Mississippi Students and Teachers Share Their CS for All Visions

• In Event: Who Has a "Seat at the Table"? Equity in Decision Making About Computer Science Education

Abstract

The CS for All movement and its various stakeholders have a clear focus: to ensure that all students have access to high-quality and rigorous computer science education. Despite this focus on students’ rights to education, little is heard from the students themselves about what they want and need in this effort to broaden participation in computing. Furthermore, we rarely learn about the experiences of rural educators, particularly African American teachers in the Deep South.

In an effort to prioritize the perspectives of underrepresented youth and teachers, this presentation will be co-led with public high school students and teachers from rural Mississippi. Our research project is focused on elevating students’ voices about how to improve CS education in ways that support youth engagement, agency, and identity. Challenging deficit notions that minoritized youth are neither interested in nor capable of excelling in CS, this session will share the visions that youth have for using CS to change the social and political contexts of their lives in ways that uplift their communities, as well as what they think schools can do to improve CS education pathways for young women, students of color, and low-income students. We will also hear directly from African American teachers of rural African American students about what needs to be addressed in order to ensure rural schools can be active participants in the CS for All movement.

Our project involves a research-practice partnership—a sustained, mutualistic collaboration across researchers and educators producing original analyses toward the improved use of research in decision making and educational outcomes (Coburn, Penuel, & Geil, 2013; Tseng, 2012)—that brought together educators, students, and researchers who wanted to understand how CS learning can be meaningful and rigorous for all students. We sought to understand how youth are able to access CS skills/concepts, valued roles/responsibilities, and opportunities to express themselves or make contributions in their learning community (Nasir & Hand, 2008), while authoring and expressing themselves toward positive change in their communities (Calabrese Barton & Tan, 2010; Basu, 2008).

Data sources included observation field notes, photos/videos, and interviews in ethnographic case studies of 9 focal students in two Exploring Computer Science classrooms in the Delta and Northern Mississippi. Students and teachers will share directly about initial findings emphasizing how youth want their CS learning experiences to directly relate to sociopolitical issues of importance to them, and how they hope CS learning can support positive change in their personal lives and broader communities. Teachers will discuss the role of identity and attention to sociohistorical contexts in CS education, especially for Black communities in the rural South. We believe our presentation with high school students that have thought deeply about CS education will highlight how student voices can be both surfaced and mobilized within the context of CS for All initiatives.

Authors

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

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

• Shelly Hollis, Mississippi State University

• Stephanie Bundle, Tugaloo University

• Je'Monda Roy, University of Mississippi

• Brittany Cohen, North Panola Career & Technical Center

• Natascha Woods