Pre-service ECEC teachers’ conceptions of climate change: a community funds of knowledge and identity approach

Climate change is one of the greatest threats to humanity and the biosphere. Early childhood education and care has been proposed as a key strategy to enable individuals to gain climate change literacy and enact behaviour change. Well-designed pre-service teacher training programmes in the science of climate change are required to implement effective climate change education programmes starting in the early years. Yet how pre-service early childhood teachers conceptualise climate change based on their community funds of knowledge and identity is largely unknown. This qualitative case study shows how seven Maltese pre-service teachers have some basic understanding of climate change but they also hold misconceptions, and their (mis)understandings are influenced by their community funds of knowledge and identity. Based on these findings, suggestions for teacher training programmes in relation to climate change education are proposed, and the implications of the findings for future research, policy and practice are noted.