In a global context of climate crisis and extension of other planetary boundaries, science education and particularly scientific and environmental literacies have a key role towards a sustainable transformation and climate and environmental action. However, scientific, or ecological literacies are highly complex, defined and interpreted in different ways, and depend upon its social, cultural, and political contexts. Previous research has reported that some definitions or conventional visions of scientific literacies are typically disconnected from this global catastrophe and controversially have been supported by neoliberal capitalism agendas that underpin 21st-century global economies. To tackle this scenario, new and critical approaches in science education articulated with environmental literacies are imperative. This paper provides a systematic review of critical scientific and environmental literacies, seeking opportunities to materialise and promote awareness towards a process of ‘conscientisation’ in science education. Findings report and examine the range and spectrum of definitions about how critical scientific literacies have been defined, conceptualised and studied from the 1990s.

This chapter emphasizes the role of critical and engaged inclusive science education in inclusive citizenship. It has the potential of empowering individuals to actively participate in social discourses and decision making. We explain the Vision III perspective of scientific literacy, which extends beyond acquiring knowledge to think critically and reflectively about science and its role in society. Based on this perspective we discuss consequences for inclusive education in the science subjects. The NinU-framework is a didaktik model for inclusive science education, stressing the recognizing diversity, minimizing barriers, and enabling participation. Based on these perspectives, we advocate for an inclusive Vision III approach in science education. We derive impulses for educators as part of a new didaktik model oriented towards an inclusive Vision III approach in science education.

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.

In the context of humanistic Bildung-centred Didaktik, the educational potential of different school subjects is emphasized. But how can different school subjects collectively contribute to the ‘cultivation-of-human-powers’ and Bildung with a focus on sustainability? In this article, seven different school subjects are compared. Eleven teacher educators from Malmö University, Sweden, have written scholarly about the roles of their respective school subjects for Bildung and sustainability. Drawing from the texts related to the seven school subjects – geography, mathematics, physical education and health, religious education, science for citizenship, Swedish as a second language, and visual arts – a comparative analysis was conducted. The primary focus was to understand the unique characteristics of each school subject, explore their epistemic differences, and discern their potential roles in fostering cross-curricular didactics for Bildung and sustainability. It is shown that the different school subjects collectively provide complementary contributions to contemporary Bildung and climate change literacy.

There is a need of a component in science education that can orient students to the complexity characterising the natural sciences position in relation to a globalised risk society and the Anthropocene. Recently, the implications of the German philosophical and educational construct Bildung have been discussed in this regard. In this paper, we investigate in what aspect an orientation towards promoting Bildung manifests in Swedish upper secondary school chemistry teachers' visions and views for their teaching. In view of the reported impact of neoliberal policy in narrowing the scope of education, with such narrowing possibly excluding dimensions of philosophical-ethical reflection in science teaching, we also investigate in what aspect economic goals associated with neoliberalism might hinder a Bildung orientation in the vision and views of the five chemistry teachers that were interviewed. Results revealed "Bildung-related elements" to be present in the chemistry teaching visions of all the teachers, however without strong Bildung orientation. Significantly, four of the five teachers reported contextual factors consistent with the impact of neoliberal policy in education as marginalising their work to realise Bildung-related elements. In addition, factors outside of teachers' awareness were also found to marginalise Bildung. Common for all five teachers were neoliberal values at the level of teachers' implicit beliefs, with our analysis pointing to the possibility that teachers view Bildung-related elements in their chemistry teaching as commodifiable entities. We argue that these implicit beliefs disempower the teachers in relation to a teaching praxis that seeks to guide students towards their own Bildung.

Publications with Vision III-ideas of scientific literacy and science education are reviewed. Since its inception in 2007, the same yearas Vision I and II were first formulated by Roberts, there have been at least eight mainly independent proposals for Vision III. The ideas encapsulated in Vision III – understood as alternative views to Western mainstream understandings – have been in existence for an even longer period. Different interpretations of Vision III are reviewed. Common interpretations and emphases are (environmental) engagement, pluralism, realising complexity, the political, and responsible knowing-in-action. The article explores how the three visions relate to each other and their different curriculum emphases. Six new curriculum emphases are suggested for Vision III: STS-perspectives (science and technology studies), ethico-sociopolitical perspectives, agency, philosophical values, cultural-existential perspectives, and embodied knowledge. The article culminates with a suggestion of an integrated conceptualisation of Vision III. Scientific literacy from Vision III-perspectives can be characterised as: based on broad scientific knowings, fundamental anddigital literacy, and an understanding of our complex world from pluralistic perspectives (cross-disciplinary, critical, historyphilosophy-sociology, intersectionality, indigenous worldviews, relationalism), being engaged and prepared for ‘glocal’ action. In essence, Vision III can be seen as synonymous with critical-eco-reflexive Bildung-oriented scientific literacy and science education.

Kapitlet fokuserar på lärares komplexa kunskapsuppdrag och föreslår bildning som ledstjärna. Didaktiken blir då bildningsorienterad. Kapitlet lyfter fram några perspektiv och frågor, som man som lärare kan använda sig av vid planering av och reflektion över bildningsorienterad undervisning.