Engaging the Complexities of Energy Transitions: Sociotechnical and Dualistic Insights From Crossdisciplinary Undergraduates

ABSTRACT Discourses of energy and energy transition have become increasingly prevalent in informal and formal learning spaces. Energy transitions differ across regions, contexts, and technologies. The contextual nature of energy is an opportunity for a sociotechnical approach to its study. Energy transition is not one big change effort but instead is made up of countless decision points negotiated by and through geography, technology, culture, as well as the entanglements of the human and the more‐than‐human. This study explores how undergraduate students in engineering and the liberal arts engage with these complexities as they discuss sustainable energy issues. Through a frame of sociotechnical systems, we examine the discourses of a crossdisciplinary group of students to highlight the diverse ways that individuals conceptualize sustainable energy systems and transitions. We pose two guiding questions: (1) What overarching frames orient students' discussion of local and global energy transitions? (2) What types of context‐specific discourses are embodied in each overarching frame? The research took place in a co‐taught undergraduate course on sustainable energies, led by faculty in political science and mechanical engineering. Using semi‐structured interviews conducted after the course with ten students from varied majors and backgrounds, we analyzed how students engaged with energy transition topics. Two key themes emerged from our analysis. First, students recognized complex sociotechnical systems characterized by the engagements of energy, political, and technological systems, and second, many exhibited technical/social dualisms in their framing of energy systems. Within these two sociotechnical frames, students revealed diverse underlying logics or discourses. This study brings to light students' frames of reason related to technology and society and the context‐specific discourses related to local and global energy transition concerns. Our findings offer valuable insights for both undergraduate and K‐12 educators aiming to foster more holistic and aspirational approaches to sociotechnical science and energy education.