Exploring Global Climate Change in Secondary Social Studies and Science Curricula

• In Event: Education and Climate Change, Climate Justice, and Cultural Inertia

Abstract

Within the U.S. there exist competing ideas about whether or not climate change is a problem (and for whom or what), who or what is responsible for it, what should be done about it, and what about climate change should be held as genuinely controversial. This paper reports the findings from a qualitative study analyzing how social studies and science teachers and curricular materials depict global climate change. Results suggest that social studies and science teachers and curricula put forth a range of intended messages about what climate change is and what about it is controversial.

Author

• Casey Meehan, University of Wisconsin - Madison