Population growth as the elephant in the room: teachers’ perspectives and willingness to incorporate a controversial environmental sustainability issue in their teaching

Abstract

Although population growth (PG) is acknowledged as a major factor that drives the global environmental crisis, this issue is rarely included in environmental and sustainability education (ESE) because of its controversiality. This mixed-methods study explores the perspectives of Israeli ESE and non-ESE teachers regarding PG as an environmental risk, their willingness to include PG in their teaching, the frequency and foci of including it, the reasons for including or disregarding it, and the factors that predict their inclusion of it. The findings reveal that the deep-rooted pronatalist culture in Israel and a national pronatalist agenda impact the education system. It was found that an academic background in ESE had limited impact on teachers’ perceptions concerning PG or on their willingness to discuss its controversiality in class. Teachers’ attitudes related to PG demonstrated socially, culturally, and politically oriented disavowal justification regarding the negative impacts of rapid PG. The absence of PG from school curricula and the Israeli public discourse have been reported as major reasons for disregarding it in schools. To encourage teachers to incorporate this controversial issue in their teaching, and successfully confront dominant pronatalist cultures, they need ongoing support. Stakeholders in the education system must bring the population debate into schools as part of human efforts to mitigate environmental degradation and as an opportunity to strengthen tolerance among students towards diverse opinions.