Technology education for sustainable development– a scoping review

Digital technologies are seen as enablers of green transition, circular economy, social progress, and more resource efficient societies. At the same time, digital technologies are also criticised for being unsustainable in terms of energy and resource consumption and the division of labour on which they rest. On this background, this article conducts a scoping review on how digital technologies are related to sustainability in compulsory education. The review finds a dichotomous approach to digital technologies as either tools for learning and sustainable development or, conversely, as problems for sustainable development. Sustainability is either approached as a political goal towards which (educational) technologies can contribute; a problem to be solved through technological solutions; something which requires increased human awareness (created with technologies); or something which is challenged by technologies themselves. The review also finds a tendency for didactical and pedagogical frameworks to reflect these approaches to sustainability: That maker and design activities tend to work on the premise of technology as a solution, critical pedagogy tends to focus on problems created by technologies, and aesthetic and place-oriented approaches seek to stimulate human agency through technologies. The article is concluded with a proposal of a new field called (Digital) Technology Education for Sustainable Development and a discussion of how future research and teaching could include new theories of technology to highlight how human and technological agencies are intertwined, how digital technologies are not only tools for learning, but also complex and material phenomena in the world.

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