Limits of caring: pre-service teachers’ reasons for not taking high-impact actions to mitigate climate change
Sakari Tolppanen, Sirpa Kärkkäinen
Abstract
In order to mitigate climate change, individuals need to make lifestyle changes that help reduce carbon emissions. As teachers play an important role in modeling pro-environmental behavior to their students, this study investigated whether there are some types of climate actions which pre-service teachers themselves are most reluctant to take. The findings show that the participants were especially reluctant to change their travel habits, car-use habits and dietary habits. The reasons for inaction were diverse, but in most of the categories, the predominant reasons were related to hedonic aspects, such as ease of actions, enjoyment of life and comfort. The domains in which pre-service teachers were most reluctant to make lifestyle changes make up a significant portion of their carbon emissions, begging the question of how action competent our future teachers are. Educational implications of the findings and suggestions for pre-service teacher training are discussed.