Increasing Diversity in K-12 Computer Science: Strategies from the Field
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.
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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
Other podcast episodes that were mentioned or are relevant to this episode
AI4ALL, Curriculum Development, and Gender Discourse with Sarah Judd
In this interview with Sarah Judd, we discuss what Sarah learned both in the classroom and as a CS curriculum writer, the curriculum Sarah continues to develop for AI4ALL, advice and philosophies that can guide facilitating a class and designing curriculum, some of our concerns with discourse on gender in CS, my recommended approach to sustainable professional development, and much more.
In this episode I unpack Goode’s (2010) publication titled “Connecting K-16 curriculum & policy: Making computer science engaging, accessible, and hospitable for underrepresented students” which discusses the development process behind the Exploring Computer Science curriculum, as well as the policy work that occurred in parallel with the the curriculum development.
Connecting with and Listening to Students with Dominick Sanders
In this interview with Dominick Sanders, we discuss the importance of connecting with and listening to students, the impact of being a positive role model for kids, considering equity for individuals and across the entire state of South Carolina, what Dominick learned through their experience with Xposure STEM, Dominick’s plan for improving CS in South Carolina, Dominick’s experience with CSTA’s Equity Fellowship, how Dominick continues to learn and grow as a CS educator, thinking through intersectionality in relation to representation, and so much more.
Diversity Barriers in K-12 Computer Science Education: Structural and Social
In this episode I unpack Wang and Moghadam’s (2017) publication titled “Diversity barriers in K-12 computer science education: Structural and social,” which describes potential structural and social barriers for Black, Hispanic, and female students in K-12 contexts.
Exploring Computer Science with Joanna Goode
In this interview with Joanna Goode, we discuss corporate influence through neoliberal practices in CS education, reflecting on engaging all students in CS programs, considerations around equity and inclusion in CS education, layers of curriculum design and implementation, discussing and problematizing integration, influences of policy and administrative support (or the lack of) on CS education, Joanna’s experience with developing Exploring Computer Science, and much more.
How to Get Started with Computer Science Education
In this episode I provide a framework for how districts and educators can get started with computer science education for free.
Lessons Learned from CS Professional Development with McKay Perkins
In this interview with McKay Perkins, we discuss what McKay has learned over the years providing elementary CS/coding professional development, considerations for creating within constraints, teaching a sustainable way for integrating CS/coding in elementary schools, the importance of adapting PD to continuous feedback, advice for becoming a professional development facilitator, and much more.
In this episode I unpack Mellström’s (2009) publication titled “The intersection of gender, race and cultural boundaries, or why is computer science in Malaysia dominated by women?,” which “points to a western bias of gender and technology studies, and argues for cross-cultural work and intersectional understandings including race, class, age and sexuality” (p. 885).
Toward a Theory of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy
In this episode I unpack Ladson-Billings’ (1995) seminal publication titled “Toward a theory of culturally relevant pedagogy,” which influenced much of the discourse around culturally relevant pedagogy in computer science education.
More episodes related to culturally-relevant pedagogy/curricula
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