Worker-Driven Computing Education: Researching and Theorizing Class in Culturally Responsive Computing

• In Event: Marx SIG Session 2

Abstract

Culturally responsive computing researchers and theorists often use the metaphor and heuristic of intersectionality to focus on issues of race and gender in their research on making computer science education more equitable and just for marginalized students. However, the concept of class and the use of class analysis are nearly always absent from their work. The objective of this paper is empirically driven theorization about the concept of class and role of class analysis within culturally responsive computing scholarship. I introduce some initial findings from my research with current, once, and retired autoworkers in Detroit, Michigan to redesign what computer science education would look like when it reflects workers’ knowledge of and relationships to the points of production.

Author

• Michael L. Lachney, Michigan State University