"I Did the Best I Possibly Could": Factors Influencing Teachers' Incorporation of Climate Science in High School Chemistry

Anthropogenic impacts on Earth's climate are critical issues that necessitate broad public action. Understanding the scientific consensus on climate change is known to correlate to taking actions that combat climate change. K-12 schools serve a key role in providing public education, but high school chemistry teachers have been found to minimally incorporate climate change in their courses. Here we explore high school chemistry teachers' beliefs and practices about incorporating climate change topics. In semistructured interviews, 10 teachers reported incorporating climate change topics in their courses. These teachers' approaches to doing so are heavily impacted by their distinct local contexts. Each of these teachers' context provides a unique set of factors that promote or impede their incorporation of climate change topics. Of these teachers, all report finding ways to leverage their available supports to work around the barriers they face, but many report a desire to provide a better education on climate change. These teachers report logistical barriers that prevent them from fully realizing their instructional goals, including lack of time, insufficient content knowledge, and lack of suitable curricula. Notably, there is a clear consensus among these teachers that stand-alone curricular modules about climate change topics are unsuitable. Rather, they aspire to integrate and blend climate change education throughout their chemistry courses. This highlights a need for flexible curricular resources and individualized professional development to support teachers' needs in light of their unique context.