Student Teachers’ Willingness to Act in the Climate Change Context

Nena Vukelić,Nena Rončević,Sven Toljan

doi:10.3390/socsci11020047

Nena Vukelić, Nena Rončević + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci11020047

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Abstract

In education for sustainable development, widely regarded as a framework that offers us the opportunity to improve the ways in which we cope with climate change issues, the need for student teachers to express willingness to act in order to deal with numerous issues and challenges of sustainable development, especially climate change, is of particular importance. Therefore, the focus of this study is on the examination of predictors of student teachers’ willingness to act in a climate-change mitigation and adaptation context. For the purpose of this study, measurement instruments of willingness to act in climate change mitigation and adaptation context, attitudes towards climate change, perception of action possibilities in climate change mitigation and adaptation context, interest in climate change and concern for ecological problems were validated. A total of 201 student teachers from the University of Rijeka (Croatia) participated in the study. It was determined that (I) attitudes towards climate change, (II) perception of action possibilities in climate change mitigation and adaptation context and (III) interest in climate change represent significant predictors of willingness to act in climate-change direction and mitigation contexts. Based on the results of this study, recommendations for teacher education in the climate change context have been offered.

Highlights

Climate change represents a complex challenge of our times
In this paper focus is placed on student teachers’ willingness to act in climate change mitigation and adaptation context
The second objective of this study was to examine which of the abovementioned factors represent significant predictors of student teachers’ willingness to act in climate change mitigation and adaptation context

Summary

Introduction

Climate change represents a complex challenge of our times. It is known that natural as well as anthropogenic factors have an influence on variations in climate, i.e., that humanity’s influence on the climate started during the beginning of Industrial Revolution.climate change represents a complex topic as well as an issue at the global level with unpredictable consequences. As well as a consensus, exists in the scientific community regarding the causes and consequences of climate change on the future of humankind (Masson-Delmotte et al 2021), different attitudes towards this issue are still present (Liu et al 2015). A study conducted by Gatersleben et al (2010) indicated that, on the one hand, a number of people simultaneously express high level of materialism and concern for climate change. Based on that, they concluded that behavioral changes are slow, despite the fact that society began to recognize climate change as a major problem. Focus should be put on adaptation as well as climate change mitigation strategies

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