Learning about Confucian ecological ethics to promote education for sustainable development in Chinese secondary chemistry education

Incorporating cultural aspects into science education has recently been stressed in many non-Western societies. However, Chinese traditional cultures are rarely discussed in Chinese science classrooms. Hence, a teaching intervention integrating Confucian ecological ethics and education for sustainable development in secondary chemistry classrooms was designed, implemented online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and analyzed. It focuses on discussing aspects of Confucian ecological ethics in the context of a lesson plan on the socio-scientific issue of plastic use. Sixty-five 10th-grade students from an urban key public high school in Beijing voluntarily attended this research. Based on the analysis of their feedback it is suggested that Confucian ecological ethics can improve students’ environmental awareness. Most students acknowledged that Confucian ecological ethics could promote Chinese sustainability-oriented chemistry education with a value-oriented approach.