Technology education plays a central role in supporting students to develop knowledge and understanding of technological advancements in society. Therefore, technology teaching should give students opportunities to reflect on, investigate, and problematise technology and technology development. This approach enables students to develop technological literacy, which can help them make well-informed decisions about societal issues concerning technology. 

This thesis examines the development of technological literacy among students in Swedish compulsory schools. It focuses on how visualisations and verbal interactions support students’ development of technological literacy. It explores how verbal interactions, scaffolded by visualisations, support students’ reasoning about technology content. 

A qualitative research approach was used, consisting of four sub-studies, each focusing on specific technological content, such as the nature of technology. The data collection included video and audio recordings of students’ interactions in small groups, which were subsequently transcribed and analysed. 

A sociocultural perspective on learning guided the analysis, emphasising how students negotiate meaning, use technological terminology, and collaboratively co-develop technological language and knowledge. The findings were analysed using existing theoretical and analytical frameworks, such as Mitcham’s (1994) framework on the manifestations of technology and Nennig et al.’s (2023) framework on students’ interaction discourse moves. However, to capture a more nuanced understanding of students’ technological knowledge and literacy development, these frameworks were expanded by incorporating perspectives from additional research on technology. 

The thesis suggests that verbal interactions supported by visualisations scaffold students to articulate technological terminology, refine their reasoning and develop technological knowledge. Integrating visualisation into technology activities challenges students’ prior understandings and experiences of technology, encouraging them to partake in discussions concerning technology. Visualisations, as scaffolding tools, facilitate students to discuss and reason collaboratively, leading to a deeper understanding of technology. This process allows students to bridge their everyday language with technology terminology, applying and developing technological literacy. 

Previous research has shown that students hold limited views of technology. However, this thesis highlights that integrating visualisations in verbal interactions enhances students’ technological literacy development. It contributes to discussions on how visualisations and verbal interactions can foster students’ development of technological literacy.