness campaigns for environmental protection, g)cooperation with competent authorities in order to reduce environmental pollution and to protect the forests. There are given, also, the appropriate suggestions.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n19p121