Examining Early Elementary Computer Science Identity Repertoires within a Curriculum: Implications for Epistemologically Pluralistic Identities

In this episode I unpack Richard and Kayumova (2022) publication titled “Examining early elementary computer science identity repertoires within a curriculum: Implications for epistemologically pluralistic identities,” which analyzes how a curriculum can implicitly communicate what computer scientists do.

  • Curricula can implicitly communicate

    what computer scientists do how well the

    paper titled examining Early Elementary

    computer science identity repertoires

    within a curriculum colon implications

    for epistemologically pluralistic

    identities this paper was written by

    Eleanor Richard and Chuck nozza kayamova

    apologies have I mispronounced any names

    here's the abstract for this paper quote

    as computer science CS enters an

    increasing number of Elementary

    classrooms researchers must investigate

    the representations of What kinds of

    people are presented as doing computer

    science within CS curriculum in this

    paper we explore a widely used freely

    accessible web-based Early Elementary CS

    curriculum to examine the kinds of

    identity repertoires behaviors actions

    skills and socio-emotional Norms that

    are promoted as a representative of

    being becoming a CS person more

    specifically we draw on identity studies

    and employ critical discourse analysis

    to examine how the kinds of norms and

    repertoires of Cs practice made

    available in the curricular materials

    might construct a particular account of

    experiences as as representative of

    being and enacting identities in

    computer science and in doing so produce

    certain accounts of who a CS person is

    our analysis shows that the curricular

    materials May construct an identity of a

    computer science person as someone who

    is able to solve a puzzle correctly

    persist through challenges connect to

    their feelings and work with peers while

    this curriculum promotes skills norms

    and repertoires of Cs practice align

    with State Standards our findings

    suggests that it does not appear to

    present varied and flexible notion of

    what it means to engage in or be become

    a CS person end quote now you can find a

    direct link to this paper at

    jaredleary.com or you can simply click

    the link in the app that you're

    listening to the song and it'll take you

    to the show notes directly for this

    paper now before we begin with the

    introduction this paper I just want to

    say that this podcast is a podcast that

    explores Computer Science Education

    across all grade levels and is either an

    interview with a guest or multiple

    guests or a solo episode like this where

    it unpacks some scholarship and try and

    relate it to practices in computer

    science education my name is Jared Leary

    and I have where worked with evergrade

    kindergarten through doctoral students

    so I've seen a variety of contexts and

    will try and talk about how you might

    apply some of these understandings in

    the various papers that I unpack in

    relation to different contexts in K-12

    or in higher education settings alright

    so the introduction of this paper the

    authors talk about how computer science

    is a relatively new field for many

    teachers many Educators like including

    myself my backgrounds in music education

    before I switched over into Computer

    Science Education and this makes it so

    that many new to CS teachers are having

    to rely on curricula to figure out some

    different pedagogical approaches for

    computer science so not only is it

    content knowledge that teachers are

    learning but also the pedagogies

    involved with how to teach different

    ideas or concepts practices

    understandings Etc now I mentioned this

    in other podcast episodes that the type

    of curriculum that you're using will

    kind of represent different things so it

    might represent who is able to engage in

    computer science or what a computer

    scientist actually does so here's a

    quote from page two quote who or what

    kinds of people are represented as doing

    CS with in the curricular context what

    ways of knowing and being norms and

    repertoires of Cs practice are promoted

    as legitimate within the curricular

    texts as walkerdine argues practices

    within the text itself have relational

    effects that Define who and what we are

    power operates through discursive

    constructions of the text by creating

    boundaries inclusions and exclusions

    about what is considered to be

    legitimate repertoires of Cs practice

    and what is not as Wortham highlights

    the types of people and the types of

    learning experiences presented in the

    discourses of a curriculum have the

    power to strongly affect the

    construction of students identities such

    questions about children's is identity

    development regarding CS can be seen in

    a growing field of research focused on

    youth identity development in stem as

    eisenhart and Alan emphasize stem

    learning environments teaching practices

    and constructed narratives have the

    power to both expand Notions of what CS

    is and broaden our constrained Notions

    of who does can do CS therefore through

    the discourses presented or emitted

    within a curriculum education channel

    settings can Define what kinds of people

    or identities can gain legitimate access

    to CS end quote so I've talked about

    this in other episodes on curriculum and

    like integration and whatnot which I

    link to in the show notes at

    jaredelary.com curricula can have a

    profound impact on what people consider

    to be normal within a field both in

    terms of who is in the field and what

    those people end up doing so for example

    if we engaged in a computer science

    class and the only thing you did is

    programming then a student might walk

    away from that and go oh computer

    science means programming and it might

    ignore cyber security it might ignore

    networking might ignore data analysis

    all sorts of other things if those are

    not also discussed that may or may not

    be a bad thing depending on the end

    goals of what you want the student to

    walk away with whether you're working

    with them for a semester or for like 12

    years or however long you happen to be

    working with them depending on your

    teaching context

    the point is what is taught and what is

    explored or expressed within a classroom

    is often very different than the entire

    realm that can be done also known as the

    null curriculum the null curriculum is

    what is not taught inside of a classroom

    when it comes to computer science where

    you focus your attention can have a

    profound impact on students identities

    and ways of being how will this paper

    kind of explores that and talks about it

    so let's get into this a little bit more

    so this paper focuses on two main areas

    and this is a quote from page two quote

    one how within the discourses of an

    elementary computer science curriculum

    the identity of a CS person is presented

    and two which within the discourses of

    an elementary CS curriculum identities

    are shown as participating in CS or put

    in the language of early Elementary

    schoolers what fills in the blank for

    young children in the statement a CS

    person is someone who blank end quote

    now the course that they happen to be

    looking at is from code.org and this is

    for ages five through eight this is

    called course B so the next main section

    of this paper is on the conceptual

    framework and literature review so the

    first subsection is identity within

    computer science curriculum so they talk

    about how computer science curricula and

    course materials Etc can have a profound

    impact on shaping classroom pedagogies

    and as well as like student identity and

    whatnot here's an interesting quote from

    page three quote woven through these

    educational resources are discourses

    that have the power to affirm maintain

    or create new accepted understandings of

    Cs identity through their stated and

    implied examples of who is Slash what

    kind of persons actions and abilities

    are considered to be doing CS end quote

    and so the authors kind of cite some

    literature talking about how

    historically speaking CS kind of

    emphasizes some certain demographics and

    ways of being more than others if you're

    interested in learning more about that

    in a similar domain in maker culture

    check out podcast 18 which is the

    episode titled making through the lens

    of culture and power colon toward

    transformative Visions for educational

    Equity it's a really important paper

    that kind of like discusses some of the

    things that are mentioned here in fact

    the authors of this paper are citing

    that paper the next subsection in this

    area talks about critical discourse

    analysis and so the authors actually

    cite a variety of people that I've have

    studied like Fair Cloud G Etc like G I

    actually took a discourse analysis

    course from so critical discourse

    analysis kind of unpacks language

    discourse text whatever there's many

    different ways of doing this to kind of

    better understand some kind of a topic

    phenomena Etc there's a variety of

    approaches to discourse analysis whether

    it's critical discourse analysis there's

    also like I did Corpus the assisted

    discourse analysis for my dissertation

    which is more catered towards looking at

    a large corpora so I looked at 11

    million words of data and found patterns

    and then conducted a discourse analysis

    on those patterns of that data but then

    there's even discourse analysis that can

    be done on like body language it's a

    really fascinating field that is often

    not discussed when people think of

    research they think of qualitative

    research and quantitative research but

    what about Corpus assisted discourse

    analysis which is it is it qualitative

    is it quantitative like it's not really

    clear critical discourse analysis I kind

    of view is more of a separate entity

    from those two main categories that

    probably closer aligns to qualitative

    research than it is quantitative but it

    really depends on what kind of discourse

    analysis you're doing if you want to

    learn more about it I highly recommend

    checking out this little subsection or

    reading the methodology section of my

    dissertation which can be found in the

    publication section on my website and

    yes the dissertation is free so I'm not

    trying to sell you anything I will leave

    you with one more quote from page four

    this kind of summarizes this section so

    quote the discourse is found in

    educational resources construct and

    present subjectivity's specific

    perspectives convictions and beliefs

    around social political and economic

    relations of power and knowledge to

    students and critical discourse analysis

    is a useful tool in revealing these

    subjectivities and finding meaningful

    relationships between these resources

    and social practices now the next main

    section is on the framework and

    methodology so they talk about how they

    try to select different curricular

    materials and so they looked mainly at

    code.org and scratch Junior and they

    ultimately decided to go with code.org

    they explain why in that section and

    then they talk about well how did they

    do critical discourse analysis so if you

    want to learn more about that take a

    look at that I don't think that's

    necessarily interesting for this

    particular audience although I am a nerd

    and enjoyed reading through this because

    again I like discourse analysis I think

    it's a fascinating way to look at

    different things in society and actually

    highly recommend that the field of

    Computer Science Education actually

    explore discourse analysis techniques

    some more because there's a lot of

    really cool things that can be done

    related to equity work and unpacking

    like oppression and how we might uh

    improve things for different identities

    marginalized groups Etc so if you

    haven't taken a look at discourse

    analysis uh do some investigation learn

    some more about it I include a ton of

    links in my dissertation which again is

    available for free in the publication

    section or Linked In the show notes just

    go to chapter 3 which is the methodology

    section the next section is the findings

    so here are the four main themes that

    can be found this is from page five

    quote one a CS person is someone who is

    able to solve a puzzle correctly two a

    CS person is someone who persists

    through challenges three a CS person is

    someone who is connected to their

    feelings four a CS person is someone who

    works verbally with peers and Co now

    that may sound great but it also can be

    problematized again this is critical

    discourse analysis not just discourse

    analysis we're trying to critique things

    and really kind of understand some of

    the potential downsides to discourse so

    the first subsection under the findings

    is on a computer science person is

    someone who is able to solve a puzzle

    correctly so the authors talk about how

    this curricular unit basically leads

    students down a path where they are

    solving a series of puzzles that kind of

    increase in complexity from very simple

    to more complex depending on what is

    being introduced in that particular unit

    now the puzzles have one correct answer

    in order to solve it and the lesson

    plans and the curricular materials

    really emphasize the correct nature of

    solving these puzzles so if you solve a

    puzzle in a way that uses more blocks

    than you should then that is considered

    to be incorrect and so It'll ask you to

    redo this so that way you can solve it

    correctly and that's with like air

    quotes

    um correctly here's a quote from page

    six quote statements like this in the

    curriculum appear to normalize

    technocentric view of a CS person as

    someone who solves problems in a way

    that is devoid of significant variation

    in order to be correct end quote you

    might be like okay well that sounds fine

    like don't we want students to be able

    to solve problems yeah I agree we should

    here's a quote from page seven that we

    might need to consider quote these

    puzzles might not be culturally relevant

    to some students lives within code.org's

    course B when students are asked to

    complete puzzles that included people

    they were focusing largely on

    agricultural or rural themes asking

    students to create Loops to harvest corn

    to create a program to draw a garden or

    to mine stones with as few blocks as

    possible these types of activities do

    not make a connection to the lives of

    students living in non-rural or

    non-agricultural areas and make no

    effort to connect to others interests of

    students to give them agency or

    opportunity to see themselves as CS

    people end quote now if you listen to

    episode 150 which is titled fostering

    intersectional identities through

    rhizomatic learning you'll learn more

    about how John Stapleton and I kind of

    conceive of curriculum as an opportunity

    to engage in hyper local and

    hyper-individualized explorations of a

    domain in this case in computer science

    rather than making those so that

    everybody is solving the same puzzle in

    the same way what we encourage is

    creating projects or experiences or

    opportunities for expression that are

    individualized to each student while

    some students might be interested in

    this like rural or agricultural content

    other students might not so we need to

    give students the opportunity to explore

    variegated interests and if you want to

    learn more about that again check out

    episode 150 which I do link to in the

    show notes at geraldleary.com but I

    guess a main point from the authors

    might be that okay well solving problems

    is not inherently a bad thing but it's

    the kind of problems that are being

    solved if everybody's solving the same

    kind of a problem as opposed to people

    getting to choose what kind of problems

    they solve that might actually be

    relevant to themselves or the

    communities that they live in those are

    two very different things so on the

    surface it might be cool that students

    are learning to problem solve but if we

    look at how they are doing that it might

    not be it depends on the goals of

    yourself as an educator or the students

    that you you are working with right so

    the second main finding in this section

    a computer science person is someone who

    persists through challenges

    interestingly the authors note that it's

    one of the few words that students

    actually have to like verbally restate

    so in the lesson plans the students are

    asked to learn how to say the word

    persistence and the authors note that

    the lessons like frequently bring this

    word up while this might not be a bad

    thing to have persistence it's again

    going back to the null curriculum what

    other words are not being emphasized or

    what other ways of being are not being

    emphasized but unpack that a little bit

    more later in this episode so the next

    theme is a computer science person is

    someone who is connected to their

    feelings so the authors note that this

    curricular unit and the lessons are

    frequently asking kids to kind of like

    notice reflect on examine and share

    their feelings throughout the processes

    so as an example on page 10 they have a

    screenshot of the feeling faces which

    have like different basically like

    little smiley faces and a word

    underneath it so the words are these are

    the different feelings that you can

    select from are great good okay bad sad

    angry frustrated and confused now the

    office note that frustration is a

    feeling that is frequently brought up in

    the curricular units itself so here's an

    interesting quote from page nine this is

    a really good point quote the absence of

    attention to other emotions within the

    curriculum solidifies a single dominant

    Narrative of frustrated CS people within

    this curriculum other feelings that can

    be associated with cs such as excitement

    Joy or Pride are not mentioned in this

    text introduced by the teacher nor shown

    as feeling faces end quote a little bit

    further down quote thus a student who

    feels frustration while coding is doing

    CS but does not acknowledge students who

    find Joy or excitement in the creating

    and doing of coding end quote that's a

    really interesting point now I had a

    professor in a curriculum class it was

    talking about assessment and how that is

    interesting that we don't actually

    assess whether or not students enjoy the

    content that they are learning or the

    experiences that they are engaging in

    and that this is like really telling of

    the things that we are focusing on so

    the author is bringing up that hey joy

    and excitement is not a part of the

    feeling faces well that kind of like

    Narrows the scope of ways that students

    can express themselves or kind of see

    themselves as computer scientists now I

    will say as a practitioner one really

    quick way that you can kind of get

    around this limitation with this like

    narrow scope is just simply say what

    other feelings might you be experiencing

    that are not on the feeling faces card

    that you have so a student might be able

    to draw their own emoji face or they

    might be able to just verbally say I

    feel happy or I feel great or I feel

    bored or whatever the emotion is that

    might not be on the cards that they are

    using so my point is like yes this is an

    interesting point but we don't have to

    be limited by the choices that are given

    now the last theme that they uncover is

    that a computer science person is

    someone who verbally works with peers

    now having worked on standards and like

    used them a lot within the lesson plans

    that I've written or in developing

    standards like there are often one or

    more standards that are related to

    communicating and collaborating around

    Computing so whether you can communicate

    indicating the things that you worked on

    to other people or you were in

    collaboration with people who are

    working on similar projects or the same

    project most standards have that

    somewhere written in them so not only

    does this curriculum emphasize that but

    it might also be influenced by like the

    layer above which are the standards that

    often influence the curriculum that is

    then being taught in the classroom which

    then impacts what students learn within

    the classroom and again I talk about

    this more in some of the podcast

    episodes on curriculum integration and

    how there are different layers of

    curriculum that we can look at for

    example there's the intended curriculum

    there's the curriculum there's the

    experience curriculum there is the null

    curriculum the hidden curriculum like

    there's many different layers that you

    can get into if you want to nerd out on

    curricular Theory so check out episode

    and social integration Styles and their

    implications for computer science or

    check out episode 125 images of

    curriculum or episode 126 contemporary

    venues of curriculum inquiry all three

    of those are really interesting ways to

    you can consider curricula and

    curriculum integration and again I link

    to all of them in the show notes at

    jaredoleery.com now one of the other

    things that is really interesting that

    they point out is that the curriculum

    really emphasizes collaboration with

    peers so asking a peer for help rather

    than asking a teacher on one hand this

    makes it really easy for the teacher so

    that way they're not having to respond

    to every single question that might come

    up so that's kind of like just generally

    makes life easier but another way that

    you can look at that from a more

    critical view is that it makes it so

    that the teacher doesn't really need to

    know much to be able to solve these

    particular problems computer science

    curriculum is often criticized as like

    leaving the teacher out of things and

    making so that it's like oh look you

    don't even need a teacher you can just

    hire a paraprofessional at like half the

    cost and then they can run your computer

    science class well yeah that might be

    true depending on how you design the

    curriculum it really takes away the

    ability to adjust things individually

    for students because instead they're

    just following a curriculum like online

    and it's just that may or may not

    actually relate to students interests

    but if you do have somebody who is an

    expert in content area and expert in

    pedagogy once both of those things are

    combined then they can actually

    customize the learning experiences to

    each individual which again I talk about

    in other episodes and the alphabeters in

    this section by saying that hey this

    kind of can create a problem if students

    are unable to communicate in their own

    languages so it reinforces dominant

    language and then it can also have a

    negative impact on students with some

    disabilities if you want to learn more

    about that make sure you check out this

    section in the paper alright so the next

    section of this paper is the discussion

    section here's a quote from page 11.

    quote our analysis shows that the

    repertoires of Cs practice and the kinds

    of sales identities constructed and

    produced through activities behaviors

    and representations and code.org course

    B curricular materials present a

    somewhat narrow conception of the Cs

    person someone who collaborates in the

    dominant language persists through

    frustration while feeling little Joy or

    pride in their work and is able to

    correctly solve a puzzle in the same way

    as their peers end quote and the word

    correctly is in air quotes again you

    might be like well this isn't

    necessarily a bad thing they kind of

    unpack some of the perceived problems

    with this so here's a quote again from

    page 11 quote as vesogi at all argue if

    teachers respond to students frustration

    with an instance that students persist

    then teachers forfeit the opportunity to

    interpret these moments as an indication

    of what needs pedagogical attention or

    curricular change the broader context of

    educational Injustice therefore has

    consequences for how practices such as

    iteration are conceptualized and

    mediated end quote and a little bit

    further down on the same page quote by

    valuing only one preferred form of Cs

    practice or expression one which signals

    a particular form of a repertoire of Cs

    practice as a representative measure of

    learnness's CS engagement and identity

    this curriculum does not make space for

    a pluralistic understanding of Cs

    knowledge and coding end quote and

    pluralistic epistemologies and whatnot

    that is something from turkle and papert

    if you want to learn more about that

    there are is a link to that paper in the

    publication itself in the references

    these are some really interesting points

    that resonates with me again gone back

    to that paper that I talked about with

    fostering intersectional identities that

    collaborated with John Stapleton on we

    really emphasize the importance of hyper

    local educational experiences where

    students are able to go in whatever

    Direction they'd like to explore through

    with guidance from peers from teachers

    from resources Etc but they ultimately

    choose where they are going what they

    are working on in the past they take to

    get there this is very different than

    what you can do with the curriculum

    where everybody is solving the same

    puzzle in the same way by emphasizing

    frustration on one hand from a

    curriculum development standpoint it

    might be useful for teachers who are

    brand new to go oh this is expected that

    students are going to get frustrated

    this isn't just going to be sunshine and

    rainbows the entire time they're working

    on this curricular unit but on the other

    hand it's a really important point that

    teachers and students are unable to

    modify the puzzles that they're

    exploring and the problems they are

    trying to solve to match the frustration

    level or the ability level of students

    who are working on the computer science

    projects or puzzles rather so in the

    final section the conclusion the authors

    basically End by saying hey we need to

    have more epistemologically pluralistic

    identities and again this deciding

    turtle and pampert so you can read more

    about this if you're interested in that

    maybe I'll actually read that particular

    paper and do an unpacking scholarship

    episode down the road stay tuned but

    here's a quote that I want to leave you

    with on page 12. quote if the curriculum

    asks for teachers to privilege dominant

    neurocentric repertoires of Cs practice

    as the only legitimate Act of doing of

    computer science we run the risk of

    devaluing but a diverse and complex ways

    of doing being and knowing that are

    present in our classrooms end quote

    that's a great quote I love it it

    actually leads into the next section

    which these unpacking scholarship

    episodes I like to talk about some

    lingering questions and thoughts that I

    have when reading a paper so the first

    question that I have is if researchers

    were to analyze the discourse you use

    when teaching what themes might emerge

    and I don't mean that in a judgmental

    way I mean you could actually do this

    I've done it myself where I would go

    back in can like look at the transcript

    of like a lesson that I taught and then

    be like oh wow I really focus on this

    thing or I really talk about this thing

    in a very specific way and kind of

    unpack some of the things that are

    intentionally or unintentionally left

    out and problematize should those things

    have been in there whether it be like

    different practices or different

    identities or whatever but a follow-up

    question to that might be how might that

    compare or contrast with your own

    philosophy of education so one of the

    things that like you might realize if

    you were to analyze your own teaching is

    that your own understanding of education

    and your philosophy behind that might

    not necessarily align with the things

    you are doing instead what you might be

    doing is how you were taught both the

    good and bad things sometimes I'd

    realize that when a student was like I

    don't want to do this thing and I'd sit

    back and look at it and go well why am I

    making them do that I go oh wait that

    doesn't actually align with the

    educational philosophy that I have it

    actually aligns with just what I am used

    to and what I know it's not necessarily

    A Bad Thing That kind of makes it easier

    for from an educator standpoint but from

    a student's standpoint it's not very

    interesting so my educational philosophy

    centers around student individualized

    interest and happen to be teaching

    one-on-one in a group context which I

    often describe as facilitating if you

    want to learn more about that check out

    the podcasts that are tagged with

    interest driven learning which I will

    link to in the show notes at

    jaredolary.com now another question that

    I have that I think would be interesting

    to actually explore is how might the

    curriculum developers respond to this

    article so as a former curriculum

    developer and a former classroom

    educator I can say that I understand the

    perspectives of the authors like totally

    makes sense but I also understand that

    there are so many things that are

    intentionally designed into or left out

    of curriculum that people who are

    reading it might not understand so from

    a curriculum development standpoint what

    context could the developers provide or

    things might they elaborate on that the

    authors missed it truly is fascinating

    at times like having developed hundreds

    of lessons that have been used by tens

    of thousands of teachers around the

    world the amount of times that I've

    actually walked into a classroom or a

    conference session where somebody is

    teaching a lesson that I wrote and

    seeing them teach it in a way that I

    really wouldn't do myself and tried to

    not encourage in the lesson itself but

    they're doing it that way anyways so

    even though I tried to over emphasize

    like interest driven learning I've seen

    people teach some of my lessons in a

    very rote way where everybody recreates

    the exact same project that I

    demonstrated in a video Even though I

    will explicitly say make your own

    version of this how would you change it

    Etc so maybe the author has missed

    something but another way of looking at

    it is thinking of how the curriculum

    developers might have been catering this

    to a very specific targeted audience and

    the audience of code.org at that grade

    level most likely are Educators who have

    not taught computer science before so

    how much of this was trying to help

    those teachers understand what it looks

    like when a student so-called succeeds

    in a computer science class or in a

    problem Etc I say this because new to CS

    teachers often go well I don't know what

    it means to be a successful computer

    science student and that's very fair

    judgment that's really good reflection

    so maybe the developers are trying to

    hold the hand a little bit more then

    they might have for teachers who have

    been teaching computer science for quite

    some time but I don't know another

    question that I have related to that is

    what other themes would you add so if

    you were to look at code.org's

    curriculum what are the themes might the

    authors have missed or that you might

    elaborate on or add to for example some

    curricula could emphasize computer

    science is something kids can learn but

    only if taught by a computer science

    expert outside of the classroom or maybe

    a theme that students might learn is

    that computer science is something that

    everybody does at the same Pace to solve

    or recreate the same solution to the

    same problem or that computer science

    isn't used to solve problems relevant to

    the learner or the community that they

    live in or simply that computer science

    solve small problems that exist in

    isolation from a web of interconnected

    problems these are all other themes that

    might emerge from looking at the same

    curriculum or just like expanding Beyond

    onco.org so I'm not trying to bash on

    them some fantastic people who work

    there but just puzzle-based Platforms in

    general that are focused on

    problem-based learning might have all

    those themes and more but the last slot

    that I have kind of builds off of that

    so I think a big part of the critique is

    inherent in the epistemological

    underpinnings of the curriculum itself

    so the curriculum forco.org at that

    grade level is from an outside

    perspective is this designed to make it

    easy for a teacher to get started not to

    teach the teacher how to collaboratively

    develop individually meaningful projects

    with students that's a very different

    approach so such an approach takes a lot

    of time for teachers and it's just

    completely different design for the

    curricular materials and themselves then

    what is evident on code.org's website

    again I don't say this as a critique as

    it has helped many people get started

    with computer science education but to

    point out that this curriculum serves as

    an important purpose despite the

    critique that I agree with that the

    authors do make so I present a critique

    and a very useful tool and say that they

    both are one and the same code.org has

    some great stuff in it some great

    content but as with any curriculum

    there's things that are left out of it

    the more you try and like fine-tune

    whatever it is that you're crafting into

    your curricular content and make it more

    of a one-size-fits all the less likely

    it's going to be useful to everybody

    that you're working with I know that

    there are a lot of really

    well-intentioned curricular providers

    that are out there that are doing some

    different things to try and engage

    teachers and students Etc but I will say

    that a lot of those providers are doing

    in a way tries to make it easier for the

    teacher while that sounds great in the

    short term what it's really doing is

    making it so that the teacher is Reliant

    upon the curricular materials developed

    by Outsiders this makes it so that you

    cannot create curricular content that is

    bespoke that is custom made for each

    individual that you're working with in

    your classroom or classes and it's

    basically the idea of giving a person a

    fish rather than teaching a person how

    to fish in this case giving a teacher a

    lesson plan rather than teaching them

    how to create a lesson plan with their

    own content knowledge and pedagogical

    knowledge and community and individual

    knowledge of the students that they are

    working with that to me is the ideal way

    to kind of craft and create curricular

    content I tried to do that in the lesson

    plans that I previously created I tried

    to make it so that here is a model not a

    mandate you can take a look at the

    project that I made and learn how I did

    that cool now do it in your own context

    don't like this project fine there's

    like 30 more that you can pick from to

    be able to work through on your own at

    your own pace using the resources that I

    have developed it makes it so that it's

    easy for the teacher to be able to get

    up and running but it also encourages

    the teacher to customize every single

    project to be able to like Express

    themselves and then to use that to talk

    to students about how they can customize

    these projects to make their own unique

    projects in whatever platform you are

    doing you can't really do this with

    puzzle-based Platformers which is why I

    personally prefer project-based

    platforms like scratch and scratch

    Junior but there's a place for all of

    these and depending on whatever your

    educational goals are or learning goals

    are as either a teacher or a student so

    again not trying to bash on anyone at

    code.org or any of the other like puzzle

    based Platformers out there I understand

    that there are many ways to engage in

    education and I respect them I just have

    my own preferences for the courses that

    I've designed and the classes that I've

    facilitated and the materials that I've

    made for different contacts whether it's

    Computer Science Education or music

    education if you enjoyed this particular

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    science drumming and gaming content on

    my website jaredalary.com but stay tuned

    next week for another podcast until then

    I hope you're all staying safe and are

    having a wonderful week

Article

Richard, E., & Kayumova, S. (2022). Examining Early Elementary Computer Science Identity Repertoires within a Curriculum: Implications for Epistemologically Pluralistic Identities. Journal of Computer Science Integration, 5(1): 2, pp. 1–14. DOI: https://doi.org/10.26716/jcsi.2022.12.30.36


Abstract

“As computer science (CS) enters an increasing number of elementary classrooms, researchers must investigate the representations of what kinds of people are presented as doing computer science within CS curricula. In this paper, we explore a widely used, freely accessible, web-based, early elementary CS curriculum to examine the kinds of identity repertoires (behaviors, actions, skills, and socioemotional norms) that are promoted as representative of being/becoming a CS person. More specifically, we draw on identity studies and employ critical discourse analysis to examine how the kinds of norms and repertoires of CS practice made available in the curricular materials might construct a particular account of experiences as representative of being and enacting identities in computer science, and in doing so, produce certain accounts of who a CS person is. Our analysis shows that the curricular materials may construct an identity of a computer science person as someone who is able to solve a puzzle correctly, persist through challenges, connect to their feelings, and work with peers. While this curriculum promotes skills, norms, and repertoires of CS practice aligned with state standards, our findings suggest that it does not appear to present varied and flexible notions of what it means to engage in or be/become a CS person.”


Author Keywords

Computer science education, elementary education, curriculum studies, STEM, identity development, critical discourse analysis


My One Sentence Summary

This paper analyzes how a curriculum can implicitly communicate what computer scientists do.


Some Of My Lingering Questions/Thoughts

  • If researchers were to analyze the discourse you use when teaching, what themes might emerge?

    • How might that compare/contrast with your own philosophy of education?

  • How might the curriculum developers respond to this article?

    • What context could the provide or things might they elaborate on that the authors missed?

    • What other themes would you add?

  • I think a big part of the critique is inherent in the epistemological underpinnings of the curriculum itself


Resources/Links Relevant to This Episode



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