Chemistry Teaching for the Future: A model for secondary chemistry education for sustainable development

Abstract

For more than 40 years, the international community has acknowledged the role education might play in environmental awareness and conservation. The last major initiative came when the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed a Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005–2014). In the final year of the decade, teachers still struggle to realise education for sustainable development (ESD). One of the challenges teachers face with respect to ESD is the inclusion of even more content into an already overloaded curriculum. In response, it has been suggested that ESD should be introduced as an integrated perspective across the content of all existing subjects. This paper offers a model for how ESD can be realised in chemistry education. The model has been developed to support chemistry teachers in their educational planning and consists of 5 categories: chemical content knowledge, chemistry in context, the distinctiveness and methodological character of chemistry, ESD competences and lived ESD. The ESD model is illustrated through 5 ellipses, visualising the hierarchy of the categories, as they exist in different levels. All 5 ESD categories need to be considered in a holistic ESD approach.

Keywords:

• Chemistry education
• Environmental education
• Secondary school