TY - JOUR
T1 - Analysing the construction of ‘sustainability’ in lower secondary school technology syllabi in Ireland
AU - McGarr, Oliver
AU - Lynch, Raymond
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - With growing societal recognition of the need to take action in order to promote more sustainable futures, school curricula have been seen as crucial vehicles through which to promote education for sustainable development. STEM subjects in particular have been targeted as pertinent areas to best promote sustainability through curriculum development initiatives. This paper aims to explore the Irish second level educational response to the growing sustainability challenge through an analysis of the recently revised Technology Education curricula. The findings from this paper challenge the uncritical and over-optimistic views of sustainability evident within the Irish context. Furthermore, it raises questions about the ability of school curricula across any jurisdiction to respond to significant global challenges while situated within an ascendant market driven, neoliberal philosophy of education.
AB - With growing societal recognition of the need to take action in order to promote more sustainable futures, school curricula have been seen as crucial vehicles through which to promote education for sustainable development. STEM subjects in particular have been targeted as pertinent areas to best promote sustainability through curriculum development initiatives. This paper aims to explore the Irish second level educational response to the growing sustainability challenge through an analysis of the recently revised Technology Education curricula. The findings from this paper challenge the uncritical and over-optimistic views of sustainability evident within the Irish context. Furthermore, it raises questions about the ability of school curricula across any jurisdiction to respond to significant global challenges while situated within an ascendant market driven, neoliberal philosophy of education.
KW - curriculum change
KW - Education for sustainable development
KW - technology education
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85103041328&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/13504622.2021.1903837
DO - 10.1080/13504622.2021.1903837
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85103041328
SN - 1350-4622
VL - 27
SP - 992
EP - 1010
JO - Environmental Education Research
JF - Environmental Education Research
IS - 7
ER -