Constrained agency in crisis contexts: early childhood teachers’ professional transformation and environmental pedagogy in Indonesian mining communities

This study examines how early childhood teachers in coal-mining communities in South Kalimantan, Indonesia, made meaning of pedagogical change and reconstructed their professional identities during the shift from worksheet-based instruction to environmental-based learning. Using a qualitative phenomenological approach, data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 54 teachers who participated in environmental-based curriculum training. The findings show that teachers initially relied on worksheets and simplified online tasks as pragmatic survival strategies to maintain learning continuity and professional legitimacy during school closures. Following professional development training, teachers gradually reinterpreted children’s everyday environments as meaningful learning spaces and developed broader understandings of contextual, relational, and environmental pedagogy. However, this transformation remained fragile and uneven due to emotional exhaustion, low salaries, technological inequality, limited institutional support, parental academic expectations, and ethical tensions related to teaching environmental responsibility within ecologically degraded mining communities. The study highlights that teacher transformation is nonlinear and deeply shaped by broader socio-environmental inequalities. The findings underscore the importance of contextual professional development, stronger institutional support, and environmentally responsive pedagogies in marginalised communities.