Supporting Pre-service Teacher Learning about Sociopolitical and Scientific Dynamics of Climate Change through Local Phenomena

• In Event: Teacher Education for Transdisciplinary Climate Change Education

Abstract

Learning that unfolds around climate change is different from that around topics more traditionally the purview of science classrooms. To climate learning, students bring prior knowledge tied to controversy seen in their sociopolitical worlds, which can reshape otherwise predictable paths of sensemaking (Author, 2023). While research has begun to identify knowledge, emotion, and identity-related factors that influence climate learning and better predict such paths (e.g., Author et al., 2021; Busch et al., 2019; Walsh & Tsurusaki, 2018), how to design experiences that promote learning amid these intersecting influences remains only emergent. What has become clear, however, is the importance of attending to ideas that go beyond science concepts and perhaps even embracing the social controversy that surrounds climate change (e.g., Owens et al., 2017; Walsh & Tsurusaki, 2014).

Building on the notion that model-based inquiry should ground science learning (e.g., Schwarz et al., 2009; Windschitl et al., 2008), this study focuses specifically on the sensemaking done by pre-service teachers (PSTs) about phenomena within such inquiry. Sensemaking is the dynamic process of building or revising an explanation in order to “figure something out,” or “to resolve a gap or inconsistency in one's understanding” (Odden & Russ, 2018, p. 192). This sort of dynamic process is critically important to learning, particularly when it is fostered through student-centered approaches, like those prioritized in modern standards (e.g., NRC, 2012). This study brings special attention not only to ideas that are useful to generating scientific explanations of phenomena but also to those useful to sociopolitical explanations. Given the unignorable role that sociopolitical dynamics play in the changing climate, attention to sensemaking that involves both scientific and sociopolitical ideas is critical to clarifying processes and paths of climate learning.

We share research from a pilot instructional experience for pre-service teachers that builds on a well-accepted idea in science education—using phenomena and model-based inquiry to ground instruction (e.g., Reiser et al., 2021; Windschitl et al., 2008). Specifically, this study explores pre-service teacher (PST) sensemaking when engaged in a climate learning experience that centered local phenomena in which sociopolitical dynamics are salient, aiming to clarify and better understand the ways in which PSTs draw on both scientific and sociopolitical ideas to make sense of a sociopolitical phenomenon. It asked, what does sensemaking around such a phenomenon involve?

This study took place in a secondary science teaching methods course at a large university. Qualitative analysis of audio data and PST artifacts showed that PSTs’ sensemaking involved 1) attending to multiple physical and sociopolitical dimensions of the phenomenon; 2) forging connections both within and across these dimensions; and, 3) linking such connections into coherent explanations through integration with prior knowledge. To illustrate these themes, I highlight the case of one pair of students—Theo and Spencer. This study demonstrates one way in which sociopolitically-entwined phenomena could ground PST learning about climate change. Data reveal how attending to multiple sociopolitical and physical dimensions of a highly complex problem can serve as important first steps towards transdisciplinary sensemaking.

Author

• Lynne Zummo, University of Utah