EdTech and the Environment: A Research Program

Abstract The global EdTech market, valued at nearly USD 250 billion, generates not only revenue but substantial ecological and planetary costs that the EdTech scholarly community has insufficiently examined. This article argues that those working in and around EdTech bear a moral responsibility to move beyond (non)performative engagement with sustainable development goals toward serious, structural inquiry into the environmental impacts of EdTech. Drawing on a postdigital transdisciplinary framework, we identify key scholarly fields and approaches—Critical EdTech Studies, AI and education research, postdigital-biodigital approaches, Education for Sustainable Development, degrowth theory, ecopedagogy, and studies of unequal planetary conditions—and examine their respective contributions to understanding relationships between EdTech and the environment. We outline an open research program grounded in ontological, epistemological, ethical, political, pedagogical, positional, and community commitments that resist technological solutionism and growth-dependent development models. Rather than offering definitive answers, this paper extends an invitation to transdisciplinary collaboration, recognising that planetary challenges require planetary responses from a coalition of scholars willing to work across—and beyond—disciplinary boundaries.