"What Are the Politics of Your Technology?" Sociopolitical Thinking in an Introductory Computer Science Course

• In Event: Ethics, STEM, and the Possibilities and Limitations of Transformation in Capitalist, Militarist Democracies

Abstract

Objective/Purpose: In a recent study, we critique narratives of diversity and equity in STEM education that are rooted in military and corporate interests, rather than the interests of underrepresented students and communities themselves (Authors, forthcoming). In light of this context, we highlight the need for designing and studying more humanizing STEM learning environments (Freire, 2000) that grapple with the ethics and politics of STEM. In this paper, we report on a social design experiment in a high school computer science (CS) course that worked to address this need, providing opportunities for students to design technology that addressed issues of educational equity in their school.

Theoretical Framework: We draw on theories of learning and design rooted in the cultural practices and strengths of learners (Author 2, 2010; Lee, 2007) as well as critical approaches to pedagogy and social justice (Freire, 2000; Gutstein, 2006; Duncan-Andrade & Morrell, 2008). To better understand the relationships between learning, identity, ethics, politics, and sociopolitical processes (e.g. how dominant diversity discourses shape STEM learning in urban schools), we also draw on critical and sociocultural perspectives in the learning sciences (Nasir, Synder, Shah, & Ross, 2013; Author 2, 2014).

Data/Methods: This study draws on data from a social design experiment (Author 2, 2010) in two 10th grade CS classrooms in a large urban high school. Rooted in previous work exploring critical pedagogical approaches to CS (Author 1, 2014), (first author) collaborated with a CS teacher to design and teach a 10-week unit that drew substantive connections between design, computing, ethics, politics, and educational equity issues at the school. Students worked in groups to identify, research and design a technological artifact that addressed educational equity issues (e.g. a computer game to help girls of color guard against racialized and gendered interactions experienced in STEM spaces).

Our analysis focuses on one of the core assignments of the class – the “politics of technology” memo. Each student wrote a 1-2 page memo explaining how their technological artifact aimed to address their educational equity topic, and the politics and ethics reflected in their solution. Our analysis draws on 23 student memos and video recordings of student groups discussing the politics and ethics of their artifacts (Winner, 1980).

Findings: Our preliminary results show that 1) to varying degrees, students reasoned in complex and integrated ways about the relationship of their technology to their educational equity topic, and 2) pedagogical designs that support students to think politically and ethically about their technological ideas influenced their perception of computing as a discipline with the power to create social change.

Scholarly significance: Drawing on and further elucidating our recently developed conceptual framework for distinguishing between narratives of diversity in STEM education (Authors, forthcoming), this paper contributes to our empirical knowledge about the possibilities that emerge when notions of “equity” are explicitly organized around the sociopolitical interests of nondominant groups. Ultimately, we hope to contribute to the development of intellectually powerful, culturally resonant and politically and ethically grounded ecologies for STEM learning.

Authors

• Sepehr Vakil, University of California - Berkeley

• Shirin Vossoughi, Northwestern University