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In the United States, 1 in 5 people, approximately 66.3 million individuals, live in a rural area. To address the growing need for computing professionals and the need for a computationally literate populace, we need to engage rural learners effectively. A first step in this direction is understanding the learning context for students engaging in computer science, and how that differs for a rural population. In this paper, we draw upon the National Survey of Science and Mathematics Education, the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009, and the 2021 American Community Survey, to underscore a lack of access to computer science learning contexts for students in these communities. We also explore how rural out-migration is compounding this challenge, and explore the roots of the rural out-migration trend. We then examine how multiple strains of research and scholarship identify rurality as either a place-based identification (i.e., where a student is from) or a distinct social identity. While convenient, geographic-based definitions lack important nuance in understanding rural populations and tend to emphasize heterogeneity in rural populations, especially regarding economic factors (i.e., what the communities produce). In contrast, identity-based definitions often emphasize commonalities across rural populations including a set of shared values, a sense of belonging to a rural community, emphasis on social bonds, and a distrust of solutions offered by government, academia, and technology which are often seen as misguided and antithetical to those shared values. In certain kinds of decision-making, this rural identity has even been shown to overshadow intersectional racial and ethnic identities. This is an important consideration as 22\% of the US rural population is composed of racial and ethnic minorities. Finally, we discuss strategies to engage with rural populations authentically and meaningfully. We offer as an illustrative example our Cyber Pipeline program, an outreach effort including a Creative Commons licensed, customizable, modular curriculum; extensive teacher preparation program; and ongoing support for K-12 teachers working to bring computer science into rural schools. We also describe reasons why these rural-dwelling teachers seek to provide computer science education for their students. We highlight the specific challenges of this program, as well as our identified promising practices, in the hopes of fostering similar programs across the United States.
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This content will become publicly available on June 1, 2026
Examining Rural Identity Among High School Computer Science Students
Students in geographically rural areas of the United States have less access to computer science education and are underrepresented in computer science majors and careers. At the same time, many rural occupations such as agriculture are becoming reliant on technology, and there is a need for skilled computer scientists with a rural background and skillset to develop effective tools and software that can be used in those occupations. In addition, the values of grit, determination, self-sufficiency, and perseverance often studied in rural populations are also attributed to successful computer scientists. Given the need for rural students to participate in computer science careers, and the overlap in rural values and the qualities of good computer scientists, why do rural students not see themselves as future computer scientists, and why are they not interested in computer science majors and careers? In this paper, we examine the geographical definition of "rural" as used by many researchers (based on the definition from the National Center for Education Statistics NCES) that is often applied homogenously across a school district or even entire county. We explore and validate a survey instrument used to measure "rural identity" of students at the individual level. In doing so, we discover a more broad and nuanced definition of "rural" that varies widely within individual schools. By analyzing this rich dataset, we build the case that defining individual students as "rural" based on geographical location is insufficient to account for variances in their interest in computer science careers and their own self-identity as someone who could be a computer scientist. We use this information to inform future research and propose new avenues for engaging "rural" students in computer science.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2216625
- PAR ID:
- 10652160
- Publisher / Repository:
- ASEE Conferences
- Date Published:
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- rural identity computer science education rural computer science education
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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