Preparing new secondary science teachers in the context of sustainable development goals: green and sustainable chemistry

John Dolman Bradley; Peter Moodie

doi:10.1515/psr-2022-0198

Article

Preparing new secondary science teachers in the context of sustainable development goals: green and sustainable chemistry

John Dolman Bradley and Peter Moodie

Published/Copyright: June 11, 2024

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From the journal Physical Sciences Reviews Volume 9 Issue 12

Abstract

School science teachers have an important role to play in preparing young people for a sustainable future. Yet their teaching is usually constrained by national school curricula, which may be slow to change to address the issues of sustainable development. Initial teacher education should anticipate the required changes in school curricula so that newly qualified teachers are better equipped to implement the changes when they happen. This paper is based upon the situation prevailing in South Africa, a country with some of the best and some of the worst schools in sub-Saharan Africa. It suggests ways that the BEd course for physical science education student teachers can be developed toward education for sustainable development, while accepting the constraints of the national curriculum, which has become the defining structure of the BEd.

Keywords: climate change; initial teacher education; interdisciplinarity; secondary science teachers; sustainable development goals; systems thinking

Corresponding author: Peter Moodie, Division of Science Education, School of Education, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, E-mail: peter.moodie@wits.ac.za

Professor John Dolman Bradley passed away on 25 December 2022, after submitting this paper on 2 December 2022 as the sole author. Peter Moodie worked closely with him and was consulted during the writing of the paper. Moodie has responded to reviewers’ comments and contributed new material to sections 6, 8 and 10.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the editors XYZ for their guidance and review of this article before its publication.

Statement about AI usage: The authors declare that they have not used chatGPT or similar products in the preparation of their manuscript.
Research ethics: Not applicable.
Author contributions: The author has accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission.
Competing interests: The authors state no conflict of interest.
Research funding: None declared.
Data availability: Not applicable.

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Received: 2022-12-02

Accepted: 2024-04-29

Published Online: 2024-06-11

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Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.1515/psr-2022-0198

Keywords for this article

climate change; initial teacher education; interdisciplinarity; secondary science teachers; sustainable development goals; systems thinking