Towards globally conscious chemistry: perspectives on educators' responsibilities, entrepreneurship and a framework for practice

Abstract

This perspective adds to growing work that sees chemistry classrooms as learning spaces where ideas about justice, power, and equity are learned alongside disciplinary content. When educators design and teach sustainable chemistry, they are not only inviting students to think about these issues; they are also already practicing particular ethical and political commitments through the examples they choose, the problems they centre, and the ways they frame entrepreneurship and innovation. Drawing together literature on systems thinking, socioscientific issues, decolonising and culturally-responsive teaching, as well as critical studies of entrepreneurship, this piece offers the perspective that green and sustainable chemistry education as a lived ethical practice rather than a neutral technical exercise. A reflexive curriculum checklist is proposed as a practical tool for chemistry educators, students, and community partners to make these commitments more explicit, bring hidden curricula to the surface, and orient curriculum design towards more globally concious and liveable chemical futures.