Ancestral Computing for Social Justice: Mobilizing Collective Memory, Computer Science Education, and Student Inquiry for Health

• In Event: 16.059 - Poster Session 2
  In Poster Session: 16.059-3 - Division C Section 1e: Enhancing Diversity in Computer Science and Engineering Education

Abstract

People of Mesoamerican descent are the fastest-growing population in the U.S., yet public schooling institutions continue to push for the erasure of Mesoamerican historical knowledges through present-day colonialism. Public schools reproduce a raced, gendered and economically stratified academic pipeline. This pipeline is especially evident in computer science (CS), one of the most segregated fields in education that promotes an unquestioned digitized approach to living, learning, and dying, primarily for capital gain. This Critical Narrative Inquiry centers Mesoamerican epistemology by describing student activism and adult support through the lens of Itzel, a high school junior, in three organizational tiers: a student-led organization, a CS classroom and a larger schooling community.

Author

• Cueponcaxochitl Dianna Moreno Sandoval, Arizona State University