# Sustainability in Computing Education: A Systematic Literature Review

**Authors:** A. -K. Peters, R. Capilla, V. C. Coroamă, R. Heldal, P. Lago, O. Leifler, A. Moreira, J. P. Fernandes, B. Penzenstadler, J. Porras, C. C. Venters  
**arXiv:** [2305.10369](https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.10369)  
**Date:** 2023-05-17  
**Summary page:** https://www.summarizepaper.com/en/paper/2305.10369v1/

## Key points

- Systematic review of literature on sustainability in computing education
- Analyzed 572 publications from six digital libraries
- Conducted snowballing to identify relevant primary studies
- Distilled and analyzed 90 primary studies using thematic analysis
- Focused on three main areas: conceptions of sustainability, computing, and education; implementations of sustainability in computing education; and research on sustainability in computing education
- Few articles addressed challenges as calling for drastic systemic change and new understandings of computing and education
- Majority of articles were experience reports with limited empirical research, indicating relatively immature research on sustainability in computing education
- Less than half of the papers presented empirical research, many did not adequately describe essential attributes or report appropriate methodologies
- Case study category exhibited better results, with most papers describing essential attributes
- Provides insights into approaches taken in computing education to address sustainability issues
- Findings can be used to develop a framework for learning objectives, outcomes, and pedagogical methods for sustainability in computing education that aligns with existing standards and curricula
- Future research should connect to critical theories such as feminist theory of science and technology to further explore challenges related to sustainability in computing education.

## Summary

This paper presents a systematic review of literature on sustainability in computing education. The authors analyzed 572 publications from six digital libraries and conducted snowballing to identify relevant primary studies. From this, they distilled and analyzed 90 primary studies using thematic analysis. The study focused on three main areas: conceptions of sustainability, computing, and education; implementations of sustainability in computing education; and research on sustainability in computing education. The results of the analysis revealed that only a few articles addressed the challenges as calling for drastic systemic change and new understandings of computing and education. The majority of the articles were experience reports with limited empirical research, indicating that existing research on sustainability in computing education is relatively immature. The authors also assessed the quality of the studies based on essential attributes defined by ACM guidelines. They found that less than half of the papers presented empirical research, and many did not adequately describe essential attributes or report appropriate methodologies. However, the case study category exhibited better results, with most papers describing essential attributes. Overall, this systematic review provides insights into approaches taken in computing education to address sustainability issues. The findings can be used to develop a framework for learning objectives, outcomes, and pedagogical methods for sustainability in computing education that aligns with existing standards and curricula. The authors suggest that future research should connect to critical theories such as feminist theory of science and technology to further explore challenges related to sustainability in computing education.