Identity development for teaching climate change: Exploring personal, professional, and political factors

The climate change crisis causes not only environmental and civic challenges, but also educational complexity which must be untangled to better prepare educators and students alike. This study investigated teachers’ beliefs, attitudes, and motivations around the integration of climate change instruction in their classrooms and where these constructs intersected within an identity theoretical framework. The overarching research question was: How do teachers’ lived experiences shape their science teacher identity development as a teacher of climate change? Utilizing a narrative inquiry approach to interview 15 middle and high school teachers in the USA, the results of this study demonstrate how trends such as personal valuation of nature, instructional support and agency, and socio-scientific literacy influence identity development. A conceptual model is presented that highlights the personal, professional, and political contexts that promote or hinder identity development. Implications for teacher development efforts include the need to attend to the ‘messy’ lived contexts of competing personal, professional, and political considerations.