“A Different Kind of Middleman”:Preservice Science Teachers’ Agency for Climate Change Education

The most recent scientific reports emphasize the need to take urgent action to solve the climate change problem. Educational settings such as schools can create equitable learning experiences where the youth can learn effective approaches to mitigation and adaptation based on scientific evidence. This chapter sees teachers’ agency in solving climate change problems as critical for designing meaningful learning experiences. The authors explore how a preservice teacher, Ms. Crawford, conceptualizes her sense of agency as she teaches climate change in: multiple contexts across time, middle school classrooms, professional learning environments, family gatherings, and research meetings. In this single case study of Ms. Crawford, we use an ethnographic perspective where we conduct participant observations and iterative cycles of interviews to make sense of the reason for the change in the conceptualization of agency. This study's findings shed light on how preservice teachers’ agency is shaped through interaction with stakeholders, considerations of ethics of care, and attention to intergenerational equity.