Secondary Science Teachers’ Views and Approaches for Teaching for Climate Justice and Action

Abstract

The paper explored teachers’ views and apporaches for teaching climate justice. Teachers framed climate change as a global social issue, but few addressed racial injustices or taught collective adaptation actions. They often prioritized mitigation actions over adaptation efforts and rarely connected climate justice to action. Additionally, teachers were more likely to teach about individual pro-environmental actions rather than collective actions or climate policy proposals. The study also found that teachers’ beliefs guided their instructional goals and practices for climate justice and action. Given barriers to engaging in climate action during class time such as crowded curricula, lack of alignment with curricula, and expected pushback from administrators, some science teachers will simply not embark on climate justice education. However, these teachers could direct their students to extracurricular climate action opportunities that exist outside the classroom. One additional barrier to teaching climate justice and action mentioned by this study’s teachers was their expectation that climate justice and climate actions were being taught in other classes like Environmental Science or in Environmental Clubs.