Anti-Racist Computing Education: No More Excuses

Today is MLK Day 2022. Today, Dr. Bernice King’s many tweets urged us to take action to #ShiftPriorities and #BuildCommunity. More importantly, she underscored that community and societal change begins with individual resolve and action. For us, the CS Education community, I read her words as a call to action—that we can no longer be apathetic or complacent. That we must attend to racial justice in every classroom at every level of education, and that each one of us must play our part. And treat every student with the love, respect, and compassion that they deserve. It is in that spirit that I write this blog post.

 

 

One of my goals this past winter break was to catch up on the many papers and resources on anti-racist and equitable computing (pertaining mainly to racial equity) that have been published over the last several months, and in fact, continue to emerge in amazing numbers. Given the huge growth in the body of literature on racial equity in CS education, there are now useful frameworks, guides, examples, case studies, research papers, presentations, and podcasts that CS educators, teacher educators, curriculum designers, and researchers can learn from, should they be interested and invested in making real change happen on the ground, especially with regard to racial equity in CS classrooms. With access to such a wealth of resources, it is worth asking why our efforts to broaden participation have still made barely a dent (see the latest Google-Gallup 2020 report and Kapor Center’s report on CS in CA Schools). It would appear that a crucial ingredient is still missing—the individual and collective will and resolve – to effect real change in our classrooms, curricula, and research efforts.

Here is a starter list of some of the resources I have pored over these last few weeks/months. Given how many documents, reports, and frameworks aggregate and curate guidelines for equitable and anti-racist CS education, I believe a list such as this pointing to (and amplifying) key resources would be helpful for the community. Barring a couple of key foundational theory papers, I will not list here the many relevant articles that these resources draw on and/or include links to, but I strongly recommend references and resources listed in these documents as part of essential reading on this crucial topic. Lastly, equitable CS education is not on K-12 CS educators and researchers alone. It is my hope that post-secondary educators pay special attention to these issues. They should avail of these resources and adapt them as necessary for their students.

• Foundational theories
  • Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (Ladson-Billings, 1995)
  • Culturally responsive teaching (Gay, 2000)
  • Handbook of the Cultural Foundations of Learning (Nasir, Lee, Pea & de Royston, 2020)
  • Intersectionality
    • Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex (Crenshaw, 1989)
    • Black Feminist Thought (Patricia Hill Collins, 1986)
    • NCWIT Resources
• Frameworks
  • Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Computer Science Education: A Framework. (Kapor Center) contains a shared definition of culturally responsive-sustaining CS classroom pedagogy, and 6 core components along with suggested courses of action in the classroom — Acknowledge Racism in CS and Enact Anti-Racist Practices; Create Inclusive and Equitable Classroom Cultures; Pedagogy and Curriculum are Rigorous, Relevant, and Encourage Sociopolitical Critiques; Student Voice, Agency, and Self-Determination are Prioritized in CS Classrooms; Family and Community Cultural Assets are Incorporated into CS Classrooms; Diverse Professionals and Role Models Provide Exposure to a Range of CS/Tech Careers.
  • Counter-hegemonic Computing: Toward Computer Science Education for Value Generation and Emancipation (Eglash, Bennett, Cooke, Babbitt, & Lachney, 2021). This framework outlines three principles for defining counter-hegemonic computing— (1) having two levels of analysis (individual and social); (2) second the inclusion of both negative and positive frames of reference (not just what biases to avoid, but also what CS should actively promote) and (3) the use of computing for emancipating Counter-Hegemonic Practices (CHP) value, nurturing its potential computational dimensions and their possible contributions in schools, communities, and beyond (where CHP range from Indigenous cultural heritage to contemporary vernacular innovations, to other forms of resistance and alterity. The illustrative case studies bring the principles to life and also provide concrete ideas for implementation.
  • Culturally responsive computing (Scott, Sheridan, & Clark, 2015)
  • Engaging equity pedagogies in CS learning environments  (Madkins, Howard, & Freed, 2020)
• Presentations/Special Issues/Webinar Series
  • ACM Transactions in Computing Education Special Issue on Justice-Centered Computing Education (Lachney, Ryoo, & Santo (Editors), 2021) 
    • Video launching ACM TOCE Special Issue on Justice-Centered Computing Education with brief presentations by authors
      
  • Understanding computing education: Volume 2. Theme: Equity, diversity and inclusion in computing education research (Raspberry Pi Foundation, 2021)
    • Videos of RPF Seminar Series on Equity, diversity and inclusion in computing education research
• Reports
  • The CS Teacher Landscape (CSTA & Kapor Center, 2021). In addition to credentials and experiences of CS teachers, the report shares survey findings on equitable CS teaching as well as the current state of culturally-relevant pedagogy in CS classrooms and challenges to implementation 
  • Computer Science in California Schools: An Analysis of Access, Enrollment and Equity (Kapor Center, 2019)
• Books/Courses
  • Critically Conscious Computing for Secondary Education (Ko et al., 2022)
  • Identity in Computing at Duke University (Dr. Nicki Washington, Director)
    • Publications
• Culturally relevant pedagogies & concrete ideas for the classroom
  • Culturally relevant and responsive computing in the classroom: A guide for curriculum design and teaching< (Raspberry Pi Foundation) draws on culturally relevant pedagogy and culturally responsive teaching, and shares criteria/guidelines for K-12 learning materials, teaching resources and CS curricula that challenge stereotypes and promote diversity.
    • Related Pedagogy Quick-Read
  • Learner-Centered and Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (Madkins et al., 2020 in the A-Z Handbook on Teaching Programming
  • CSTA Equity Stories (from CS teachers & Equity Fellows)
  • Creating a Learning Environment Where All Kids Feel Valued (Dr. Shana V. White)
• Resources for School Leaders, Districts, and Adminstrators
  • CS Equity Guide: CS for California
  • Preparing School Leaders to Advance Equity in Computer Science Education (Flapan, Ryoo, Hadad, Knudsen, 2021)
    • Jared O’Leary’s podcast episode unpacking this paper
  • Centering Justice Framework (CSForAll.org)

This is certainly not an exhaustive list, but it’s a start. Of late, I have also been interested in papers on CS teacher PD for justice-centered and equitable CS teaching. I will dedicate a subsequent blog post to that topic.

For now, I will end with a pledge to look inward into my efforts and examine what (more) I can do to center racial justice in my CS education research projects, articulate concrete steps on courses of action including educating myself (using these and other resources and ideas), share ideas and plans of action with my collaborators, and find more ways to incorporate these in my research.

I urge each of you to do the same (as relevant to your context). 

Rest in Power, Dr. King.

 

Shuchi Grover (Senior Research Scientist at Looking Glass Ventures) is a computer scientist and learning sciences researcher whose research focuses on K-12 computer science education. She is co-author and editor of the Computer Science in K-12: An A-to-Z Handbook on Teaching Programming.