In the Anthropocene, there is a significant need for new ways to educate about science and environmental problems, including climate issues. This article explores Swedish teacher students' discussions as they envision their future roles as science teachers in the light of the Anthropocene. At the beginning of their science teacher education, the teacher students are not fully immersed in the established discourses of the educational system as in-service teachers. In this study, we consider how these teacher students' 'fresh eyes' bring views of how knowledge (especially chemistry-related knowledge) matters in education and teaching. Through a lecture that centred planetary boundaries and the Great Acceleration as representations of some main scientific models in the field, the teacher students were introduced to the concept of Anthropocene. Five focus group discussions followed this introduction. Thematic analysis reveals how the acquired knowledge of the introductory lesson challenges the students to express 'matters of concern' differently: partly considering a personal, everyday level and partly reformulating their role as future science teachers. The interrelation of these positions is also a concern for the concluding discussion. Furthermore, the article discusses these results as both concerns and possibilities for science education, including science teacher education.

In this article, we regard what we call critical chemical literacy as a basis for climate empowerment and agency from a chemistry education point of view. We explain what we mean by critical chemical literacy by presenting four frameworks/models, all based on previous research but here developed with critical chemical literacy as a guiding principle. One of these frameworks/models consists of the following four main aspects: powerful chemical conceptual knowledge, powerful knowledge about chemical practices, powerful knowledge about chemistry in society, and eco-reflexive chemical agency. Another framework/model highlights three visions of chemistry education, from focusing only on concepts, via also focusing on context, to an inclusive, critical, and eco-reflexive vision focusing on complexity and responsibility. All four frameworks/models can support chemistry educators' considerations concerning content, teaching, and learning in and about chemistry in relation to, for instance, climate issues.

The urgent and contemporary challenges of the Anthropocene declare humanity’s vulnerability through complex entanglements and uncertainty. The cause-and-effect relationships and temporality are disturbed; and human-decentred views and materiality come to the fore. Consequently, it becomes challenging to find a “common answer” for how to educate. This thesis engages with this challenge as a prospective-generating project and adopts the concept of Anthropocene as a framing in science education research. More specifically, this thesis focuses on school chemistry content and science teachers.

The overarching aim of this thesis is to problematise school chemistry knowledge through the perspective of the Anthropocene. The ambition is to create knowledge about school chemistry knowledge when it is situated in the intersection of content, purposes, and relationships, framed by the challenges of the Anthropocene. Therefore, approaches to school chemistry knowledge in the Anthropocene were explored in this research. This overarching aim is addressed through two research purposes. These research purposes are addressed in four individual studies. Each study has its own theoretical and analytical focus and its own set of research questions. The first purpose is to theoretically elaborate desired school chemistry knowledge areas (Articles I and II). The second purpose is to empirically study how school chemistry knowledge is articulated from (becoming) practitioners’ perspectives when challenged by the Anthropocene (Articles III and IV).  

To address the first research purpose, school chemistry knowledge areas were problematised in relation to Environmental and Sustainability Education (ESE) and the Anthropocene in two theoretical studies. The theoretical grounding for these studies is the European continental didaktik tradition as well as related powerful knowledge discussions. In Article I, a theoretical didaktik model was developed whilst embedding chemistry education into ESE. Schools are seen as part of society embedded in contemporary global challenges. Emphasizing teachers’ centrality in engaging with didactic questions of why, what, and how, the study proposes a holistic approach to chemistry education with critical perspectives. Building on the first study, Article II adopted the Anthropocene as a challenging framing and perspective regarding chemistry education more generally. By utilizing the discussion of powerful knowings and posthuman Bildung, the article discusses what ChemoKnowings and other SubjectKnowings might mean in relation to the Anthropocene, through the development of didaktik models. One of them is a vision-oriented model to mobilise students’ ethico-socio-political thinking and action.

In relation to the second research purpose, empirical studies were conducted from the perspectives of practitioners, namely, experienced chemistry teachers (Article III), and (general) science (“naturkunskap”) teacher students oriented towards upper secondary school (Article IV). While theoretical foundations for these empirical studies were grounded on European continental didaktik, each study has its own analytical lens. Article III explored experienced chemistry teachers’ approach to knowledge when the Anthropocene and the vision-oriented model developed in Article II were the points of departure. The analyses showed that school chemistry knowledge can be a means for teachers to regulate negative emotions associated with the challenges of the Anthropocene. Therefore, solutions to the environmental and sustainability issues were viewed as part of “putting chemistry content on the table”. The teachers viewed school chemistry knowledge as a prerequisite and foundation for students’ awareness and engagement with environmental and sustainability issues. In the article, these results were further discussed in relation to taken-for-granted assumptions on chemistry education and selective traditions. In Article IV, the focus was on the “fresh eyes” of science teacher students. The article explored teacher students’ discussions of future science teaching in the light of the Anthropocene after receiving a lecture on it in a teacher education course. Focus group discussions of science teacher students were analysed with Latour’s “matters of concern” as an analytical lens. Results mainly showed that the shared input of the Anthropocene urged them to express matters of concern whilst adopting a personal and everyday-oriented perspective. On the other hand, they also assumed the role of future professional teachers and approached educational content as matters of concern. Implications for science teacher education were also discussed.  

The thesis further synthesizes theoretical perspectives and empirical findings. Through theoretical reasoning and knowledge gained from the empirical material, chemistry education is envisioned, urging a transformation from “matters of fact” to “matters of concern”. 

In this article, we elaborate on the construct ChemoKnowings as subject-specific powerful knowings for chemical agency in the Anthropocene era. Related to constructs such as critical chemical literacy, ChemoCapabilities, and eco-reflexive chemical thinking, we unpack the construct as an example of Carlgren’s powerful knowings, which relates Young’s powerful knowledge to the idea and tradition of Bildung. It means powerful knowledge containing embodied and relational (or tacit) dimensions. ChemoKnowings can therefore be described as embodied and relational knowledge in and about chemistry – (critical) chemical knowledge that matters meaningfully to the student, connecting them to themselves and the world, and conferring an ethical compass. By situating the teaching of ChemoKnowings within a vision for chemistry teaching as a part of a world-centered vision for schooling in the Anthropocene, ChemoKnowings are viewed as having the capacity to mobilise an ethico-socio-political action, that is, chemical agency. By focusing on student transformation of content for ChemoKnowings and integrating elements of a theoretical didaktik model for eco-reflexive chemistry education, we develop a vision-oriented didaktik model for ChemoKnowings. More generally, we argue that didaktik models for supporting teachers’ consideration of student transformation of content for powerful subject-knowings are an important part of general subject didaktik. We present in the article vignettes that detail personal accounts for each of the three authors describing examples of chemistry-specific knowings that matter meaningfully to each of us, and which articulate our own embodied ethico-socio-political actions as students, teachers, researchers, and consumers. Inspired by Klafki’s didaktik analysis, we end the article by proposing four areas of questions that the teacher can use in guiding their preparation and transformation of the content they bring into the classroom for promoting students’ ChemoKnowings, and thus Bildung in the 21st century.

Compared to Anglo-American instructional design, European Didaktik has focused much more on content and relevance. This presentation is based on concepts such as disciplinary literacy, powerful knowledge, Bildung, sustainability education and didaktik models (Sjöström, 2019; Sjöström, Eilks & Talanquer, 2020), as well as on their interrelationships. Recent ideas of didaktik models supporting eco-reflexive Bildung (Herranen et al., 2021), ChemoKnowings (Herranen et al., 2021; Yavuzkaya et al., 2022) and chemical agency (Yavuzkaya et al., 2022) will be presented and discussed. Eco-reflexive Bildung-oriented chemistry/science education should, in addition to (a) transformative subject knowledge, emphasize both (b) scientific processes – NOS (Nature of Science) – and (c) societal contexts – STSE (Science-Technology-Society-Environment) (Sjöström, Eilks & Zuin, 2016). In practice, this would mean including more philosophical, ethical and socio-political perspectives in chemistry/science education, and the focus should be on meaningfulness, problematization, understanding uncertainties and balancing the benefits and risks of science and technology.

In this Round Table-discussion we (Sjöström & Yavuzkaya) will put some “meta-didaktik models” on the table and based on them open up for discussing the role of Science|Environment|Health-issues in Bildung, its potential implications for Subject Didaktik (Subject-Specific Education) and how it can be explored in research studies. One of the models will be a recently published vision-oriented didaktik model for promoting powerful knowings and agency in science education (Yavuzkaya, Clucas and Sjöström, 2022). Some other models will be selected from a new Swedish textbook on Didaktik for Bildung (Sjöström & Tyson, 2022) and translated to English. We will start by short conceptualisations of Bildung and Didaktik, followed by a short presentation of the first selected “meta-didaktik model” followed by all round table-participants discussing it in relation to S|E|H-issues. This is then repeated for other meta-models, as many as there is room for.

The Anthropocene makes visible the global challenges we are facing by highlighting the state of the planet, the human impact on Earth systems, and our unsustainable ways of living. Considering chemistry and chemistry education in relation to the Anthropocene provides an opportunity to challenge and rethink chemistry education. We utilized the concept Bildung towards self-determination, participation, and solidarity, which takes students as active participants in public debates in the process of democracy. In this study, we turn to pre-service teachers as a part of this rethinking process since such attempts start with teachers, even with teacher training. In this study, we utilize the transdisciplinary perspectives of pre-service upper secondary Science Studies teachers and aim to investigate their views on why, what, and how to teach in and about chemistry in relation to the Anthropocene. Focus group interviews were conducted with three groups of participants. Initial findings of thematic analysis revealed the themes, such as, teachers as citizens, the Anthropocene and transdisciplinarity, possible obstacles while integrating the Anthropocene in chemistry lessons.  

Compared to Anglo-American instructional design, European Didaktik has focused much more on content and relevance. This presentation will address why, what and how to teach in and about chemistry, as an example of a school subject. It will elaborate on concepts such as disciplinary literacy, powerful knowledge, Bildung, sustainability education and didaktik models (Sjöström, 2019; Sjöström, Eilks & Talanquer, 2020), as well as on their interrelationships. The goal is to explain what can be meant with powerful (chemical) knowings and eco-reflexive Bildung, as well as the characteristics of didaktik models aiming at those two. Eco-reflexive Bildung-oriented chemistry/science education should, in addition to (a) transformative subject knowledge, emphasize both (b) scientific processes – NOS (Nature of Science) – and (c) societal contexts – STSE (Science-Technology-Society-Environment) (Sjöström, Eilks & Zuin, 2016). In practice, this would mean including more philosophical, ethical and socio-political perspectives in chemistry/science education, and the focus should be on problematization, understanding uncertainties and balancing the benefits and risks of science and technology. In addition to these three legs, Hodson (2003) has suggested socio-political actions as a fourth leg. It is about promoting students’ critical and active engagement in socio-scientific problems and those often involves complex environmental and health issues. In the presentation, corresponding didaktik models – and especially such focusing socio-chemical issues, will be elaborated on. This will be done based on different curriculum ideas as well as philosophical ideas. Recently, Carlgren (2020) problematized the related concept of powerful knowledge and instead suggested powerful knowings. This concept emphasizes that disciplinary knowledge is embedded in actions. It is about “knowledge-as-a-means-for-cultivation-of-human-powers” (p. 324). The presentation will highlight ideas about relevant, transformative and powerful (chemical) knowings for sustainability and related educative practices. Examples will be given from two ongoing PhD projects (Clucas and Yavuzkaya).

The aim of this theoretical paper is to develop and present a didaktik model that embeds chemistry education into Environmental and Sustainability Education (ESE) using an eco-reflexive approach. A didaktik model is a tool to help educators make decisions and reflect on why, what, how, and/or when to teach. The model presented here is a revised version of the Jegstad and Sinnes model from 2015. It was systematically developed based on a critical analysis of the previous ESD (Education for Sustainable Development)-based model. This process is part of what is called didactic modeling. The revised model consists of the following six categories: (i) socio-philosophical framing; (ii) sustainable schooling and living; (iii) critical views on chemistry's distinctiveness and methodological character; (iv) powerful chemical content knowledge; (v) critical views of chemistry in society; and (vi) eco-reflexivity through environmental and sustainability education. As in the model by Jegstad and Sinnes, the eco-reflexive didaktik model seeks to support chemistry educators in their sustainability-oriented educational planning and analysis, but from a more critical perspective. Based on an eco-reflexive Bildung approach, one additional category-socio-philosophical framing-was added to the revised model. This is because the previous model does not take sufficient account of worldview perspectives, cultural values, and educational philosophy. The eco-reflexive didaktik model is illustrated with boxes, and it is suggested that all categories in these boxes should be considered in holistic and eco-reflexive chemistry education. The purpose of such education is to develop students' ChemoKnowings.

Given the state of our planet in relation to human impact on the nature, the Anthropocene makes visible the global challenges we have been facing and unsustainable ways we are living in. Even though the scientific work in relation to Anthropocene is highly dependent on chemistry concepts, chemistry education is weakly connected to environment, society, nature and philosophy of science in its current state. Instead, instructional approaches still tend to introduce fundamental chemistry concepts in a quite isolated way. Even though there seems to be an increase in context-based approaches, there is a strong need for ecological, ethical, and philosophical framing. This contribution is based on a developing PhD project, which aims to reconceptualize chemistry education in the Anthropocene. In order to address this aim, several studies are being developed. One of these studies focuses on science teachers’ views on teaching and didactic questions in relation to the Anthropocene. In this contribution, preliminary findings will be presented.