Restorying as Critical Praxis: Reimagining Dominant Narratives Through Computational Quilts

• In Event: Humanizing Computer Science Education: Addressing Critical Issues for K–12 Teaching and Learning

Abstract

Purpose
In this study, we propose an action-oriented approach that integrates the development of identities in CS education with the learning of computational concepts and practices through the design of interactive, computational quilts that interrogate dominant narratives that marginalize learners across racialized, gendered, and/or classed ways.

Framework
Building on the metaphor of identity as narrative, identity in CS and other contexts is constructed through the stories people share about themselves, others, and their experiences (Sfard & Prusak, 2005; Wortham, 2006). Youth engaging in disciplinary practices and learning core content can support their identities in practice-based ways, as they help youth articulate a clear sense of self (i.e., self-narrative) in relation to a discipline (Van Horne & Bell, 2017). Restorying is a form of narrative agency by which young people “reshape narratives to reflect the perspectives and experiences that have been routinely marginalized or silenced” (Stornaiuolo & Thomas, 2018, p. 2). In the recent work of Shaw, Coleman, Kafai and Thomas (2019), they combine the historical practice of quilting—which has been documented to conceptualize cultural identity and represent histories, particularly for marginalized groups (Cash, 1999)—with electronic textiles as a means for youth to reimagine and “restory” dominant narratives of CS through the design of interactive quilts.

Method
This study took place within a 34-hour workshop (spring component: 2-hour sessions across 4 weeks; summer component: 3-hour sessions across 8 days) for a local STEM program during the spring and summer with a group of sixteen youth ages 15-16 and diverse across race/ethnicity and gender. Data includes video observations and fields notes of sessions, interviews with youth, worksheets, and youth’s quilts.

Findings
Restorying through the design of computational quilts provided youth the opportunity to engage in critical praxis, in which oppressed peoples critically reflect on their oppression and act to transform it (Freire, 1970). Through the design of their quilts, youth will highlight the dominant narratives that impact their CS participation as well as articulate alternate concepts, practices, and ways of being when learning CS aimed towards liberation.

Significance
Understanding how youth’s disciplinary identities can contribute towards promoting a richer, more critical understanding of teaching and learning in K-12 CS education. At the heart of what we call “identity-with-computing” studies (Shaw & Kafai, 2020) is the idea that learning environments can support or limit particular kinds of identities, especially during periods of time when youth ask critical questions about who they are and who they are to become, as well as the roles of computing and technology in their lives. CS education has assumed historical, racial, and gendered narratives about who belongs in ways that not only exclude individuals from nondominant communities but also shield these exclusionary practices through claims of politically and culturally neutral knowledge and practices (Nasir & Vakil, 2017). Given how learning experiences shape learners’ perspectives about themselves and who they can become, it is equally critical to support nondominant youth in interrogating how they (and others) construct their intersecting identities and the implications of these constructions for their future participation in computing.

Authors

• Mia Shaw, University of Pennsylvania

• Yasmin B. Kafai, University of Pennsylvania