Integrating Mobile App Design with Civic Engagement: An RPP Approach to CSforAll

• In Event: Bridging Institutions, Building Futures: School–University Partnerships for Sustainable K–12 CS Education

Abstract

Objectives
The CS Pathways RPP project was a multi-year (2019–2024) partnership among two public research universities and three urban school districts located in the Northeastern United States. The project aimed to support its partner districts to establish inclusive programs that can engage middle school students in learning computer science as they create mobile apps for community and social good (Anonymous, 2021, 2022, 2024). During the project, district leads, teacher leaders, and project researchers collaboratively designed and enacted a culturally relevant computer science curriculum through existing courses, while meeting their state’s computer science learning standards (Anonymous, 2022; MADESE, 2016; NYSED, 2020). Drawing on five empirical cases, this paper examines how civics teachers integrated it into the district’s 8th grade civics curriculum (MADESE, 2021) and how RPP work supported such integration.

Perspective(s)
This work adopted the framing of “computational action” (Tissenbaum et al., 2019) and ‘democratizing computing’ (Wolber et al., 2015), which encourages students to make computational artifacts that serve public needs and that “making-with-computing” be accessible to as many people as possible. With the CS Pathways curriculum, students are invited to develop apps that serve their communities as authentically conceptualized by students. Apps are positioned as computing artifacts that students can create to cultivate connections between themselves and others with whom they identify or have an affinity. Engaging in an action civics curriculum and learning to develop mobile apps can also contribute to mutually supportive computer science and civics learning.

Methods and Data Sources
This paper draws on a multi-case study design (Yin, 2017) to examine how RPP work supported teachers’ integration of computer science and app creation into civics action projects. The primary data source was teacher interviews conducted at the end of each school year from Years Three to Five. Supplemental data included teachers’ lesson plans, reflections, recordings of one-on-one support meetings throughout the school year, and student projects shared by teachers. These multiple sources of data were used to seek a comprehensive view of teachers’ classroom practices and the impact of RPP work.

Results
Integrating app development with civic learning creates opportunities for mutual reinforcement between computer science and civics. Implementation varied across classrooms, as teachers and students brought different levels of comfort and intentions around civic action and programming. Fitting computer science instruction and support around the civics project development involved developing infrastructure for planned and just-in-time support. This interdisciplinary approach taken by CS Pathways partners also requires civics and computing educators to learn about each others’ disciplines through collaboration and experimentation. Intentional collaboration inside and outside of the classroom can support the continuous mutual professional learning required to develop students’ civic and computational agency.

Significance
This paper presents an integrated curricular model and teacher implementation experiences that support inclusive communities by encouraging students to build apps addressing youth culture and social change. It also illustrates how RPP work can empower educators to develop students as computational creators for civic action.

Authors

• Lijun Ni, University at Albany - SUNY

• Gillian Bausch

• Fred Martin, University of Texas - San Antonio

• Bernardo Feliciano, University of Massachusetts - Lowell