Turning Oil Engineers Into Teachers: Pre-Service Science Teachers' Attitudes Towards Climate Change

This paper reports on the results of a study which examined Norwegian pre-service science teachers' attitudes towards the issue of human-induced climate change (HICC), and the ways in which the pre-service teachers envision... [ view full abstract ]

This paper reports on the results of a study which examined Norwegian pre-service science teachers' attitudes towards the issue of human-induced climate change (HICC), and the ways in which the pre-service teachers envision engaging these issues in their future teaching practiceDespite the scientific consensus on the issue of HICC, a surprisingly large proportion of people in western societies do not believe that the observed global warming is taking place and/or that this climate change is human-induced. Public attitudes towards HICC in most western societies vary according to many factors, and tend to mirror traditional demographics for environmental concern in general. Furthermore, one can expect oil-dependent countries or regions to be more climate contrarian than others. Between 2014 and today, close to 20 000 oil-related jobs were lost in the Norwegian oil industry. As a result of this, teacher education institutions on the Norwegian west coast, where most of the oil industry is situated, have experienced an influx of oil engineers with strong backgrounds in the natural sciences who wish to qualify as science teachers. This study is based on a survey on 255 students attending six Norwegian teacher education institutions, all offering a one-year course for qualifying people with a university degree in natural science as science teachers. Preliminary analyses reveal that students from the west coast of Norway, where the oil industry has its core on-shore work force, appear to hold more climate contrarian attitudes compared to students from other parts of Norway. Furthermore, these climate contrarian viewpoints are reflected in the students' thoughts on teaching enivironmental/climate issues. Results of a more detailed analysis on how the degree of the respondents’ association with the petroleum industry covaries with their attitudes towards the issue of HICC and teaching of enivrionmental issues will also be presented. This study is conducted in Norway, but the results have international ramifications. It indicates that regions with declining oil industry might experience an influx of teachers with climate contrarian views into schools.

Keywords: Socioscientific issues, climate change, sustainability, petroleum industry, teacher training