Supporting Community Participation in Designing Local Computer Science Education (Poster 8)

• In Event: Expansive Framings of “Capacity Building” in Computing Education: Agency, Infrastructuring, and Advocacy

Abstract

Objectives
This poster’s objective is to illustrate the symbiotic relationship (as well as tensions) between capacity building for designing and implementing computer science (CS) education in a high school district, and a broader process of studying and addressing long-standing inequities in the district. The project’s CS-related capacity-building work also has the potential to help community members challenge marginalized social positions which have prevented their experiences and concerns from being heard and addressed.

Theoretical framework
There is widespread consensus amongst researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and families on the importance of expanding access to K12 computing education (Gallup, 2020). However, among other challenges, prior research clearly shows that implementing secondary CS curricular pathways (Goode & Margolis, 2011) and hiring qualified CS teachers (Shein, 2019) are major barriers, particularly in schools serving marginalized populations and in those disconnected from networks of CS practice. Research also suggests that equity- and justice-oriented approaches to each of these challenges requires meaningful community involvement (Gorlewski, et al., 2021; Proctor, Bigman & Blikstein, 2019). This poster is part of a broader project exploring the hypothesis that there are benefits to designing solutions for both problems at the same time, based on the key insight that both problems depend on building a broadly-shared vision of how and why computer science will become part of the school. (Kafai & Proctor, 2021).

Methods
We used a qualitative coding approach piloted in Proctor, Bigman, and Blikstein (2019) to surface themes from the fieldnotes, transcripts, artifacts, and other documents (collectively, the corpus). Following Emerson, Fretz, and Shaw’s (2011) iterative process of open coding and integrative memoing, we coded the corpus focusing on the following conceptual framework: Participant roles and identities; Big questions about CS; Situated understandings of CS; Design ideas.

Data sources
This poster juxtaposes two corpora: first, records of a district CS design committee which included parents, students, teachers, administrators, and community members. These records include fieldnotes collected during committee meetings, interviews with participants, and artifacts produced by the committee such as white papers, presentations, and proposals. Second, a broad community survey conducted as part of the process of selecting a new district superintendent, focusing on the district’s strengths and weaknesses, and on priority areas that should be addressed by the new superintendent.

Results
Our primary finding is that the process of designing CS in a district (including its curricular pathways and hiring strategy) can serve as a lens bringing focus to existing community priorities and inequities. Our thematic analysis illustrates several mechanisms.

Significance
This study, as part of a broader research project, challenges the dominant narrative that a single vision of CS education ought to be scaled up, particularly in communities with little background in formal CS. This study provides a case study of the local design process envisioned by DeLyser and Wright (2019).

Author

• Chris Proctor, University at Buffalo - SUNY