Technology Education

Technological systems consist of components that interact, creating a whole that cannot be simply reduced to the individual parts within it. Contemporary society consists increasingly of such technological systems – which are, moreover, also becoming increasingly complex. Technology education therefore includes having knowledge of how to act as a user in relation to these technological systems, something also stipulated in technology curricula in Sweden and many other countries. Very little has been done, however, in researching what knowledge pupils and teachers have about technology systems and how this knowledge could be developed. In this research area we examine how schools manage the educational field of technological systems in terms of syllabus content, how teaching materials treat systems and how pupils, teachers and trainee teachers understand technological systems.

The digitalisation of society is one of the great changes of our time, and e.g. the compulsory school curriculum contains from 2018 a clearer focus on digital solutions. Mathematics and technology now also include programming as a content for students to learn. At TekNaD, several research projects are conducted on the digitalisation of compulsory school and upper secondary school, for example, research on how programming is carried out in technology in primary school and the relationship between metaphor and gestures in programming teaching in upper secondary school.

Technology education has existed in Swedish schools for a long time, in fact since before a specific subject called “Technology” was introduced in the 1960s. Technology as a field of knowledge has existed, and still exists, as more-or-less explicit content in subjects such as handicrafts, science studies, home economics and social studies. In this research field we study “technology in school” from the nineteenth century up through the present. We are interested in how the field of knowledge that is technology and the subject “Technology” developed in schools, and what entities and factors have been significant in this development. In this respect, it touches upon social and cultural conceptions of technology and technology education that prevailed at different periods; theoretical curriculum issues concerning which areas of knowledge were selected, by whom and why; as well as what significance the chequered history of technology and its relation to other subjects – primarily the natural sciences – has for the appearance of the subject in today’s schools.

For a very long time, technology has both influenced and been influenced by society’s view of gender – what is seen as masculine and feminine, respectively. This division is not set in stone but does change from era to era, from culture to culture and so on. The prevailing division limits the opportunity for individuals from an education perspective, and also their options for education. This has consequences for gender equality in both private working life. One important task for Swedish schools and preschools is to actively combat traditional gender roles and gender patterns. Research into how gender-aware education/activities could be pursued in technology as a subject has only been conducted to a greatly limited extent, both nationally and internationally.