Sustainable development is part of all technology education! - A technology teacher perspective on the relation between technology education and sustainable development

• Technology in today’s society needs to be constantly exposed to consequence analyses related to sustainable development. Industries, inventors and educators working with technology development have a responsibility to develop technology that meets the demands of sustainability in terms of ecological, economic and social aspects (Jucker and Mathar, 2015). The emerging global crisis requires educational responses that evolve knowledge about technology beyond single innovations or artefacts towards technological systems that embraces social, environmental and sustainable issues (Elshof, 2009; Pavlova, 2013). Education in technology requires a holistic treatment and at the same time maintaining a connection to everyday life. Regarding the development of technology education this can mean a development of understanding of flows such as matter, energy and information in different systems e.g. mobile phone systems and water and sewage systems (Svensson, 2011). Using a systemic approach in technology education may open for new possibilities to understand the connection between technology and sustainable development. In this pilot-study technology teachers’ perception of the relation between technology education and education for sustainable development (hereinafter referred to as ESD) have been conducted using a questionnaire with open-ended questions. The conventional content analysis (Hsieh and Shannon, 2005) was used on text data. The results indicate that technology teachers in the Swedish compulsory school believe that sustainable development is closely linked to technology and technology education. They describe an understanding of technology and sustainable development as systemic. However, when it comes to the teaching the main activities are described with a focus on products and life-cycle analysis, from raw material to a product, which could be understood as a linear process and thus cannot fully be seen as a systemic approach.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Lärande (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Learning (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

technology education

education for sustainable development

technological systems

system approach

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