"There Is No Easy Solution": Singapore Teachers' Practice and Perspectives on Climate Change Education

• In Event: 73.061 - Roundtable Session 32
  In Roundtable Session: 73.061-7 - Teaching About Politics and Controversial Political Issues in Social Studies Education

Abstract

This paper studies what six geography teachers teaching about climate change in Singapore schools believe to be the purpose of climate change education through semi-structured interviews. It analyses the nature of the relationship between teachers’ beliefs and practice within the socio-political milieu of the Singapore national education and school contexts. The Singapore case is compelling because of the state’s unambiguous support for values-based advocacy in climate change education and the highly centralized nature of its national education system. Our data suggested that the importance of respondents’ beliefs in the purpose of climate change education played a more significant role in shaping teachers’ pedagogical decisions and classroom practice compared to the school context or their content knowledge.

Authors

• Tricia Seow, National Institute of Education - Nanyang Technological University

• Li-Ching Ho, University of Wisconsin - Madison