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Global Warming in Schools: an Inquiry About the Competing Conceptions Of Global Warming in Schools: An Inquiry about the Competing Conceptions of High School Social Studies and Science Curricula and Teachers By Casey R. Meehan A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Curriculum and Instruction) at the UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON 2012 Date of final oral examination: 11/30/12 The dissertation is approved by the following members of the Final Oral Committee: Diana Hess, Professor, Curriculum and Instruction Simone Schweber, Associate Professor, Curriculum and Instruction Noah Feinstein, Assistant Professor, Curriculum and Instruction John Rudolph, Professor, Curriculum and Instruction Nancy Kendall, Assistant Professor, Educational Policy Studies 1 © Copyright by Casey R. Meehan 2012 All Rights Reserved 2 i To my advisor, Diana Hess, who has unquestionably made me a better teacher and scholar. To my parents, Patrick and Wanda, who have dedicated their lives to education and inspired me to do the same. and To my wife, Sonja, who has displayed super-human levels of patience, support, and love throughout this process. My gratitude is unending. A special thanks to Katie Byrnes, Sarah Chingos, Nancy Jennings, and Doris Santoro for their encouragement during the final months of this project and to the members of my committee: Simone Schweber, Noah Feinstein, John Rudolph and Nancy Kendall. 1 ii Abstract Despite the scientific consensus supporting the theory of anthropogenic (human-induced) global warming, whether global warming is a serious problem, whether human activity is the primary cause of it, and whether scientific consensus exists at all are controversial questions among the U.S. lay-public. The cultural theory of risk perception (Schwarz and Thompson, 1990) serves as the theoretical framework for this qualitative analysis in which I ask the question how do U.S. secondary school curricula and teachers deal with the disparity between the overwhelming scientific consensus and the lay-public’s skepticism regarding global warming? I analyzed nine widely used social studies and science textbooks, eight sets of supplemental materials about global warming produced by a range of not-for-profit and governmental organizations, and interviewed fourteen high school teachers who had experience teaching formal lessons about global warming in their content area. Findings suggest: 1) the range of global warming content within social studies and science textbooks and supplemental curricula reflects the spectrum of conceptualizations found among members of the U.S. public; 2) global warming curricula communicate only a narrow range of strategies for dealing with global warming and its associated threats; and 3) social studies and science teachers report taking a range of stances about global warming in their classroom, but sometimes the stance they put forth to their students does not align with their personal beliefs about global warming. The findings pose a troubling conundrum. Some of the global warming curricula treat the cause of global warming--a question that is not scientifically controversial--as a question with 2 iii multiple and competing “right” answers. At the same time, much of curricula position how we should address global warming--a question that is legitimately controversial--as a question with one correct answer despite there being many reasonable responses. Finally, I present the implications this conundrum has for teaching about global warming in a politically polarized atmosphere. 3 iv Table of Contents Abstract ii Table of Contents iv Chapter One: Introduction 1 U.S. Public Opinion about Global Warming 4 Controversies in Climate Change Education 6 Research Questions 8 Chapter Two: Literature Review and Theoretical Framework 11 Cultural Theory and Beliefs about Global Warming 11 Review of the Climate Change Education Literature 19 Global warming in the U.S. science and social studies classrooms 25 Global warming as a controversial socioscientific issue 34 Description of Conceptual Framework 40 Chapter Summary 46 Chapter Three: Methods 47 Selection of Data Sources and Data Generation 48 Data Analysis 63 Positioning Myself in the Study 66 Chapter Summary 68 Chapter Four: The Scientific Case for Global Warming 69 Chapter Summary 76 Chapter Five: Conceptualizing Global Warming in the Formal Curriculum 78 The Adherent Curriculum 81 Is global warming a problem? 81 Is human activity causing global warming? 93 Is there scientific consensus about global warming? 96 The Dissenting Curriculum 98 Is global warming a problem? 99 Is human activity causing global warming? 102 Is there scientific consensus about global warming? 105 The Hesitant Curriculum 108 Is global warming a problem? 109 Is human activity causing global warming? 112 Is there scientific consensus about global warming? 116 Chapter Summary 118 4 v Chapter Six: How Should We Respond to Global Warming? 119 Strategies for Responding to Global Warming 121 Mitigation strategies 122 Adaptation and geo-engineering strategies 127 Who Should Take the Lead in Addressing Global Warming? 130 Differences Between Social Studies and Non-Social Studies Curricula 140 Chapter summary 151 Chapter Seven: Making Sense of Teachers’ Stances in the Classroom 152 Making Sense of an Adherent Stance in the Classroom 158 Making Sense of a Hesitant Stance in the Classroom 167 When personal beliefs align with a hesitant classroom stance 168 When personal beliefs do not align with a hesitant classroom stance 173 Chapter Summary 183 Chapter Eight: Discussion and Conclusion 184 Reviewing the Study 184 Implications 190 Teaching about controversial topics in social studies and science classrooms 191 Curriculum as a tool to advance ideology 193 Preparing citizens 200 Limitations 202 Recommendations: How Might We Move Forward? 204 Future Research 206 Chapter Summary 208 References 209 Appendix A: Initial email and questionnaire sent to potential teacher-participants 218 Appendix B: Interview protocol 221 Appendix C: Ways of thinking about global warming 223 5 1 Chapter One: Introduction ! At first glance the two lessons from two different sets of supplemental curriculum about the topic of global warming appear to be moving students in the same direction. A learner objective from the lesson included in An Inconvenient Truth in the Classroom (AITC) curriculum states that, by the end of the lesson, students will be able to “create and explain the carbon cycle” (p. 33). According to the lesson from the other set of materials, titled Understanding Climate Change, students should come away with a “basic understanding of carbon sources and exchanges” and be able to “analyze data regarding various stocks and flows [of carbon]” (p. 34). Students exposed to either curricula explore the movement of carbon through the hydrosphere, atmosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere. They learn that various forms of carbon collect in different “sinks”--the oceans, the atmosphere, plants and animals--and that carbon flows from one sink to another. They learn that carbon flows through the various parts of the cycle at different rates, and they learn that human activity, like the burning of fossil fuels, influences one particular carbon flow within the greater carbon cycle. Despite sharing similar learner objectives and content knowledge the two sets of supplemental materials draw significantly different conclusions about why learning about the carbon cycle matters. The lesson from the AITC materials emphasizes that human activity is fundamentally altering the carbon cycle and therefore accelerating global warming. In contrast, the lesson from Understanding Climate Change highlights something known as the “missing sink”--the phenomenon that the amount of carbon remaining in the atmosphere is less than what scientists expect given the quantity of total carbon dioxide emitted to the atmosphere due to 1 2 human activity.1 According to the authors of Understanding Climate Change, the purpose of this lesson is “to demonstrate that our lack of understanding concerning the carbon cycle diminishes the reliability of carbon tracking and climate modeling.” The disparity between these intended outcomes cannot be understated: while students who engage with the AITC lesson are supposed to learn that human activity plays a major role in global warming, students using the Understanding Climate Change materials are supposed to question the evidence supporting the scientific theory of anthropogenic (human-induced) global warming. The two sets of supplemental materials share a host of other goals and content. Both want students to understand how science evolves through the scientific method, both encourage students to critically assess scientific data, and both present students with content about the cause of global warming. Still, the way these supplemental materials conceptualize what the theory of anthropogenic global warming is and what it means for society are highly contradictory. For instance, one of the learning objectives in the AITC materials is to help students “recognize misuse of scientific terms--specifically understand the meaning of scientific theory” (p. 25) especially as it pertains to the scientific theory of global warming. These materials distinguish between how the term “theory” is commonly used in the English language--to “have a hunch that something is true or an opinion about something” (p. 25)-- from how science uses the term: “In order for something to be a scientific theory, thousands of tests must have been done to support a phenomenon....You don’t
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