Education and the European Digital Agenda

Switzerland, Germany and Sweden after 1970

The project

Technological issues are enjoying a boom in many areas of educational research and in education policies.

Historical perspectives, however, are still rare. Instead, research on “educational technologies” and “technology education” often works under the assumption that these are new problems without any historical conditions. This project can help develop a long-term perspective and consider its own research against the background of earlier attempts.

OUTLINE AND OBJECTIVES

It is commonly assumed that the new information and communications technologies are a huge challenge for the traditional systems of public schooling, higher education and vocational education and training. This project is concerned with how this challenge has been met in Europe during the first decades after the microchip started restructuring businesses, administration and daily life. It reconstructs how the educational implications of technological change have been faced politically between 1970 and the end of the dotcom boom around 2000. The project focuses especially on the political initiatives regarding secondary schooling, vocational education and training, adult and higher education.