A Narrative Inquiry into Teacher Efficacy for Teaching Climate Science with Technology in a Scientist-Teacher Partnership Program

Climate change education is a key concept in pre-collegiate curricula across the world. However, teachers experience barriers to effectively teaching about climate change. One avenue for addressing some of the barriers is through scientist-teacher partnerships where a scientist offers real-world examples of how climate change is studied. This qualitative study investigated the stories of two elementary, two middle, and one high school teachers through semi-structured interviews that explored teachers’ perceptions related to the use of technology to teach about climate change. Teachers were selected from a database of educators. Each partnership included a scientist-classroom visit. Bandura’s conceptualization of self-efficacy served as the theoretical framework, and narrative inquiry was employed as the methodological framework. Our findings reveal that despite scientists discussing their current Earth systems and climate change research practices and expertise, teachers were apprehensive about defining this instructional content as “climate change” due to political pressures and limitations. That said, there was a consensus that the use of technology within the partnership was beneficial in supporting teachers’ confidence in teaching science and students’ content knowledge development. Our analysis shows that technology tools that support vicarious experiences in the classroom are also the tools that make an important difference in the development of teacher self-efficacy for teaching climate change. With the increased investment in technology from school districts across the United States, there is an opportunity to more easily connect with STEM experts to support science instruction. Our findings can help others employ evidence-based practices for successful virtual scientist-teacher partnerships.