Geography teachers and climate change: Emotions about consequences, coping strategies, and views on mitigation

It has been indicated that teachers’ emotions about climate change and their views on mitigation influence their instruction and students’ engagement in mitigation actions. The aim of the study is to explore Finnish secondary geography teachers’ emotions about the consequences of climate change, their strategies for coping with these emotions, and their views on climate change mitigation. Inductive content analysis of data collected through individual interviews (N = 13) was performed. The teachers used emotion-focused, problem-focused, and meaning-focused strategies to cope with negative emotions. They ascribed responsibility for mitigation to politicians and individuals. Commonly, the teachers took elementary actions to reduce their impact on the climate. Only part of the teachers realized that they could contribute through teaching. With the ultimate aim of promoting students’ engagement in climate change mitigation, guidelines pertaining to education that targets teachers’ emotions, coping strategies, and their views on mitigationare presented.