Computing at the Intersections: How Race, Gender, and Culture Reshape and Redefine Computer Science Identity for Minoritized Students

• In Event: Dis/Connecting With Computing: Designing for Critical Identities and Equitable Inquiry in K–12 Computer Science Education

Abstract

Objective: In order to capture the full range of CS identity—one that accounts for intersectionally oppressed and liminal identities—scholars must take a student-centered, asset-based approach. More research is needed to understand how minoritized youth create and sustain CS identities despite the pervasive presence of chilly CS learning climates, low teacher expectations, and limited resources (e.g., Margolis et al., 2008/2017). Utilizing intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1989) and community cultural wealth (Yosso, 2005), this study is positioned to unearth the subversive and non-normative ways girls and Students of Color foster CS identities.

Conceptual framework: We draw upon intersectionality to highlight the multiple ways in which Students of Color are discriminated against based on race, gender, citizenship, etc. in schools (Crenshaw, 1989). Despite this reality, our data and dedication to taking an asset based approach to this research has prompted us to utilize the concept of community cultural wealth (CCW) as an analytic framework. In doing so, we challenge deficit perspectives of minoritized youth by highlighting the ways in which students utilize their linguistic, social, aspirational, navigational, familial and resistant capital to not only survive but thrive in oppressive CS educational contexts (Yosso, 2005).

Methods: Through Research-Practice Partnership (Coburn, Penuel, & Geil, 2013; Tseng, 2012), our research team partnered with 3 teachers and 20 students across 3 high schools and 4 classrooms in a large, predominantly Student-of-Color west coast school district. We collected ethnographic case studies following focal students’ learning experiences over the 2019-20 school year in public high school computer science classrooms. Data sources included weekly observation field notes, photos/videos, and in-depth interviews with youth about their sense of identity in relation to their CS learning.

Results: Our findings describe the ways that youth build upon their CCW to take charge of their own learning, personalize projects to reflect their unique interests, and support one another in the learning environment for collective success. While not all youth in this study envisioned becoming computer scientists in the future, fluid moments arose when youth would say “I’m a computer scientist!” and they would persist with CS challenges in ways that reflected a sense of engagement and identification with computing. Our research illustrates various examples of what such fluid moments of CS identity looked like in the classroom context, intersecting with students’ rich and diverse senses of self. Embracing the Research-Practice Partnership approach, focal students from our classrooms will join this presentation to share with session participants their experiences with CS learning and identity.

Significance: Our findings add an important perspective—from students themselves—to a larger body of sociocultural research emphasizing the centrality of joint activity in social contexts imbued with specific cultural-historical features that impact learning. Our work sits in conversation with this body of literature (e.g., Vygotsky, 1978; Wertsch, del Rio, & Alvarez, 1995; etc.) as well as adds to Nasir and Hand’s (2008) definition of practice-linked identity, illustrating how students’ CCW interacts with students’ access to the learning domain and opportunities to express themselves in ways that feel valued.

Authors

• Jean J. Ryoo, University of California - Los Angeles

• Cynthia Estrada, University of California - Los Angeles

• Tiera Tanksley, University of California - Irvine

• Jane S. Margolis, University of California - Los Angeles

• Aylin Foseca, Los Angeles Unified School District

• Axel Tirado, Los Angeles Unified School District

• Bellamy Ware, Los Angeles Unified School District