What is Technology Education?

An international, PATT‑informed definition of technology education

In its broadest sense, technology education is the study and practice of how people conceive, design, make, use, evaluate and/or sustain technological products, systems and environments, so that learners develop the knowledge, skills and values to intervene thoughtfully in the human‑made world. It blends design reasoning, material and digital fabrication, systems thinking, ethics and cultural perspectives, and it is organized differently across nations, but shares the common aim of building technological literacy and capability for life, work and citizenship. When we talk about technology education, you should not confuse modern usage of the word "technology" to mean high-tech gadgets and computers (although these are indeed part of technology education), but understand that the term refers to human knowledge, objects, activities and drives to shape the world around them, transforming resources and ideas into resolutions to design problems for people, places and (hopefully increasingly) the planet. 

Variant strands and forms across countries

Technology education in the broadest sense, described above, finds many different expressions in different countries and regions around the world, reflecting local and national concerns about the economy, industry, life, homes, culture, etc. Below are some examples of how technology, engineering and/or design (TED) subjects appear across the globe.

National

• Design & Technology (D&T) / Technologies (UK & Scotland): School subjects that foreground iterative design, making and evaluation across materials, electronics, textiles and digital tools; Scotland groups this within “Technologies.”

• Technology & Engineering Education (USA): Emphasises engineering design, systems and problem‑solving as a route to technological literacy; often aligned with STEM and ITEEA communities.

• Sloyd/Slöjd & Craft‑based Technology Education (Nordic countries, esp. Sweden & Finland): A craft, materiality and making tradition that nurtures practical wisdom and cultural heritage. (Note: Sloyd often sits alongside more future and design-based technology education in Nordic countries.)

• Living Technology / Everyday Technology (Taiwan and parts of East Asia): Positioned as “Living Technology,” integrating daily life applications, systems and societal relevance; politically and economically valued as national capacity.

• Technology (New Zealand): A curriculum that explicitly embeds indigenous knowledge and place‑based perspectives (e.g., Māori world views) alongside design and systems strands.

• Technology with Technical and Vocation Education and Training (TVET) / Career strands (South Africa and others): School Technology combined with or adjacent to Consumer Studies TVET, reflecting workforce and economic priorities.

Global/transnational

• Digital fabrication / Maker & Fab Lab approaches: Hands‑on “make to learn” approaches using additive manufacturing, microcontrollers and labs; widely reported across PATT (e.g., on Fab Labs and smart textiles).

• Sustainability, Science and Technology Studies (STS) and Ethics: Cross‑cutting emphases on sustainable design, socio‑technical systems and ethical implications, visible across recent PATT themes and papers.

Why these definitions and perspectives reflect the PATT Conference Series Archive of Conference Proceedings:

• The PATT Conference Series Archive documents four decades of international work and shows how Technology Education is hosted and interpreted in different countries and languages, while pursuing shared goals of technological literacy and capability.
• Specific proceedings include strands on indigenous knowledge, material/craft pedagogies (sloyd), digital fabrication, engineering design, and primary/secondary D&T practice, demonstrating the field’s plural forms under a common umbrella.
• Overviews used by teachers and researchers (e.g., MESHGuides) align with PATT by cataloguing national labels [Design & Technology (England), Technologies (Scotland), Technology (South Africa/USA), Living Technology (Taiwan)] and by reaffirming the core purpose of enabling learners to understand and shape the made world.