There is not one single global version of technology education; curricula and standards have different forms and content. This sometimes leads to difficulties in discussing and comparing technology education internationally. Existing philosophical frameworks of technological knowledge have not been used to any great extent in technology education. In response, the aim of this article is to construct a heuristic framework for technology education, based on professional and academic technological knowledge traditions. We present this framework as an epistemological tripod of technology education with mutually supporting legs. We discuss how this tripod relates to a selection of epistemological views within the philosophy of technology. Furthermore, we apply the framework to the Swedish and English technology curricula, to demonstrate its utility as an analytic tool when discerning differences between national curricula. Each leg of the tripod represents one category of technological knowledge: (1) technical skills, (2) technological scientific knowledge and (3) socio-ethical technical understanding. The heuristic framework is a conceptual model intended for use in discussing, describing, and comparing curriculum components and technology education in general, and potentially also as support for planning and conducting technology teaching. It may facilitate common understanding of technology education between different countries and technology education traditions. Furthermore, it is a potentially powerful tool for concretising the components of technological literacy.

全球没有一个单一的技术教育版本。课程和标准具有不同的形式和内容。有时这会导致在国际上讨论和比较技术教育方面的困难。现有的技术知识的哲学框架在技术教育中并未得到很大程度的利用。对此，本文的目的是在专业和学术技术知识传统的基础上，为技术教育构建启发式框架。我们将这个框架作为技术教育的认识论三脚架提出腿互相支撑。我们讨论了这种三脚架如何与技术哲学中的认识论观点联系起来。此外，我们将该框架应用于瑞典和英语技术课程，以证明其在识别国家课程之间的差异时作为分析工具的效用。三脚架的每条腿代表一类技术知识：（1）技术技能，（2）技术科学知识和（3）社会伦理技术理解。启发式框架是一种概念模型，旨在用于总体上讨论，描述和比较课程组成部分和技术教育，并有可能也为计划和进行技术教学提供支持。它可以促进不同国家之间对技术教育和技术教育传统的共识。此外，它是用于具体化技术素养组成部分的潜在强大工具。