Reimagining Participation: Black Children’s Engagement in Early Computer Science Education through Culturally Relevant Interactions

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 11:45 am - Gold 3
  In Roundtable Session: Young Children's Engagement in Culturally Relevant and Sustaining STEM

Abstract

Black children’s participation in early computer science education is often constrained by dominant learning norms rooted in anti-Blackness, including compliance, marginalizing their ways of knowing. This study examines how culturally relevant interactions support Black children’s participation and disrupt these norms. Using qualitative microanalysis of video data from two prekindergarten classrooms, findings show that children engage in epistemic resistance through culturally grounded participation—reframing tasks, asserting leadership, and negotiating norms. These moments reflect criticality in action, with some signaling the emergence of critical consciousness as children question power relations and propose alternative ways of engaging. This study advances equity and justice-oriented learning sciences in early STEM education by unforgetting anti-Black constraints and imagining early learning as relational, cultural, and liberatory.

Authors

• Charles E. Flowers, California State University - Fullerton

• CRRAFT Partnership, University of Tennessee