Examining the What, Why, and How of Multilingual Student Identity Development in Computer Science (original) (raw)
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Exploring the Intersectional Development of Computer Science Identities in Young Latinas
Teachers College Record, 2022
Background: There has been a dearth of research on intersectional identities in STEM, including the fields of computing and engineering. In computing education research, much work has been done on broadening participation, but there has been little investigation into how the field of computer science (CS) presents opportunities for students with strong intersectional identities. This study explores the strengths and connections among the unique identities and the symbiotic relationships that elementary Latina students hold in CS identity attainment.
A Storytelling, Social-Belonging Intervention in an Introductory Computer Science Course
2019
A brief social-belonging intervention was developed for two introductory computer science (CS) courses. This intervention used storytelling to help improve a sense of belonging and establish the importance of persistence in the classroom. In previous experiments using this one-time intervention (Walton & Brady, 2017) there were significant results. The focus of this paper will be on how to incorporate this type of intervention for retention in computer science undergraduate programs in introductory CS courses. First, recent CS graduates were interviewed about their own struggles and failures in their computer science courses. These interviews were videotaped and edited to follow the storytelling pattern of a struggle, followed by an attribution, and concluding with redemption. Interviewees were selected to represent a diverse group of students including both dominant majority and under-represented minority populations. Second, the storytelling videos (as well as control videos) were viewed by approximately 300 introductory-level students during small group recitation-like sessions. Third, survey data was collected that measured student's perception of their own belonging to the field of CS. Additionally, students were asked to respond to mock scenarios, gathering data on their attitudes and beliefs on how much other students belong in CS. This paper focuses on the design and implementation of this type of intervention, including a sample transcript of some of the stories. Preliminary data was collected from the experiment, but response rate was low due to IRB restrictions and low participant incentive. The standard social belongingness survey questions showed no significant difference between the group that had the intervention and the group that didn't. We also asked students to answer questions about another student's belongingness in CS. Both groups of students agreed that if another student struggles on exams, they should continue their pursuit of CS. The group with the intervention was more like to encourage a friend who was struggling on assignments to continue their pursuit in CS than the students without the intervention. However, the intervention group also reported having parents with higher education than the control group, so this result is not conclusive. This quantitative study will be further explored in the second iteration of the experiment that will have a larger response rate. Lastly, narrative responses have been reviewed for themes across participants and summarized, which helps further motivate the need for this intervention. Motivation From 2015 AY to 2016 AY, there was an 19% increase in number of students graduating with a bachelor's degree in computer science (Bizot, 2016). However, out of the 17,366 degrees awarded and reported to the Taulbee Survey, less than 18% were awarded to women. Just over 3% of these degrees were awarded to Black or African-American students, despite it being the largest minority population in the United States (an estimated 12.7% of the US population in 2016). Additionally, 7.5% of the degrees were awarded to Hispanic and Latino students, despite it being the largest ethnic minority population (an estimated 18.5% of the US population in 2016, Wikipedia). There are many factors and potential explanations for the lack of diversity in the computer science field. Persistence and belonging continue to be important areas of research in computer science education (Katz, Allbritton, Aronis, Wilson, & Soffa, 2006) to help understand why underrepresented minority groups are not joining and are not staying. In this paper, we are exploring implementing social belonging intervention intended to help retain underrepresented groups in the computer science major.
Intersectional Factors that Influence K-2 Students' Computer Science Learning
arXiv, 2023
Much computer science education research tailors curricula to specific demographic groups, yet often overlooks students with intersecting backgrounds. This paper explores the implementation of the Coding as Another Language curriculum for predominantly Latine, multilingual, and low-socioeconomic students. To evaluate student performance, we used a pre-and-post-test design on a validated coding assessment using a hierarchical linear model with fixed effects to control for teacher, grade-level, and parents' educational attainment. Findings indicated that students began the curriculum with wide disparities in initial coding abilities. Looking at the intersection of language, gender, and socioeconomic characteristics, we found pre-test average score differences between intersectionally identified groups of up to 1.81 with a large effect size of 1.13. Many group differences in the average pre-test scores were significant with medium to large effect sizes. The post-minus-pre-test difference demonstrated significant improvement in all students' coding scores after exposure to the curriculum, with an effect size of 2.63. We found significant heterogeneity in these gains, with greater increases for students who entered the curriculum with lower initial pre-test scores. The largest post-test average score difference of 1.15 with a medium effect size of 0.72 was smaller than pre-test average score differences, mostly representing statistically insignificant differences with trivial effect sizes. This convergence in post-test average scores demonstrates that differential improvements mitigated pre-existing disparities in initial coding abilities. Our results prompt a compelling discussion on the curricular foundations that effectively mitigate disparities among students with diverse and intersecting backgrounds.
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), 2019
This paper draws from year one of a 5-year research study that seeks to examine how postsecondary mathematics students learn to use programming as a computational thinking instrument for mathematics. It focuses on how post-secondary mathematics students' identities as mathematics learners are enacted as they engage in a programming-based mathematical investigations and applications learning environment. Specifically, the paper offers a discussion of a case of one student's enactment of his identity while simultaneously learning to program and to use it for this kind of mathematical work. This paper highlights the importance of identity in learning mathematics and its role in the development of productive dispositions in learning to program for mathematics investigation and modeling.
Computer science identity and sense of belonging
Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Gender Equality in Software Engineering
The study 1 described in this paper investigates the role that gender plays in making the decision to study Computer Science in University College Dublin in Ireland (background influences) and investigates whether there is a difference in the perceived sense of belonging between the genders. The aim is to improve diversity and sense of belonging amongst Computer Science students, in order to ensure that our school is an inclusive space, where anyone can feel a sense of belonging regardless their gender.
2018
As technology increases in the global arena and the necessity for a more diverse group of individuals to fulfill engineering and computing roles increases, it is important to engage more students in computing majors and roles. Identity has proven to be an important lens through which researchers can better understand how to engage students in these fields. In particular, our framing for computing identity includes students’ self-perceptions about recognition, interest, and performance/competence. Using survey data, this study examines the computing identity of high achieving underserved students in computer science (CS), computer engineering (CE), and information technology (IT). For these students, we compare the constructs between men and women, computing fields, and first year students (commonly referred to as freshmen) and postsecond year students (which includes junior and senior students). Based on preliminary data, results show that female participants had less of a computing...
Social Perceptions in Computer Science and Implications for Diverse Students
Proceedings of the 2017 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research
The barriers to diversity in computer science (CS) are complex, consisting of both structural and social barriers. In this paper, we focus on social perceptions for students in grades 7-12 in the U.S. using surveys of nationally representative samples of 1,672 students, 1,677 parents, 1,008 teachers, 9,805 principals, and 2,307 superintendents. Building on qualitative work by Lewis, Anderson, and Yasuhara [1,2], we sought to understand social beliefs regarding students' fit and ability as well the external context. We examined these factors' relationships to students' interest. The results are consistent with the current body of research on gender differences in social perceptions in CS. They also identify new findings for race/ethnicity, specifically Black and Hispanic students. As K-12 CS expands, these findings could inform differentiation strategies in equitably engaging students.