When prior climate change-related training is not associated with different priorities: teacher competency orientations for climate change education in Veracruz, Mexico

This study examines teacher competency priorities for climate change education (CCE) and their relationship to prior participation in climate change-related training in the Telebachillerato del Estado de Veracruz (TEBAEV), an upper-secondary subsystem serving rural, semi-urban, and Indigenous communities in one of Mexico’s most climate-exposed states. Survey data from 3,698 in-service teachers, approximately 77% of the workforce, were analysed using descriptive statistics, chi-square tests, and directed content analysis. Of the teachers who answered the training item, 90.2% reported no prior participation in a climate change-related training activity, course, or diploma programme. Nevertheless, teachers exhibited a coherent competency profile, prioritising social responsibility and collective action while marginalising scientific literacy and political agency. Twelve of 13 between-group comparisons were non-significant at the conventional 0.05 level, and none remained significant after Bonferroni correction. These findings caution against treating participation in discrete training activities as a simple driver of teacher orientations. Where organised CCE-specific learning opportunities are exceptionally limited, such orientations appear to emerge through interactions among curriculum, available professional learning, and community context. Expanding training provision alone is therefore unlikely to transform practice substantially; initial teacher education, sustained professional learning, and curricular support must be redesigned systemically to embed action competence and political agency.