Attitudes of Croatian Pupils on the relationship of Environmental Issues and Sustainable Development with Technology and Engineering

Abstract

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is becoming an important part of general education, based on a concept that includes three components: Environmental, Social and Economic. The sustainable development curriculum in Croatia is based on this concept, and activities in this area are mainly limited to environmental protection and ecological activities. At the same time, the technological and political context needed to take the right action and develop critical thinking and a systemic approach is lacking. In this context, a survey on pupils’ attitudes towards the relationship between technology and engineering with the themes of ecology and sustainable development was conducted to investigate the impact of this curriculum on students’ awareness. The research was conducted on a stratified sample of primary school pupils (N = 2205) from Croatia. The results show that pupils view technology as important for life and progress, but do not understand how it relates to sustainable development and environmental issues. This refers to issues of water conservation, construction of facilities, waste disposal, and understanding technology only as pollution. These results point to the need for “deeper” and transformative technology teaching that takes place in a real-world context. Only in this way can students understand the concept and meaning of sustainable development and the role and importance of technology in this context, and be educated to be responsible citizens.

Demystifying Technology as the Basis of Education for Sustainability

“…It happens although the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) approach is attempting to transform from an idealistic to an Education for Sustainable Citizenship, which is a more realistic approach to change concerning sustainability and sustainable development [24]. In other words, insufficient guidelines, false idealism, and censorship of critical ideas and content [10,24] led to the need to focus education for sustainable development on local communities (countries, regions) as this is the only way to resist global corporate interests. Nevertheless, there are numerous unresolved problems, which stand in the way of successful education and learning for sustainable development today.…”

“…In fact, the development of critical thinking and criticism through "ecological indoctrination" have nothing to do with each other. The term "ecological indoctrination" implies various influences that radically shape the consciousness of younger generations in such a way that they regard any technology a priori as a danger to people and the environment [10]. Such ecologically indoctrinated people do not really understand the important issues and problems of sustainability and are easy prey for corporate interests and neoliberalism because they readily accept the "greening of the capitalist way out of the crisis" [24].…”

“…sustainable development, today generally encompasses three basic dimensions: the ecological (environmental), economic, and social dimensions [8], to which the institutional (political), cultural, and technical dimensions are increasingly being added [9,10]. Although it is clear from this broad understanding of sustainability that sustainability and sustainable development are a cultural, traditional, linguistic, spiritual, political, and national (patriotic) phenomenon, it is often overlooked that it is still primarily an energy-ecological, economic, and labor-social issue [10]. At the same time, technology is an indispensable segment that should be given more attention.…”

“…Thus, in addition to natural resources and infrastructure, the human component of sustainability and sustainable development also plays a major role as the concept of fairness encompasses several manifestations concerning the sustainable development of human society [12]. This also means that significantly more attention should be paid to learning and educating future generations for sustainability and sustainable development than is the case today, and that the focus should be on actions that lead to a real improvement in socio-ecological problems and are carried out consciously and critically [10]. At the same time, fostering critical thinking, creativity, and ingenuity among younger generations and raising awareness among the wider population about the challenges of sustainability, resilience, and sustainable development [13] remains one of today's priorities for tomorrow's world.…”

Development and Future Trends of Digital Product-Service Systems: A Bibliometric Analysis Approach

“…Fi 2 shows the practical applications of robots in Industry 5.0. Cobots, which can operate alongside human operators, are developing as cr This smart factory idea allows PSS to have a greater effect on the environment, allowing sustainable growth [13]. Moreover, research and development activities in fields of PSS provide insights into the new focuses of manufacturing, such as digitalization, sustainability, resilience, service orientation, and similar new contexts [14,15].…”