The quest to cultivate an ecocritical awareness in educational technology scholarship: A question of disciplinary focus in the age of environmental crisis

Although many academic disciplines are now experiencing a process of “greening” as scholars seek to cultivate an ecocritical awareness within disciplinary scholarship, Neil Selwyn notes that such ecocritical concerns rarely feature in the field of educational technology. In this paper, I bring Selwyn's call for ecocritical awareness in the field of educational technology into conversation with emerging scholarly discussions in the fields of ecojustice ethics, ecojustice education, and information and communications technology sustainability. In so doing, I expand the existing conversation about the environmental impact of educational technology consumption to argue that the process of cultivating an ecocritical awareness in the field of educational technology requires refining the discipline's focus to include the full lifespan of educational technology devices and the global inequities that feature during the production and disposal of these devices.

Practitioner Notes

What is already known about this topic

• Despite substantive scholarship recognizing the environmental impact of the globalized digital technology supply chain, the field of educational technology has minimally considered the ecojustice implications of the material nature of educational technology devices when examining the environmental impact of these devices.

What this paper adds

• In this paper, I argue that the reason why the field of educational technology has overlooked the environmental impact of device production and disposal is because of its almost exclusive focus on device use. I argue that cultivating an ecocritical awareness in the field of educational technology requires the discipline to expand its focus beyond device use in two ways: (a) to include device production and disposal and (b) to consider the global injustices that occur in these parts of the digital technology life cycle. As such, I build upon Selwyn and others to argue for the cultivation of ecojustice concerns in emerging conversations about ethics in the field of educational technology.

Implications for practice and/or policy

• The process of cultivating ecocritical awareness within the field of educational technology requires expanding the scope and focus of the discipline beyond device use to include device production and disposal. The planned obsolescence behind these devices maximizes the environmental harm at these stages and the global injustices associated with them. Educators and educational leaders seeking to employ educational technology in ethical and environmentally sustainable ways must consider these implications from the global digital technology supply chain.

     

气候变化的科学背景研究

近百年来,地球气候正经历一次以全球变暖为主要特征的显著变化。这种全球性的气候变暖,是由自然的气候波动和人类活动增强的温室效应共同引起的。我国的气候变化趋势与全球气候变化的总趋势基本一致。未来50-100年全球和我国的气候将继续向变暖的方向发展。     

《巴黎协定》温控目标下未来碳排放空间的准确估算问题辨析

为了应对工业化以来的全球增暖问题，《联合国气候变化框架公约》缔约方通过《巴黎协定》设定了“将全球平均气温较前工业化时期上升幅度控制在2℃以内，并努力将温度上升幅度限制在1.5℃以内”的目标。当前，全球平均表面温度相对工业革命前的升温已超过1℃，累积二氧化碳（CO₂）排放达到2 390 Gt。因此，要实现《巴黎协定》的1.5℃和2℃温控目标，需要准确估算未来剩余的碳排放空间。文章在概述地球系统碳循环与升温关系的基础上，对未来碳排放空间的估算方法进行评述，分析讨论了政府间气候变化专门委员会（IPCC）第六次评估报告（AR6）和IPCC第五次评估报告（AR5）发布以来在碳排放空间估算方面的国际研究进展，探究了造成估算结果差异的原因并指出影响未来碳排放空间估算准确性的关键因素。最后，围绕未来碳排放空间的准确估算问题，提出了亟待加强的研究领域。文章可为科学界在温控目标下准确估算未来碳排放空间核算数据及未来的研究重点方向提供参考。