We Need to Talk About This

We Need to Talk About This
Jared O'Leary
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In this episode I talk about political and corporate influences that we need to talk about as a field.

  • Discourse over the past couple of years

    in the United States reminds me of a

    quote from Martin niemuller that I'd

    like to reword for what I see going on

    in the education system first that came

    for black lives matter activists and I

    did not speak out because I was not

    black then they came from pedagogies

    that was informed by critical race

    Theory and I did not speak out because I

    had not read critical race Theory then

    they came for the trans and queer

    communities and I did not speak out

    because I was not trans or queer then

    they came for me and there was no one

    left to speak for me to be clear I don't

    think we're approaching the atrocities

    that occurred during the Holocaust that

    led to the original quote that I'm

    rewording so I don't want to downplay

    any historical atrocities but I do fear

    that people who are remaining silent

    about policies discourse and hegemonic

    influence over Computer Science

    Education will one day get to a point

    where they realize they should have

    spoken up sooner Educators in recent

    years have been punished for their

    identities or ways of being such as

    being gay or trans as well as for

    teaching about historical injustices

    that have occurred and continue to occur

    as a result of systemic barriers and now

    for advocating for diversity Equity or

    inclusion here's a quote from Recently

    signed legislation that will have a

    profound impact on education in Florida

    quote a Florida college system

    institution State University Florida

    college system institution direct

    support organization or State University

    direct support organization may not

    expend any state or federal funds to

    promote support or maintain any programs

    or campus activities that a violate

    s.1000.05 or B advocate for diversity

    equity and inclusion or promote or

    engage in political or social activism

    as defined by rules of the State Board

    of Education and regulations of the

    Board of Governors end quote as lines

    this in the show notes at

    jarrodolary.com now this proposed

    legislation is for higher education but

    my guess is that K-12 is next there's a

    link in the show notes at jaredolary.com

    with a curated list of more than 30

    anti-deeia bills that are being proposed

    or have been passed in different states

    across the United States regardless of

    where this kind of legislation would

    occur how do you teach ethics or

    algorithmic bias in Computing without

    advocating for Equity how do you talk

    about accessible Computing practices

    without advocating for inclusion you

    just avoid certain words when talking

    about these topics for example some CS

    educators are using the word different

    instead of the word diverse but what

    about pedagogies am I able to use

    culturally relevant pedagogies if I just

    call it something else is all of this

    just a new form of censorship if so they

    might be able to censor the language

    without censoring the work but that

    doesn't mean it won't have a profoundly

    negative impact on Educators who are

    already marginalized and have enough

    forms of Oppression to try and manage

    how to solve this trickle down and

    impact the students that we work with so

    for example I'd mentioned on this

    podcast the story of a middle school

    student who came up to me and was like

    hey is it okay if I create a scratch

    story about two people who are in love I

    was like yeah that sounds great nothing

    wrong with that student was like yeah

    but what if it's like two boys that are

    in love with each other and it's like

    yeah that's like not a problem and like

    yeah but what about administrators like

    are they gonna get mad at me because at

    the time there's a law in Arizona that

    said that teachers could not promote the

    quote homosexual lifestyle and so this

    student was afraid that they're going to

    have some backlash because of the

    trickle-down of policies like that even

    though I told the student like hey my

    wife and I are both in the queer

    Community I support you 100 through this

    if anything comes of this I will back

    you up the student decided not to do

    that project because they are afraid of

    the backlash this has an impact of

    minimizing who people are and that's a

    problem this kind of legislation and

    censorship is also having an impact on

    computer science professional

    development and curriculum providers so

    some PD providers are not changing what

    they're doing so they give a caveat that

    if a teacher needs to leave they can so

    that way the teacher doesn't get in

    trouble for attending some professional

    development that has prohibited content

    in it other PD providers are simply

    removing deia content from their PD in

    states with anti-deeia laws if they

    aren't removing the content entirely

    they are leaving it up to the PD

    facilitator to determine whether or not

    they want to leave the content in the PD

    this to me reads as an example of a very

    large organization with immense

    political power washing their hands of

    this problem and saying it's up to you

    as a lone individual to determine

    whether you want to risk teaching this

    kind of content and because this very

    large organization is making it

    abundantly clear that they're trying to

    comply with local laws and that they

    don't want to get in trouble if the

    individual chooses to provide PD on

    content that is now labeled as optional

    it means that lone individuals are

    having to stand up for what they might

    consider to be right without the backing

    of a very large organization the

    rationale that has been communicated by

    this organization and by some teachers

    is that they'd rather have CS that

    doesn't focus on deia than no CS at all

    while I agree that something is better

    than nothing the sentiment should not

    end with a period but with a comma that

    says no deia and CS education is better

    than no CS at all comma but we're going

    to continue to fight for what's right

    and change these policies imagine if

    civil rights activists had said

    segregation in schools is better than no

    education at all the idea that something

    is better than nothing doesn't mean we

    should fight for what's right and to get

    personal here it's not a far cry to

    think that someone might try to ban the

    curricular content I previously created

    that has been used by hundreds of

    thousands of students around the world

    because I'm public about being

    non-binary and therefore instructional

    videos created by someone in the trans

    Community should be banned because they

    don't want to confuse kids to be

    abundantly clear the only thing I'm

    confused about is why people can't

    accept that other people's lived

    experiences realities or ontologies are

    different than their own why should

    someone like myself be silenced because

    you're uncomfortable with my existence

    how can Educators organizations Etc

    rally together to say this is

    unacceptable it's a shame that

    organizations have felt the need to bend

    to this kind of pressure but we are

    stronger when we unite as a field or

    even partner with other education

    associations and organizations to say

    we're tired of politicians who have

    never taught a day in their life

    dictating what is best for teaching and

    learning unfortunately it's not just

    policy makers who are having a negative

    impact on teaching and learning but

    large funders of non-profit

    organizations I mentioned this in

    episode 192 which is titled how to get

    started in computer science education

    but I know of several organizations who

    have privately shared with me that a

    corporate funder gave their organization

    money that originally had no strings

    attached to it but were later asked to

    make changes that altered the quality of

    the PD or curricula so the funder could

    say they impacted more students and

    teachers or because the funder did not

    want to fund Equity related content I

    know it's easy for me to say don't

    accept this kind of funding because I no

    longer work for an organization that's

    dependent on that funding but it's the

    same stance that I had when I was

    working at one as one person that I know

    said I'd rather say no to 10 million

    dollars from a single funder who wants

    to change the scope or quality of our

    mission and instead find 10 donors who

    each provide a million dollars without

    asking us to change the quality or scope

    of our mission this episode was way more

    political than I've gotten before on

    this podcast and was much more scripted

    than usual because I've created enough

    unscripted content to know that people

    can wildly misinterpret what I'm trying

    to communicate if you didn't enjoy this

    particular episode there are nearly 200

    more podcast episodes that don't focus

    on politics but I genuinely feel that

    this is an important topic that we need

    to discuss as a field because if the PD

    and curriculum providers are scared how

    do you think individual Educators feel

    right now if you do enjoy this podcast

    or any of the free content that I create

    like the scratch videos on my YouTube

    channel the only thing that I ask is

    that you share it with somebody else who

    might enjoy that content I also create a

    bunch of drumming and gaming stuff it's

    all at jaredolary.com if you're

    interested in any of that thank you so

    much for listening to this episode stay

    tuned for an episode next week until

    then I hope you're all staying safe and

    are having a wonderful week

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