A Comparative Study of Chemistry for Sustainability Education in the Secondary School Curriculum in Selected Countries

The purpose of this research is to compare the curriculum of chemistry education for sustainability in higher secondary schools of USA, Finland, Hong Kong, Nigeria, and Iran. This is a qualitative, experimental, applied, and comparative research in terms of nature, variable, purpose, and method respectively. By using the four-step approach of Bereday, the similarities and differences of the main curriculum components of chemistry education for sustainability such as logic, objectives, content, teaching-learning methods, and evaluation methods were determined in the selected countries. Also, the strategy of country selection was "different social systems, different educational outputs" using purposeful sampling technique. The findings reveal that the similarities among countries are mostly related to the logic, and objectives of chemistry education for sustainability and the differences are mainly related to the content and teaching-learning methods. The common similarity of the five countries in the dimensions of educational logic, and objectives is to determine, and explain the relationship of chemistry to moral and social issues and to prevent air and water pollution. The main difference among these countries is the freedom of teachers in choosing the content, and teaching method, which is much greater in Finland than in other countries. According to the findings, the attention of Iran's curriculum and educational planners should be directed to designing curricula related to chemistry education for sustainable development based on the needs of society, industry, environmental protection and coordinated with today's technologies.