Fostering Linguistic Justice in “Computer Science for All”

• In Event: Fostering Equity Through Computing and Digital Literacy Integration in Urban Community College Teacher Education Programs

Abstract

While a large effort goes into preparing K-12 educators to integrate computing and digital literacies into their classrooms, not enough attention is paid to developing pre-service teachers’ competencies in computational thinking (CT) through the lens of culturally relevant and equitable pedagogy. Teaching and researching in a diverse setting of an urban community college, our work focuses on putting linguistic diversity and linguistic justice to the center of our students’ exploration of technology and the ideas related to “computer science for all.” This interest is motivated by the glaring power differential in technology, which, as Santo et al. (2019) note, “is largely designed by economically, racially, and socially privileged groups, and their biases and blind spots get embedded in our tech” (p. 14). Or, as Benjamin (2019) bluntly describes it, “the New Jim Code.” Through this curriculum intervention, pre-service teachers become critical users of technology, empowered to question digital tools. Teaching about, with, and against technology, we awaken and raise our teacher candidates’ perception and awareness of the ideologies embedded in the design of networked technologies, particularly education platforms.

The study described here incorporated computational thinking, digital literacy, and digital fluency into a sequence of three required courses in the curriculum for teacher candidates majoring in bilingual education at a large urban community college. More specifically, the pedagogical intervention was designed to develop teacher candidates’ ability to evaluate technologies, transfer understanding, and move fluidly between technologies. Research questions guiding this investigation asked (1) To what extent does the three-course curricular sequence support candidates’ ability to critically reflect on issues surrounding language and power in the context of technology? (2) How does the three-course curricular sequence support candidates’ ability to recognize these issues about language and power in their own use of technology? (3) Can candidates relate issues about language, power, and technology to their own (future) classroom practice?

To establish the impact of the intervention on our pre-service teachers’ ability to reflect about, engage with, and position against computing and technology while developing digital fluency, this investigation employed a cross-sectional design. Thirty teacher-candidates participated in the study for one academic semester. Data from four sources including instructor and teacher-candidate artifacts, pre- and post-surveys of teacher-candidate attitudes, and focus group data were collected to answer the three research questions. Descriptive, interpretative, and statistical analyses were employed to assess the effectiveness and the impact of our pedagogical interventions in the sequence of the three courses in the bilingual education major.

Preliminary findings indicate that through reflection and engagement with CT activities, candidate participants developed a sense of how bias in digital tools can seductively imbue itself into the digital user and how hard it can be to purge one’s mind of certain biases. In addition, our candidates developed a critical lens through which they understand how digital tools can influence their own lives and the lives of their future students as well as a sense of how choosing and using digital tools is a social justice issue.

Authors

• Leigh Garrison-Fletcher, LaGuardia Community College - CUNY

• Bede McCormack, LaGuardia Community College - CUNY

• Monika Ekiert, LaGuardia Community College - CUNY

• Joanna Maulbeck, Kingsborough Community College - CUNY