Singapore teachers’ beliefs about the purpose of climate change education and student readiness to handle controversy

ABSTRACT

This qualitative study examines what four pre-service and six practicing geography educators in Singapore schools believe to be the purpose of climate change education, and how this intersects with their beliefs about student readiness to handle controversy within climate change education. A key finding of this study indicates that the teachers’ understandings about the purpose of climate change education played the most important role in shaping their perspectives about introducing controversy to their students. The study also suggested that the teachers’ beliefs about their students’ academic abilities had implications for how they approached controversy for different groups of students.

KEYWORDS:

• Climate change education
• teacher education
• controversial issues
• academic differentiation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.