Examining CS4All Principals and Their Visions for Content-Specific Leadership for Computer Science Education

• In Event: 25.014 - CS4All, but Why? Exploring How Different Visions, Motivations, and Ideologies of Computer Science Education Impact Implementation Contexts

Abstract

Objective(s) and Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to gain an understanding of how principals who lead schools participating in the CS4All initiative describe their vision toward content-specific leadership for computer science (CS). Recently, there has been a growing subset of research that focuses on student interest and instruction in CS education, along with many policy initiatives, such as New York City’s CS4All initiative, dedicated to institutionalize high-quality, CS instruction with teachers and students. However, little is known about the role that principals play in leading for CS education (Lochmiller & Acker-Hocevar, in press). As one of the most extensive policy rollouts to date, qualitative data from CS4All initiative (Taylor & Miller, 2015) could provide a prime opportunity to describe how principals describe and enact their vision for content-specific leadership in CS. As such, this paper examines the following questions:
How do principals who lead schools in the CS4All initiative describe their vision and behaviors for leading for CS in their schools?
What affordances or challenges do CS4All principals share in enacting their vision for content-specific leadership for CS?

Perspective(s) or Theoretical Framework: We used a conceptual framework of content-specific leadership theory to guide our inquiry of leadership for CS education (Lochmiller & Acker-Hocevar, in press).

Methods, Techniques, and Modes of Inquiry: This study examines the research questions using a comparative, phenomenological case study methodology (Moustakas, 1994; Patton, 2015; Yin, 2013) to the essence of principals’ experiences with content-specific leadership for CS in NYC.

Data Sources, Evidence, Objects, or Materials: This study is situated within the nationally-recognized initiative CS4All in New York City Public Schools. For our particular study with principals, our data sources include 15 semi-structured interviews from 15 secondary principals who participated in the pilot year (2014-15 school year) of the CS4All initiative.

Results and/or Substantiated Conclusions: Findings from initial principal interviews suggest two major themes. First, principals were most concerned with understanding the structure of the CS content and how their understanding of the curriculum aligned with this structure. Second, principals also shared a need to align their ideas of supervision and evaluation to effectively provide feedback on the teaching of CS.

Scientific or Scholarly Significance of the Study or Work: This study addresses the 2017 AERA annual theme, “Knowledge to Action: Achieving the Promise of Equal Educational Opportunity,” in two key ways. First, we provide one of the first snapshot of how principals envision content-specific leadership for CS education within one of the most diverse school districts in the nation. Seeing that principals mediate positive student outcomes (Hallinger & Heck, 1996; Robinson, Lloyd, & Rowe, 2008), understanding the essence of CS leadership is vitally important, especially within historically underserved communities. Second, by using phenomenological methods, this study prioritizes the individual and collective experiences of principals, and findings could help principals in similar school contexts navigate the nuances of the CS4All policy initiative and empower them to use this collective knowledge to provide an equitable CS education for all students.

Authors

• Kenneth E. Graves, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Alex J. Bowers, Teachers College, Columbia University