Teaching Controversial Issues in Geography: Climate Change Education in Singaporean Schools

Abstract

In this article, the authors investigate 6 Singaporean geography teachers’ understandings of climate change education. The findings indicate that the participants held very different beliefs about the primary purposes of climate change education, in spite of the highly centralized national curriculum and the unambiguous state support for the science of climate change. The findings suggest that the diversity in teachers’ understandings of the purposes of climate change education and their preferred pedagogical approaches reflect some of the tensions within the larger education system in Singapore.

Keywords:

• climate change education
• geography education
• controversial issues

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Li-Ching Ho

LI-CHING HO is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI 53706. She can be contacted at [email protected].

Tricia Seow

TRICIA SEOW is a Lecturer in the Humanities and Social Studies Education Academic Group at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 637616. She can be contacted at [email protected].