Broadening the participation of underrepresented students in computer science fields requires careful design and implementation of culturally responsive curricula and technologies. Culturally Situated Design Tools (CSDTs) address this by engaging students in historic, cultural, and meaningful design projects based on community practices. To date, CSDT research has only been conducted in short interventions outside of CS classrooms. This paper reports on the first semester-long introductory CS course based on CSDTs, which was piloted with 51 high school students during the 2017-2018 school year. The goal of this study was to examine if a culturally responsive computing curriculum could teach computer science principles and improve student engagement. Pre-post tests, field notes, weekly teacher meetings, formative assessments, and teacher and student interviews were analyzed to assess successes and failures during implementation. The results indicate students learned the conceptual material in 6 months rather than in the 9 months previously required by the teacher. Students were also able to apply these concepts afterward when programming in Python, implying knowledge transfer. However, student opinions about culture and computing didn't improve, and student engagement was below initial expectations. Thus we explore some of the many challenges: keeping a fully integrated cultural curriculum while satisfying CS standards, maintaining student engagement, and building student agency and self-regulation. We end with a brief description for how we intend to address some of these challenges in the second iteration of this program, scheduled for fall 2018. After which a study is planned to compare this curriculum to others.
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Culturally Responsive Computing: Extending Theory to Early Childhood Educational Contexts
A growing movement towards expanding computer science education in K-12 has broadened gaps in
computing opportunities along lines of race, ethnicity, class, and gender. Emergent theories and practices related to culturally responsive computing show promise in addressing this gap; however, little is known about engaging culturally and linguistically diverse preschoolers in computer science. The current study utilized qualitative content analysis to explore how an extant theory of Culturally Responsive Computing aligns with an early childhood culturally relevant robotics curriculum. Findings suggest that while the assumptions of culturally responsive computing were evident throughout the curriculum, there are several key considerations when extending the theory to early childhood contexts. Overarching themes included (1) emphasizing the value of
non-digital tools and activities and (2) aligning the goals of culturally responsive computing with children’s current level of social development.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2031394
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10479169
- Editor(s):
- Langran, E.
- Publisher / Repository:
- Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE)
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Location:
- New Orleans, LA
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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