Increasing Diversity in K-12 Computer Science: Strategies from the Field

Increasing Diversity in K-12 Computer Science: Strategies from the Field
Jared O'Leary
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In this episode I unpack Goode’s (2008) publication titled “Increasing diversity in K-12 computer science: Strategies from the field,”which provides suggestions for educators who are interested in increasing the diversity of their CS classes or programs.

  • Welcome back to another episode of the

    CSK8 podcast my name is jared o'leary

    if you're new to this podcast every week

    i alternate between an interview with

    someone

    in cs education and a solo episode where

    i unpack some scholarship and its

    potential implications for

    computer science educators this week's

    episode is an unpacking scholarship

    episode and it is of the paper

    titled increasing diversity in k-12

    computer science

    strategies from the field and this paper

    is written by joanna good

    who is the author of the paper that i

    talked about two weeks ago

    so two weeks ago the paper was mainly

    about some of the

    larger things to take in consideration

    for bigger

    implementations or initiatives in like a

    community or a district

    but this week's episode is going to

    focus on individual strategies that

    teachers can use in the classroom

    setting so we're starting with big

    picture and now we're kind of narrowing

    it down

    into okay yeah but what can i do as an

    individual

    so here's the abstract from this paper

    quote in this paper

    i described features of computer science

    programs which have successfully

    attracted

    underrepresented students to study cs

    drawing from my own teaching experiences

    research and teacher education work i

    provide strategies which have

    diversified k-12 cs courses

    the paper also points out how many of

    these features rely on committed

    partnerships between schools

    school districts universities and the cs

    industry end quote so if i were to give

    a one sentence summary of this paper i

    would say that this paper provides

    suggestions for strategies to increase

    diversity in k-12 computer science

    although this particular episode will

    unpack this paper

    what i do recommend if you want to read

    the actual paper is go to the show notes

    and if you click on

    the title of the article then it'll take

    you directly to the paper itself and if

    you click on the author's last name

    then it'll take you to their google

    scholar profile where you can

    read more publications by this

    particular author all right so here's a

    quote on page 362

    that begins this article quote computer

    science

    holds the unfortunate distinction as a

    highly segregated profession

    in terms of both gender and race the

    underrepresentation of females and

    people of color

    occurs at the professional level

    university level and in k-12 education

    end quote at the time of publication

    which was 2008

    the author notes that university

    enrollment figures were actually

    getting worse in gender so less women

    were signing up for computer science

    education than there were previously

    now even those paper was published 12

    years ago we're still having same

    conversations about representation

    within

    computer science education and one of

    the papers that i'm going to unpack in

    the

    future unpacking scholarship episode

    talks about

    how this isn't the case in some other

    areas

    so in cs education if we already had a

    diversity problem

    and in 2008 things were getting worse in

    terms of gender

    diversity what can we do about it so the

    author provides some suggestions that

    are based off

    of their experience as both a high

    school computer science teacher

    and a teacher educator so not only do

    they have practice in a k-12 setting but

    they also have practice

    teaching teachers how to teach all right

    so the main categories or strategies are

    around recruitment culturally relevant

    curriculum

    powerful pedagogy role models and clear

    pathways in computer science

    all right so let's unpack each of those

    so under recruitment

    one suggestion that the author

    recommends is she mentioned that she

    became

    the coach of the girls swim team which

    allowed her to purposefully recruit

    students to help

    diversify gender in her classroom so in

    other words

    as an individual educator in your school

    think of what kind of clubs or

    organizations or events

    that you could participate in to

    potentially recruit students to be in

    your class

    so another teacher in this article

    mentioned that

    they would go to each one of the math

    classes present on the benefits

    of computer science education using

    slides with diverse images

    or media then she would personally

    deliver a letter to each student

    which invited them to join the class so

    as an example of the success rate of

    this

    this person's class increased from 12

    students

    to 47 20 of which were girls

    when there were none who had previously

    signed up now the author notes is not

    just recruiting to for recruitment's

    sake

    but recruiting purposefully to help

    diversify

    your classroom and your program so not

    just i want to get more people

    it's more about diversifying the

    students than it is about

    increasing the enrollment numbers now if

    you listen to previous interviews with

    guests

    there are many who have mentioned

    recruiting by having students go

    into classrooms or recruiting others

    one-on-one or even

    speaking with school counselors or

    administrators about who can participate

    in computer science

    because there are misperceptions about

    how computer science is basically only

    for white and asian males

    which i've talked about in other

    unpacking scholarship episodes

    so the next header culturally relevant

    curriculum now i've already talked about

    culturally relevant curriculum and

    pedagogy in other episodes

    for example the unpacking scholarship

    titled toward a theory of culturally

    relevant pedagogy

    actually unpacks the seminal paper that

    led to culturally relevant pedagogy

    but in this particular section the

    author is basically talking about the

    importance of

    diversifying how kids can engage in the

    class

    in ways that are culturally relevant and

    meaningful so here's a quote from page

    quote in youth culture today many

    students engage in pop technology use

    through the use of mobile phones ipods

    youtube and social relationship

    sites yet most cs courses i visit rarely

    if ever make the explicit connection

    between learning computing concepts

    and the concepts applications in these

    pop technologies

    end quote now it's a little funny

    reading about ipods definitely dates the

    paper a little bit

    but the overall message still holds true

    it's something that we do in our

    professional development and the

    curriculum that i create it's all about

    getting kids to find

    meaningful applications of exploring

    their interest

    in some kind of a way in a computer

    science or coding class

    the author also suggests engaging in

    social interests of the kids that you

    work with

    so it's not just the technological

    interests but things that kids are

    socially interested in

    so for example rather than discussing

    creating a program for a non-existent

    company

    like a hypothetical company instead kids

    could create software

    for a personal or community based

    purpose

    with the exact same concepts and

    practices you would have done

    in the original project and the author

    also mentions that it's important to

    diversify what kids engage with

    in the classroom that connects with

    computer science so not just providing

    the same

    one-size-fits-all solution oh everyone

    is going to be interested in this topic

    because

    of blah blah blah but instead saying

    like hey here are several different

    topics that you could pursue that are

    related to several different interests

    okay so the next suggestion powerful

    pedagogy

    okay so there are three main categories

    under this particular section of the

    paper

    one is content area knowledge the next

    one is pedagogical content knowledge

    and the last one is cultural diversity

    content knowledge

    so let's talk about the three of those

    so content area knowledge

    so the author suggests that content

    knowledge is important

    which yeah if you're going to teach

    something it's important that you know

    the content knowledge

    so districts need to provide

    professional development opportunities

    to help teachers who might not have a

    background in computer science education

    now many of the guests in on this

    podcast have

    argued that it's okay for students to

    know more than you especially when

    you're starting out

    but i'd give the caveat that it's okay

    when you first start

    but you should constantly be learning

    more over time so that's no longer the

    case

    so if 10 years from now while doing

    computer science

    the students still know more than you

    then i'd say that's problematic

    so don't treat it as an excuse to well i

    don't need to know anything i can just

    ask questions and they'll figure it out

    but instead just know that okay if i'm

    starting out and i have

    very little experience or background

    understanding for computer science

    that's okay for where you're starting

    now

    just keep asking questions keep learning

    over time because then

    you'll continue to get better as an

    educator all right so the next

    sub category within here pedagogical

    content knowledge

    here's a quote from page 363 quote in

    addition to cs content knowledge

    effective cs educators draw from a range

    of pedagogical strategies

    meant to help students learn about a

    particular subject

    the use of counter examples

    manipulatives role plays

    large-scale projects and other

    pedagogical strategies

    illustrate different approaches for

    students to actively engage with the

    material

    knowing when students should work

    together in pairs groups

    or as a class is also part of this

    pedagogical content knowledge

    these instructional considerations are a

    creative but time laborous endeavor

    end quote so i've talked about this in

    other

    episodes but this is where i think

    university professors in particular

    could better focus their attention

    so in my opinion it doesn't matter to

    students whether you know the ins and

    outs of everything related to a topic in

    computer science

    if you don't have the pedagogical chops

    to help others learn

    that topic in other words just because

    you're an expert at

    the topic area it doesn't mean you're

    good at teaching it

    so in addition to learning about the

    content area knowledge it is very

    important to learn about

    how to teach in many different ways to

    teach because

    you're not going to find a silver bullet

    that works for every single kid that you

    work with

    and the last section under powerful

    pedagogy is cultural diversity content

    knowledge

    so here's a quote from page 364.

    quote successful cs teachers of diverse

    students

    must be aware and counter the issues

    which prevent females and students of

    color from entering the cs pipeline

    end quote so in addition to knowing what

    to teach and how to teach

    you also need to know the cultural

    contexts that are going on

    and at play in the classrooms that you

    work with in order to

    lift up marginalized and

    underrepresented people

    so the author also draws attention to

    the fact that we shouldn't focus

    all of our attention on the kids who

    have prior knowledge or the ability to

    continue the learning outside of class

    so in other words if a kid took a

    outside

    of school like coding camp or something

    or has been kind of self-teaching

    themselves at home

    or actually has the ability to continue

    learning at home we shouldn't focus all

    of our attention on them

    i know i've been guilty of that in the

    past where i have unintentionally

    provided more attention to the kids who

    are able to go further with things

    and less attention to the kids who are

    not and that's something that i

    became aware of through my own

    reflective

    practices such as recording myself

    and then analyzing my teaching and

    getting feedback from like

    students and teachers and administrators

    and whatnot

    so yeah i definitely second that now the

    author also mentions

    that learning should not be teacher

    centered which is something that many of

    the guests and myself have talked about

    through many of the interviews on this

    podcast so here's a quote from page 364.

    quote successful teachers create

    opportunities for students to deepen

    their understandings of cs subjects

    on applications or projects that are

    relevant to students

    and not always predetermined by the

    teacher end quote

    so that quote really resonates with me

    and aligns with

    a lot of what i have created with boot

    ups curriculum which is 100 free

    and is all about having kids create

    something that is interesting to them

    rather than predetermined by myself the

    curriculum developer or

    teachers so the last thing under this

    particular

    section is the author points out that we

    need to be aware of the stereotypes or

    unconscious bias we might have around

    various identities or ways of being

    so for example biases based on gender

    race

    sexuality ability or disability etc

    okay so the next main strategy role

    models

    so the author highlights the importance

    of having role models of people who look

    like students

    so here's a quote from page 364.

    quote of course teachers can and

    typically do

    serve as powerful local role models but

    having other computer scientists

    interact with students

    enhances their exposure to potential

    role models higher education and

    industry

    can both contribute through lab tours

    classroom talks media productions

    or outreach programs end quote

    now i totally agree with this and have

    talked about this in other episodes

    one of the things that i would recommend

    doing if you haven't listened to it yet

    is listen to the interview with sarah

    judd

    where sarah and i unpack the idea

    further by indicating it's not just

    about looking like somebody

    which is important but it's also about

    seeing somebody with similar interests

    as you who are engaging in computer

    science so one of the examples that

    sarah gives is

    including people who dance while

    engaging in computer science

    okay the final strategy is clear

    pathways in cs

    so here's a quote from page 364 that

    kind of unpacks the importance of

    why we need to have clear pathways in

    computer science

    quote this type of pathway information

    is not typically developed

    nor provided by schools and educators

    and parents alike

    hold strong reservations about computing

    as a career due to fears regarding

    outsourcing

    providing information regarding

    undergraduate cs programs potential

    careers

    availability of jobs salary information

    and other resources might help make the

    higher education and career pathway

    more transparent and alleviate some of

    the fears about pursuing the discipline

    end quote

    so i'd argue these fears still exist for

    some today

    in fact i got an email last week about

    somebody who was saying that ai

    is going to take over all programming

    jobs and we engage in a discussion on

    that

    so one potential avenue is to focus on

    computational thinking skills somebody

    learns

    which might help alleviate some of those

    fears but the suggestion that i just

    read

    seems to still be the driving narrative

    in discourse around computer science

    especially with all the unemployment

    right now going on due to covet 19.

    okay so the last section of this paper

    talks about institutional support

    so this kind of goes back to what i

    talked about two weeks ago in the other

    unpacking scholarship episode

    so the author recommends that we need to

    build an alliance between

    teacher educators computer science

    scholars administrators

    cs teachers community members local

    companies etc

    so if you listen to the episode two

    weeks ago it'll kind of talk more about

    that and what i'm about to discuss very

    briefly

    so one suggestion is to ensure that

    courses are offered

    and a webinar that i recently attended

    talked about not just

    courses that have prereqs but offering

    courses that have no prereqs

    kind of like what i talked about two

    weeks ago and the reason why that's

    important is because

    computer science isn't just for people

    who have taken

    a certain math level it is for anyone

    so we need to have offerings that

    reflect that another suggestion is to

    provide

    teacher professional development i've

    talked about that in other episodes

    for example listen to the episode with

    mckay perkins where he talks about some

    of his experiences

    with computer science professional

    development

    next the author recommends creating a

    community of computer science

    teachers so two weeks ago i mentioned

    checking out csta which is the computer

    science teachers association

    and discussion forum groups like cs for

    all teachers

    which i'll link to in the show notes so

    here's a quote on why this is important

    and why the author recommends

    reaching out to other educators this is

    from page 365.

    quote unlike teachers of other

    disciplines cs teachers

    often have no colleagues at their school

    to talk to about instructional or

    curricular issues

    as a result teachers i have spoken with

    feel a sense of isolation

    and disconnect from the larger cs

    educational community

    additionally rarely are these teachers

    encouraged or permitted to attend cs

    education

    conferences in fact out of dozens of

    teachers i have spoken with

    none have received district sponsored cs

    professional development

    before the university district alliance

    offered the outreach programs end quote

    totally agree i've been to many

    conferences and very rarely have i had a

    district ever

    reimburse me for that time in fact many

    times i had to take my own

    sick or vacation days off just so i

    could attend a conference or present at

    a conference or whatever

    all right so the last section under the

    institutional support is to develop

    student outreach programs to expose

    students to cs education

    i like this but i'd also argue that we

    could develop community outreach

    programs to help not just the students

    in our community but

    anyone in the community so think of all

    the people right now

    who might be out of jobs because of

    covid

    that would benefit from from some

    community education on this particular

    topic all right so as a quick summary

    so the strategies that were recommended

    were to focus on recruitment

    have culturally relevant curriculum

    engage in powerful pedagogy

    have diverse role models and clear

    pathways in cs

    in addition to the individual things

    that were just mentioned that any

    teacher can do

    from an institutional support level the

    author recommends ensuring courses are

    offered

    providing pd creating or joining

    community of cs teachers

    and developing student outreach programs

    so at the end of each one of these

    unpacking scholarship episodes i like to

    talk about some of my lingering

    questions or thoughts so one question

    might be

    how has the author's strategies

    continued to grow or changed

    since 2008 when this was written another

    question that i have is what strategies

    could we recommend for virtual versus

    in-person cs education

    and i asked that because at the time of

    this recording there's a lot going on

    with covid

    and many educators are working online

    and so what can you do

    in online or virtual spaces to diversify

    your programs

    and how does that compare to in-person

    strategies

    and a final question that i have is what

    strategies are missing that you've tried

    and wished other

    educators knew more about now if you got

    something to share

    you can use the hashtag csk8

    on twitter and you can send out a

    short tweet about some of the things

    that you have learned you could join the

    csta

    group that focuses specifically on csk8

    on facebook or you could go to my

    website and contact me

    and be a guest on the show and we can

    talk about this topic as well as many

    other things related to

    computer science in elementary middle

    school high school

    university wherever all right so that's

    kind of a summary of this paper and some

    of my lingering questions or thoughts

    if you would be so kind please consider

    sharing this episode with somebody else

    who is also seeking to diversify their

    computer science program or classes

    and make sure you check out the show

    notes if you're interested in listening

    to some of the podcasts i mentioned

    or checking out some of the other

    resources i hope you're all staying safe

    i hope you are having a wonderful week

    and i look forward to talking to you

    again

    next week when i release another

    interview

Article

Goode, J. (2008). Increasing diversity in K-12 computer science: Strategies from the field. SIGCSE’08 - Proceedings of the 39th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, 362-366.

Abstract

“In this paper, I describe features of computer science programs which have successfully attracted underrepresented students to study CS. Drawing from my own teaching experiences, research, and teacher education work; I provide strategies which have diversified K-12 CS courses. The paper also points out how many of these features rely on committed partnerships between schools, school districts, universities, and the CS industry.”

Author Keywords

Gender & ethnicity, wider access, pedagogy, CS educational research

My One Sentence Summary

This paper provides suggestions for strategies to increase diversity in K-12 computer science.

Some Of My Lingering Questions/Thoughts

  • How has the author's strategies continued to grow or change since 2008?

  • What strategies could we recommend for virtual vs in-person CS education?

  • What strategies are missing that you've tried and wished other educators knew more about?

Resources/Links Relevant to This Episode

More Content

Unpacking ScholarshipJared O'LearyEquity, Pedagogy, Culturally-relevant pedagogy/curricula, Diversity, Gender, Role model, RepresentationComment