Numerous African American and Hispanic Students with disabilities are confronted with systemic and policy-based challenges preventing access to K-12 STEM-related and computer science education. In addition, the African American and Hispanic Students with Disabilities in the Computer Science Research Alliance conducted an NSF-funded study to understand teachers’ perceptions of district and school policies and practices that hinder the participation of African American and Hispanic students with disabilities in computer science education in Central Texas. The project’s research study fills a critical gap in the literature concerning the systemic barriers affecting African American and Hispanic students with disabilities in K12 computer science education.
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Improving Computer Science Instruction and Computer Use for African American Secondary School Students: A Focus Group Exploration of Computer Science Identity of African American Teachers
As the demand for computing careers increases, it is important to implement strategies to broaden the participation in computer science for African Americans. Computer science courses and academic pathways are not always offered in secondary schools. Many teachers are not trained in computer science, yet are pushed to incorporate more computing, computational thinking, and computer usage. A qualitative focus group study was implemented to assess the computer science identities of African American teachers and of their respective urban secondary schools serving African American students. Three major codes were identified: district administration of computer and computing implementation, teacher attitudes towards computer science instruction, and teachers’ recommendations to improve computer science and computational thinking instruction and outreach for African American secondary school students. Findings can be used to improve computer science and technology rollout programs from county and district administrations, teacher instruction with digital tools, and computer science outreach for African American secondary school students.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1818458
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10107294
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Proceedings of the ACM SIGMIS ‘19: 2019 on Computers and People Research Conference
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 78 to 84
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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This qualitative research project is part of a larger NSF-funded grant entitled "Cogenerative Development of Culturally Relevant Pedagogical Guidelines for Computer Science and Computational Thinking in High Schools." During Year 1 of the project, qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted with 26 high school students to better understand the challenges and barriers to enrollment in and engagement/success in Computer Science courses in high school. A grounded theory approach was used, given the exploratory nature of the study. Students were selected from three partner schools and had to meet at least one of the criteria associated with underrepresented students in Computer Science: identifying as female; low socioeconomic status; and/or racial/ethnic minority (Black/African American; Hispanic/Latinx/Chicanx; Native American/Alaskan, and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, or multi-racial). Common themes that emerged included the following: Challenges (Financial Factors, Role of Gender (i.e. identifying as female), and Race/Ethnicity Issues); Positive Influences (Role of Teacher, Role of Family); Other Interesting Insights (Wanting to be challenged in Computer Science Classes, Problems with the Marketing of Computer Science as a discipline). Limitations of the current study are discussed as well as directions for future research and implications for a more culturally relevant pedagogical approach to teaching Computer Science and Computational Thinking in high schools. This project is funded by the National Science Foundation CS for All: Research and RPPs program, Award No. 2122367.more » « less
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.1145/3322385.3322399
