Logics of Sustainability in Swedish Technology Education

Abstract

In the global north of today, it is common to view technological progression as a means of achieving a sustainable future. This is true also in technology education. That is, sustainability is seen as dependent on technological progression – endlessly developing technologies. In this study, I explore how sustainability teaching in Swedish upper-secondary technology school is articulated in the Technology course syllabus and in six interviews with technology teachers about sustainability. I aim to understand why ideas of technological progression have such a grip on views sustainability in technology education. I use logics of critical explanation to explain and articulate the discursive structures that make this social practice possible. I pay attention to social logics (the characteristics of a practice, e.g. certain views on teaching), political logics (how practices are normalised or contested), and fantasmatic logics (how fantasies are used to defend or change practices). The findings show logics that support the hegemony of technological progression both in the syllabus and among the teachers. This happens through the articulation of an imagined future where technology is portrayed as the way to sustain modernity. These logics render arguments against technological progression and engineering-inspired teaching approaches invisible. I argue that such a practice risk creating a fixed view of teaching sustainability in technology education, while alternative ways of teaching sustainability are left unexplored. It also risks fortifying the instrumental idea of technology education as an education for the industry.