Johanna Lönngren

My research focuses on how we can better prepare engineering students to take responsibility for the impacts of technology on society and the environment, and to contribute to a more sustainable societal development. I am particularly interested in the role of emotions in sustainability education and in how educators can create learning environments that support students when emotional challenges arise in the classroom, for example when students experience anxiety about the state of the planet or when they are confronted with the fact that there are no perfect solutions to many sustainability challenges.

In recent years, I have devoted much time and effort to developing an international research field focused on emotions in engineering education. I am also involved in building a similar research field that focuses on emotions in environmental and sustainability education.

I have worked with a variety of theoretical and methodological perspectives, and I am always looking for opportunities to combine theories and methods in new ways that enable us to better address pressing research questions. I am particularly interested in developing approaches that allow us to analyze complex phenomena from multiple perspectives to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of such phenomena. It is also important to me that my research has practical value, which I try to ensure through direct collaboration with teachers and program developers and by developing research-based practical tools. I have also created a simple website with resources for teaching using wicked problems: https://wickedproblemsteaching.wordpress.com/.

At NMD, I am part of the research environments Umeå Science and Technology Education Research (UmSTER), Regenerative Education, and Technology and Engineering Education.