In this book two fields meet, Technology Education with its long history, and Maker Education, a relative new shoot in the educational field. Both focus on learning through making and both value agency and motivation of learners. The purpose of this book is to understand and analyze the kind of informal and formal educational activities that take place under the umbrella of the Maker Movement and then relate this to the field of Technology Education to uncover what researchers, innovators and teachers in this field can learn from the principles, ideas and practices that are central to the Maker Movement and vice versa. The book contains two types of chapters. The first type is case study chapters that span from Mexico, China, Korea, Denmark, the Netherlands to Kenya and from primary to tertiary level, showing a variety of good practices in maker education including both formal and informal contexts. In the subsequent thematic chapters, dedicated authors have used the case studies to reflect on themes such as curriculum reform, social learning, materiality, spatial thinking, informal versus formal learning as well as the sustainability of learning and relate what is happening in Maker Education with Technology Education to imagine possible futures for Maker Education. @en

This book presents the scientific output of the TUFF research school in Sweden. In this school, a group of active teachers worked together on a series of educational research studies. All of those studies were related to the teaching about technology and engineering. The research program consisted of studies at various angles of view: a philosophical view, a national view, and a classroom practice view. The book is a showcase of how a well-conducted research program for teachers can lead to good contributions to technology education research. A selection of topics: the nature of technological knowledge, mental images of engineers and engineering, the process of choosing for a study in technology, teachers’ beliefs about technology education and assessment. These topics are directly related to major issues in the international technology education research agenda. The studies presented here were the basis of the authors’ Ph.D. theses. The teachers’ chapters are preceded by a description of ideas behind the TUFF research school and the way it was realized@en

The position of technology education in the school curriculum is a topic of continuous discussions. This book offers a number of research-based contributions to that discussion. A number of aspects have been identified that are related to the way technology education can be embedded in the curriculum: The historical development of the subject, its disciplinary character, its relation to other parts of the curriculum, and in particular with science and language education, the relation between the formal school curriculum and informal learning, forms of progression over the grades, and its contribution to citizenship, forms of literacy and ethics. The final chapter deals with specific issues for developing countries. The book can support decision making on the curriculum and the development of technology education as a part of that by providing theoretical and empirical insights on this topic@en