From pockets of hope and possibility to interconnected spaces of agency: the role of teacher educators in climate change education.

Citation

Rushton E (2025) From pockets of hope and possibility to interconnected spaces of agency: the role of teacher educators in climate change education.. In: Dadvand B, Lampert J & Brooks C (eds.) Routeledge, p. 268. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003513841

Abstract
This chapter underlines the importance of teacher education in responding to global environmental priorities, including climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. At the same time, in many contexts, the role of teacher education is limited to pockets of hope and possibility rather than interconnected spaces of agency. This chapter draws on both teacher agency as a theoretical framework and research insights developed through working with teachers and teacher educators from across the UK, Chile and Iraq. A reflective framework of touchstone questions is presented as a series of “points of departure and places of return” (Jickling et al., 2018, p.160), to support teacher educators to consider past, current and future practices of climate change education in the context of (initial) teacher education. I argue that these iterative, individual and collaborative reflections are a necessary next step to enabling teacher educators and teachers to achieve agency in relation to climate change education. To put it another way, engaging with these touchstone questions supports teacher educators to articulate future orientations for action focused on environmental priorities, across their professional lives.