Towards Social Conscious CS: Incorporating Equity, Technoskepticism, and Technoethics in CSed Standards

• In Event: Can Education Stop Killer Robots? Exploring Values, Ethics, and Impacts in K12 Computer Science Instruction

Abstract

Purpose
Uncritical computer science (CS) results in technologies which exacerbate the marginalization and harm of the most vulnerable in society (Benjamin, 2019; Buolamwini, 2024; Costanza-Chock, 2019). From airport scanners which refuse to recognize trans people, resulting in unnecessary body searches (Costanza-Chock, 2019), to facial recognition systems which misidentify darker skinned people (Buolamwini & Gebru, 2018) resulting in false arrests (Cweik, 2023), technologies systematically embed and perpetuate oppressive social norms. Teaching computer scientists criticality and citizenship can help confront some of these issues (Authors, 2022).

To address these injustices, proponents of equitable CS education are committing significant resources and scholarship to efforts in equity pedagogies (Madkins et al., 2020), including culturally responsive computing, anti-racist computing, and liberatory education as well as technoskeptical (Author, 2019; Pleasants et al., 2023) and technoethical (Author, 2018) approaches which consider the ethical, disproportionate, and unintended effects of technologies on society. However, the pressure to teach an overstuffed curriculum and a failure to include equity and ethics in national CS standards leads teachers to feel they cannot manage integrating justice into their instruction (Moudgalya & Zeller, 2024).

Conceptual Framing
In this paper we apply the theoretical lenses of equity pedagogies and technoskeptical and technoethical approaches to offer visions of a more culturally and ethically conscious CS education.This positioning centers justice as equal in importance to the “traditional” content of CS, which might include courses on coding, math, or computational thinking.

Theoretical Exploration
From this framing, a CS education program cannot effectively teach CS if it does not weave conceptions of justice and an understanding of social impacts of technology throughout the coursework. A program designed with these approaches requires educators to address systemic racism, the disproportionate power of technology companies, and the social impacts of technologies within education and CS. To work toward a full socio-cultural consciousness of power, educators need to develop an awareness of historic and current oppression in education and in CS. Further, it requires educators practice pedagogies which connect and teach toward justice.

Results and Significance
The work of equity pedagogies and technoskeptical approaches requires systemic approaches and iterative opportunities for students to do the hard work of consciousness raising; learning the extensive historical, socio-political, context of CS; and understanding their own agency as computer scientists and citizens (Madkins et al., 2020). It is unlikely that one objective, or even one course, can provide the time and opportunity for this work. Thus, even in CS ed programs which have developed opportunities for equity pedagogies and technoskeptical approaches, it is unlikely that the time and space exists in curriculum for meaningful engagement. In order to fully implement these powerful and necessary approaches in CS education, we recommend CS amend its standards to weave these ideas throughout. If CSTA can lead the way, programs will have the leverage they may need to align themselves to the powerful CS enabled by equity pedagogies and technoskepticism.

Author

• Marie K. Heath, Loyola University Maryland