Teaching high school chemistry through education for sustainability: a collaborative case study from Chile

Abstract

Integrating education for sustainability into chemistry teaching is regarded as essential for preparing young people to respond to complex environmental and social challenges, including in post-colonial Chile. This research explores the experience of Maria, a Chilean high school chemistry teacher, as she worked collaboratively with a teacher educator to reframe her practice as chemistry for sustainability. Drawing on interviews and researcher fieldnotes collected during a four-month collaboration and follow-up interviews conducted one and five years later, the study traces how Maria reimagined chemistry education beyond curriculum constraints. Her approach became more interdisciplinary, promoting students’ critical thinking, ethical reasoning, and engagement with real-world issues. She adopted pedagogies that were action-oriented and place-responsive, which are elements that remained central to her teaching years after the collaboration ended. The findings highlight the lasting impact of professional learning rooted in practice and supported through collaboration with external partners who combine subject expertise with broader educational insights. We argue that such sustained, context-aware collaborations are crucial for meaningful integration of sustainability into subject teaching and require investment and supported from policy makers to become more widely accessible.