Understanding Teachers’ Perspectives on Climate Action: How Beliefs, Pressure, and Autonomy Shape the Classroom

Grey Wren

06-11-2025

“Wild is not chaos. Wild is rhythm unmeasured.”

In Kingfisherish Wandering [1]

© Wix

As climate change education becomes a global imperative, the role of teachers in shaping students' environmental understanding and engagement grows ever more critical [2-4]. In their 2025 study, Fasching, Schubatzky, and Hopf [5] explore how Austrian secondary school physics teachers perceive teaching climate action as a socio-scientific issue (SSI) and how these perceptions influence their intentions and willingness to teach the topic.

Climate action involves scientific, social, ethical, and political dimensions—making it a prime example of a socio-scientific issue (SSI) [6,7]. Educating students about climate action goes beyond delivering scientific facts; it requires fostering critical thinking, value formation, and participatory skills. However, teachers often face challenges in integrating such interdisciplinary and controversial content into their curriculum. This study uses the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) as a framework to examine how attitudes (e.g., ease and necessity), perceived social norms, self-efficacy, and autonomy affect teachers’ readiness to teach climate action.

Through a latent profile analysis of 206 Austrian physics teachers, three distinct profiles emerged:

• Low Pressure Perceivers: Teachers who sense low societal or institutional pressure to teach climate action. They view the topic as only moderately necessary and experience lower external expectations.

• High Commitment Perceivers: Teachers who feel strongly about the meaningfulness of the topic and have high self-efficacy and autonomy. They are most willing and ready to teach climate action, even if it is optional.

• Low Control Perceivers: Teachers who acknowledge the importance of climate action but feel unprepared or lack autonomy, resulting in lower confidence and voluntary willingness.

Experience and belief in the scientific consensus on climate change significantly influenced teachers’ placement into these profiles. Teachers who had previously taught the topic or acknowledged the scientific consensus were more likely to belong to the “high commitment” group. These findings underscore the importance of practical experience and scientific literacy in empowering educators.

Indeed, teachers with high NQ—reflected in strong commitment and autonomy—are more likely to inspire transformative climate education. Supporting teachers through tailored professional development can help build not only their competence but also cultivate a culture of ecological responsibility and peace with nature [8,9].

References

[1] Nguyen MH. (2025). Kingfisherish Wandering. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FVLLLXNW/

[2] Anderson A. (2012). Climate change education for mitigation and adaptation. Journal of Education for Sustainable Development, 6(2), 191-206. https://doi.org/10.1177/0973408212475199

[3] Azevedo J, Marques M. (2017). Climate literacy: A systematic review and model integration. International Journal of Global Warming, 12(3/4), 414. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJGW.2017.084789

[4] Siponen J, et al. (2024). “Climate change competence—a view of professionals advancing climate change action. Environmental Education Research. 1-23. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2024.2431200

[5] Fasching M, Schubatzky T, Hopf M. (2025). ‘Low pressure’, ‘high commitment’, and ‘low control’ – latent profile analysis of teachers’ perceptions regarding teaching climate action as a socio-scientific issue. Environmental Education Research. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2025.2572819

[6] Sadler TD. (2011). Socio-Scientific Issues in the Classroom: Teaching, Learning and Research. Springer.

[7] Chen L, Xiao S. (2021). Perceptions, challenges and coping strategies of science teachers in teaching socioscientific issues: A systematic review. Educational Research Review, 32(1), 100377. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2020.100377

[8] Tran TT. (2025). Flying beyond didacticism: The creative environmental vision of ‘Wild Wise Weird’. Young Voices of Science. https://youngvoicesofscience.org/?p=1963

[9] Vuong QH, Nguyen MH, La VP. (2022). The mindsponge and BMF analytics for innovative thinking in social sciences and humanities. Walter de Gruyter GmbH.