Cultivating a Decolonizing Indigenous Academic Identity Within a Culturally Relevant Computer Science Curriculum Targeted for Students of Mesoamerican Descent and Females for Social Transformation

• In Event: Roundtable Session 56
  In Roundtable Session: Invigorating Indigenous Identities and Pedagogies

Abstract

Drawing from an indigenous research paradigm to construct a theory-based framework, this paper explores the possibilities of bridging the study and development of an indigenous cultural identity with an academic identity involving computer science education. The purpose of this paper is to inform two federally-funded curricula designed by two major universities in California with the purpose of broadening participation in computing. This paper focuses on students of Mesoamerican descent in the United States with broader implications for other non-dominant groups towards decolonizing identities and promoting agency in micro-to meso-to macro community contexts.

Author

• Cueponcaxochitl Dianna Moreno Sandoval, University of California - Los Angeles