Research as Ceremony: Cultivating Ancestral Knowledge in Computer Science Education

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

The purpose of our research as ceremony is to protect the sacred by revitalizing ancestral knowledge systems in computing education. Six Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) scholars from five minority-serving institutions aim to disrupt deficit perspectives and decolonize methodologies, employing relational and interdisciplinary approaches to computer science research and education. The responsibility to equalize outcomes in education specifically includes problematizing existing pathways to computing careers that are inclusive of Indigenous knowledges and habits of mind. The presentations document preliminary findings and next steps for the ancestral computing for sustainability network. This research offers an approach to teaching and learning that centers ancestral knowledge systems of BIPOC in ways that are sorely absent from computing education today.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Indigenous Peoples of the Americas

Chair

• Cueponcaxochitl D. Moreno Sandoval, California State University - Stanislaus

Papers

• Research as Ceremony: Disrupting Colonial Narratives via the Ancestral Computing Network - Joseph F. Carroll-Miranda, University of Puerto Rico - Rio Piedras; April Lindala, Northern Michigan University

• Research as Ceremony: Contemplative Inquiry and Indigenous Knowledge - Cueponcaxochitl D. Moreno Sandoval, California State University - Stanislaus; Michelle C Chatman, University of the District of Columbia

• Research as Ceremony. Contemplative Inquiry and Indigenous Knowledge: A Global, Inclusive, Responsive STEM Education - Ebony Terrell Shockley, University of Maryland; Jeffery S. Fleming, University of the District of Columbia

Discussant

• Ebony Terrell Shockley, University of Maryland