Eco-reflexive chemical thinking and action

Abstract

The modern society can be described as a globalized risk society characterised by increasing complexity and unpredictable consequences of techno-scientific innovations and production. One example is the "chemicalisation" of our society, bodies and nature. In order to manage this, society needs educated citizens who are able to understand the complexity of the world and make valuebased decisions-in both their private and professional lives. For example critical-democratic citizens-with "Bildung"-are able to value information about environmental chemicals and chemical risks. One arena with great potential for enabling critical-democratic citizenship is education. This chapter describes and problematizes teaching and learning about risk-related chemicals, such as additives, contaminants, pollution and various environmental chemicals. Such socio-chemical issues is a type of socio-scientific issues (SSI). Chemicals Education is suggested to be based on a "chemicals education triangle", with the following three corners: (1) the nature of chemical risks, (2) the interplay between actors in "the chemical society", and (3) pluralism and awareness regarding various "chemical discourses". The communication inside and outside the science/chemistry classroom about the interplay between chemistry and society can be analyzed and discussed based on such a triangle. Critical-democratic citizens need "chemicals Bildung" Chemical risks have entered the scene of mass media and popular culture. For example, early in 2013 media reported on the WHO-report "State of the Science of Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals". The conclusion of the report was that the link between endocrine-disrupting chemicals and many diseases, like cancer and diabetes, is even stronger than has previously been thought (Vandenberg, 2012). This example is only one in a series of chemical alarms in recent years; others being e.g. plasticizers like phtalates and bisphenol A in baby bottles. Furthermore, several popular books and movies have been released. Examples include the books "Slow death by rubber duck: How the toxic chemistry of everyday life affects our health"

Science|Environment|Health – the emergence of a new pedagogy of complex living systems

“…An interesting approach that shows some similarities has been proposed by Sjöström and colleagues (Sjöström & Talanquer, 2018). Referring to the old humanistic concept of Bildung, they suggest what they call an ecoreflective approach:…”

Socio-Problematization of Green Chemistry: Enriching Systems Thinking and Social Sustainability by Education

“…Think of the communication and information technologies and its relation to society; even the press was involved in a great cultural transformation around the world. Systems thinking in GC should take the social embeddedness of technologies into consideration when addressing sustainability issues [57][58][59].…”

“…The problem with today's chemistry teaching is that there is too much focus on presenting chemistry substantively (what we know and how we can explain it) and too little effort in teaching chemistry as a creative activity (how we think and what we can do with this form of reasoning) [81]. Within the modernist (or positivist) atmosphere [82], chemistry has developed the image of a set of purely conceptual descriptions (of an ideal form) of reality and has lost its character as a transforming agent [58]; its technological nature [6] was suppressed and its social responsibility was only recently recovered [59].…”

“…Ontological: chemical theories of description and explanation of reality; These dimensions demonstrate the social character of GC, being embedded in the broad context of sustainability, and are the requirements for a reflexive [6,58] education, a Bildung education.…”

“…Burmeister, Rauch, and Eilks [88] and later authors [6,89] propose four models for GC integration in chemistry curricula to promote sustainability. Model 1 considers the adoption of sustainable practices in laboratory activities in scientific education, enabling the student to These dimensions demonstrate the social character of GC, being embedded in the broad context of sustainability, and are the requirements for a reflexive [6,58] education, a Bildung education. Bildung is a complex concept [85,86] developed in central and northern Europe since the thirteenth century, acquiring an educational status since the 18th century; it describes the movement of incorporation of the individual into culture.…”