This article considers growing calls for the integration of so-called ‘maker technologies’ and associated ‘maker’ practices into schools and other formal education settings. Moving on from the largely celebratory literature in this area, the article seeks to further explore the tensions between the educational potential of maker technology and the realities of its use in school and classroom contexts. In particular, the article focuses on fundamental – but so far little acknowledged – tensions surrounding the social, cultural, political contexts of maker education, alongside the epistemological and pedagogical characteristics of maker technologies as tools for learning. It is concluded that maker education must not be seen as a ready fit with formal schooling. Instead, teachers and schools are likely to require sustained support to make the most of maker technologies within the demands and constraints of contemporary school contexts.

This article seeks to further explore the tensions between the potential of maker education and the realities of its enactment in school and classroom contexts. Of course, as with any new innovation in education there are a range of practical, logistical and organisational issues that inevitably compromise the take-up of maker technologies in schools (Cuban, 1988, 2001). These include perennial issues of resourcing, budgeting, teacher skills and/or interest. There are also a number of practical concerns specific to maker technology regarding health and safety as well as intellectual property. Notwithstanding these practical challenges, the present article explores a number of less-acknowledged conceptual issues that arealso implicated in theimplementationofmaker education in school contexts. In particular, wefocus on fundamental – but so far little-acknowledged – questions of pedagogy, epistemology, culture and politics. Thus the remainder of the article focuses on the three following areas of discussion:

li>the challenges of teaching with maker technology;
• the challenges of learning with maker technology;
• the culture and politics of maker technology.