From past to future: a historical review of research in green chemistry and the role of pedagogical content knowledge

Document Type : Original research

Author

Department of Mathematics, Ahar Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ahar, Iran;

Abstract

Background and Objective: The aim of this study is to identify the dimensions and components of research conducted in the field of green chemistry education within the theoretical framework of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). The study population consists of articles on green chemistry education published in reputable scientific journals.
Materials and Methods: By systematically reviewing the Noor specialized journals database, the National Publications Database, the Jihad Daneshgahi Scientific Information Center, and Google Scholar and removing duplicates, 30 articles published from 2004 to 2024 were retrieved. The titles, abstracts, and keywords of these articles were entered into MaxQDA software and analyzed after coding.  
Findings: The results indicate that the first article related to green chemistry education was published in 2004. After that, we have evidence of increasing waves in the number of green chemistry education articles accepted by scientific journals, among which the journal titled ‘Research in Chemistry Education’ has the highest share. Among the chemistry subgroups, the largest contribution is given to ‘electrochemistry, organic chemistry’ and ‘nanochemistry’. Among the twelve principles of green chemistry, the focus of the articles is on the sixth, the second, the first, and the seventh with 11, 7, 5, and 4 articles, respectively. Regarding the seventeen sustainable development goals, the attention of the articles is on the fourth goal, the eleventh, the seventh, the eighth, the third, and the sixth with 28, 13, 11, 7, 6, and 3 articles, respectively.
Conclusion: Based on the frequency analysis of codes, there is a hierarchy of importance of codes that reflects the main dimensions and components of research in green chemistry education.

Keywords

References

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Research in Chemistry Education
Volume 8, Issue 3 - Serial Number 31
September 2026
Pages 46-70

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