The teaching of ethics and core values in chemistry education

In this special issue of Chemistry Teacher International, good practices in the teaching and learning about ethics within chemistry education are published. They are related specifically to the use of chemical knowledge, and the use of chemically produced compounds. These can be related to the use and production of chemical weapons, but also to the use of chemical knowledge related to the production of illicit drugs and undesired consequences of the production and/or use of materials and agrochemicals.

The editor board for this special issue consisted of Jan Apotheker, Iwona Maciejowska, Marvadeen Singh Wilmot, Marietjie Potgieter and Mustafa Sözbilir. A special acknowledgment for Iwona Maciejowska, who not only wrote an article herself, but was also very effective in finding authors to write an article for this issue.

In Table 1 an overview of the articles is given.

Over the past two decades two developments have influenced the discussion on teaching ethics in chemistry education. Normal part of the curriculum of course is a discussion on academic integrity, and linked to that a code of academic conduct. But ethical issues linked to chemistry have not been a normal part of the curriculum. With the formulation of the principles of green chemistry (Anastas & Eghbali, 2010) sustainability became a focal point in chemistry research and development.

Both within the European Union as well as within OPCW developments have started asking for a more responsible attitude from chemists. Within OPCW this led ultimately to the formation of an Advisory Board on Education and Outreach. In this body the double use of chemicals as well as chemical knowledge was a topic of discussion. As a result of this discussion several ideas for introduction of the concept of dual use in education were formulated. Both Alastair Hay (Hay, 2024), former member of this committee as well as Gabriela Gonzalez (González, 2024) describe possible ways to introduce these subjects in education.

Within the European Union, the concept of ‘Responsible Research and Innovation’ (RRI), which has had an influence both on industry as well as education (Mahaffy et al., 2014; Sutcliffe, 2011; von Schomberg, 2013).

In Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) six focus points have been formulated for Research and Innovation: “Ethics, Gender equality, Governance, Open Access, Public Engagement and Science Education” (Figure 1).

Figure 1:

Gender equality in responsible research and innovation.

In Jan Mehlich’s article in this special issue (Mehlich, 2024) emphasis is given to the ideas of RRI, as well as a description of a course in which these issues are discussed. Other examples of the way the principles of RRI can be implemented in secondary education have been developed for example in the EU project Irresisitible (Apotheker et al., 2017; Maciejowska & Apotheker, 2014).

The ‘The Haque Ethical Guidelines’ were formulated and adopted by OPCW (Husbands & Suárez, 2016) in October 2015. IUPAC endorsed them in May, 2016.

Within the International Union for Pure and Applied Chemistry this has led to the installment of a Committee on Ethics, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. One of the tasks of this committee is to develop inhouse policies on ethics diversity and inclusiveness (Meyers, 2024). In her article Liliana Mammino (Mammino, 2024) discusses a definition of ethical behavior, while Leif Sydnes (Sydnes, 2024) discusses the importance of teaching ethics, and describes a course used to do so.

The adoption of the ‘The Hague Ethical Guidelines’ led for example in The Netherlands to the formulation of a code of conduct specifically for chemists (Apotheker, 2023). These core values not only refer to working safely, but also towards sustainable use of substances, as well as the future use of raw materials. Another important aspect is the adherence to prevailing laws and regulations, including the expectations to report infringements to relevant authorities. Maria Stojanovska (Stojanovska, 2024) and Iwona Maciejowska (Maciejowska, 2024) describe a course in which some of these aspects were introduced, Xinwei Liu (Liu, 2024) describes the way teaching of ethics has been integrated at the Hebei University of Science and Technology.

New developments within society like the development of artificial Intelligence, and Chat GP aks for a response in education. Some of these aspects are addressed in Ron Blonders article in this issue (Blonder & Feldman-Maggor, 2024).

Sebastian Kozuch (Kozuch, 2024) finally discusses ethical and philosophical aspects of chemical knowledge, linked to our understanding of the chemical bond.