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Whose Sustainable Education for Whom in an Era of Commodification of Education and Technology

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Education and Approaches".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 January 2026 | Viewed by 239

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Foundation of Education, Faculty of Educational Studies, University Putra Malaysia, Seri Kembangan 43400, Selangor, Malaysia
Interests: education and development; education policy and governance; sustainable education and sustainability in education
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The word “sustainability” is a synonym of durability, and has started to be overly used after the introduction of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the United Nations. The norm of sustainability as a term is greatly connected with nature and the environment. On the other hand, sustainable education refers to an education system or programme that enables the development of a substantial society that can ensure the solid development and progress of a nation without developing any form of discrimination or detrimental agenda.

The recent global promotion of modernisation has been drastically extended by technologization, especially after the robustness of AI (Artificial Intelligence) and digitalisation, which may not be able to deny the fact of commodification and commercialism. Such expansion may develop a greater social discrepancy. Under such a climate, advocacy suggest that technology could be a greater tool to ensure sustainability. This generates a concern: is it not hypocrisy to contemplate technology as a moderator for sustainability while being a consumerist item that mediates between commercialism and commodification?

Education does not live in isolation from ongoing social norms. Hence, commodification and commercialism might have inevitably become a greater part of modern education, which may present a biassed education—a greater constraint for ensuring sustainable education to construct society. Without paying much attention to this underpinning constraint, attention is paid to ensure substantiable education through technologization in the era of AI (Artificial Intelligence) and digitalisation.

Hence, a question is generated around whether technologization in the era of AI and digitalisation is as much an ally or enemy for sustainable education, as it is not free from prejudice. This question is an underpinning motivation of this Special Issue, which aims to focus on a discussion to highlight the constraints of sustainable education in the era of technologization and to explore the avenues to resolve such limitations. Following this focus, the core scopes are outlined below:

  • The effect of technologization on sustainable education.
  • Sustainable education in the era of Artificial Intelligence and digitalisation.
  • The impact of dependency theory on sustainable education.
  • The impact of commodification and commercialism on sustainable education and society.
  • Internationalisation and globalisation in sustainable education.

Although this is the fundamental scope, authors are encouraged to communicate with the editor further to determine whether their work fits within this Special Issue’s broader focus.

In addition to these descriptions, please consult the following papers published in Sustainability:

  1.  Alam, G.M. Sustainable Education, Sustainability in Education and Education for Sustainable Development: The Reconciliation of Variables and the Path of Education Research in an Era of Technologization. Sustainability 2025, 17, 250. https://doi.org/10.3390/su17010250
  2. Alam, G.M. Sustainable Education and Sustainability in Education: The Reality in the Era of Internationalisation and Commodification in Education—Is Higher Education Different? Sustainability 2023, 15, 1315. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15021315

Prof. Dr. Gazi Mahabubul Alam
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • sustainable education
  • education for sustainable development
  • sustainability in education
  • artificial intelligence and digitalisation in education
  • commodification, commercialism, and capitalism in education
  • technologization in education
  • policy for sustainable education

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Published Papers

This special issue is now open for submission.
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