Exploring the interrelations of climate change content knowledge, self-efficacy and political orientation of pre-service geography teachers

The content knowledge of geography teachers is a key determinant of students’ learning outcomes in the context of climate change. In addition, perceived uncertainty, self-efficacy, political orientation and political activism may have an influence on knowledge and teaching. This study investigates climate change content knowledge as well as the mentioned variables and the interrelations among these variables. An online survey was conducted with 552 pre-service geography teachers from five German universities. Climate change content knowledge was assessed across five domains (causal, basic, effects, action-related and procedural knowledge). Additional questionnaire scales measured self-efficacy, political orientation, and political activism. The pre-service teachers answered most of the knowledge questions correctly (75.2%), but there are also gaps in knowledge, especially regarding action-related knowledge. 58.6% were certain in their answers on average, especially regarding effects knowledge the proportion of certainty was high (78%). Male students scored significantly higher than female students and Master’s students scored higher than Bachelor students. Progressive political orientation, political activism and self-efficacy correlate positively with climate change content knowledge. These results lay out the path for a possible improvement of university courses in the context of teachers’ knowledge about climate change.