Vol. 16 No. 28 (2023): Technology comprehension in Education

Editor: Lillian Buus, libu@via.dk, VIA University College
Editor: Andreas Lindenskov Tamborg, andreas_tamborg@ind.ku.dk, Copenhagen University
Editor: Marianne Georgsen, mage@ucn.dk, University College North

In a Danish context, the term technology comprehension is often used to denominate the subject domain that has been and must be developed to provide educational answers to some of the challenges posed by the increasing digital development. This concerns the opportunities for citizens to participate in an increasingly digitalised society, the competencies of employees to enter into job functions in a digitalised labour market as well as a potential need for development with regards to the contents of study programmes and curricula. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in technology comprehension as subject domain across more or less all levels of the Danish education system: day care, primary and secondary school, vocational education as well as higher education. It is this particular subject domain and its development which is one of the themes of this call. The other theme is the organisational capacity building that exactly this or these emerging subject domain(s) call for. In this issue, we welcome contributions that address both issues. Likewise, contributions can provide overall insight into the extent to which the subject domain and the capacity building can be understood independently of each other (or not).

The appearance within the educational sector of subject domains and concepts related to technology comprehension has given rise to growing research interest in technology comprehension that, among other things, is expressed via special issues on technology comprehension in the journals Unge Pædagoger (Young Pedagogues), Learning Tech, and Studier i Læreruddannelse og Profession (Studies in Teacher Education and Profession). This had led to research within a long series of phenomena, issues and challenges related to analyses and discussions of new technology comprehension subject domains as these have been described in official documents, as they appear in digital learning resources as well as the roles of these subject domains in higher education, youth education and vocational education. What is common for these substantial contributions is that they often zoom in on technology comprehension as it is practiced in a specific educational or subject-related context.

In addition, in recent years, subjects, subject domains and capacity building in relation to technology comprehension have been developed within educational contexts. Among these developments are the TEK (TECH) experiment in primary school, the informatics subject at STX (the Higher General Examination Programme), development of the TEKU-model in relation to select profession-specific study programmes, the Teknosofikum project in higher education.