Preschool Teachers' Awareness of Climate Change: Educational Considerations to Global Issues

Climate change is a significant global issue affecting many areas of life, and how this topic is addressed in early childhood is closely related to teachers' awareness and practices. This research is a qualitative study conducted to examine preschool teachers' awareness of climate change and how they reflect this awareness in their classroom practices. Twenty-one preschool teachers participated in the study, and data were collected through semi-structured interviews. The findings show that teachers mostly understand climate change in terms of global problems and observable environmental effects, while focusing on human-induced behaviors and industrialization in their explanations of the causes. Teachers' individual measures are mostly limited to daily practices such as recycling and energy conservation; participation in voluntary and collective environmental activities is low. The vast majority of teachers consider themselves partially adequate in raising children's awareness of climate change and express difficulties, particularly in concretizing abstract concepts, ensuring family participation, and instilling conscious consumption habits. Classroom activities are mostly limited to weather observations and recycling-based activities. These findings reveal significant limitations in the pedagogical deepening of preschool teachers' awareness of climate change; they indicate that teachers need to be empowered with field-specific, practice-based, and pedagogically focused professional support in order for climate change education to be effectively addressed at the early childhood level.