When Twice as Good Isn't Enough: The Case for Cultural Competence in Computing

In this episode I unpack Washington's (2020) paper titled "When twice as good isn't enough: The case for cultural competence in computing," which explores the five elements and six stages of cultural competence in relation to undergraduate computing programs.

  • Welcome back to another episode of the

    CSK8 podcast my name is Jared O'Leary in

    this week's episode I'm unpacking some

    scholarship in particular I'm unpacking

    the paper titled when twice as good

    isn't enough the case for cultural

    competence in computing this is written

    by Nikki Washington and it's actually

    one of the papers that Shuchi grover

    recommended in last week's episode as

    always you can find a direct link to

    this paper in the show notes which can

    be found in the app that you're

    listening to this on simply clicking on

    the link in the description or by

    visiting jared O'Leary com where there's

    nothing for sale just a bunch of free

    content and when you do visit the show

    notes just know that when you click on

    Nikki Washington's name under the

    citation it will send you directly to

    there's Google Scholar profile and if

    you click on the papers title it'll take

    you directly to the publication itself

    which you can download if you are an ACM

    member alright so let's begin by reading

    the abstract for this paper quote the

    commonly documented diversity equity and

    inclusion Dei issues in computing

    workforce are the direct result of

    corporate cultures that benefit specific

    groups and marginalize others this

    culture usually begins in undergraduate

    computing departments where the

    demographic representation meres that of

    industry with no formal courses that

    focus on the non-technical issues

    affecting marginalized groups and how to

    address and eradicate them students are

    indirectly taught that the current

    status quo in computing departments in

    industry is not only acceptable but also

    unproblematic this directly affects

    students from marginalized groups as the

    reasons for attrition are similar in

    both higher education industry as well

    as faculty as bias student evaluations

    directly affect hiring promotion and

    tenure decisions this position paper

    presents the need for cultural

    competence as a required focus for

    university computing departments

    nationwide by improving these issues

    before students complete baccalaureate

    computing degrees companies will have

    talent pools that better understand the

    importance and necessity of Dei and also

    work to ensure they help foster a more

    diverse equitable and inclusive

    environment

    addition more students from marginalized

    groups will be retained in the major

    through degree completion unquote Rada

    summarizes paper into a single sentence

    I would say that it unpacks the five

    elements of cultural competence and the

    six stages of cultural competence in

    relation to undergraduate computing

    programs although this paper focuses

    specifically on undergraduate programs

    and what university professors can do

    I'm going to talk about some of the

    potential implications in relation to

    k-12 education alright so at the

    university computing departments there

    are now courses related to ethics of

    computing or ethics in computing however

    Washington states that quote the

    overwhelming majority of these courses

    focused primarily on the societal and

    legal impacts of topics such as the

    Internet privacy intellectual property

    and cyber crime unquote and that quote

    is from page 213 so instead of thinking

    about the ethics in relation to equity

    and social justice related issues

    instead focusing on like privacy and

    cybersecurity so Washington is

    suggesting that we actually expand

    beyond this and include course offerings

    related to equity by specifically

    focusing on something called cultural

    competence alright so here's a quote

    from page 213 that kind of explains why

    this is important hope without direct

    and intentional inclusion of this topic

    including meaningful and impactful

    discussions on race gender

    intersectionality bias discrimination

    and their impact on people in technology

    in the majority white and Asian

    male-dominated classes of new computing

    graduates enter organizations where the

    established corporate culture favored

    their beliefs practices and identities

    include so in other words if we don't

    talk about this in the undergraduate

    level and then graduates are going to go

    into corporations and industry settings

    and kind of perpetuate this some of the

    biases related to white and Asian male

    dominated cultures all right so let's

    unpack what cultural competence is so

    Washington mentions that cultural

    competence came out of Social Work and

    Counseling Psychology and here's a quote

    an embedded quote on page 214 that kind

    of summarizes what cultural calm

    sentence is oat a set of congruent

    behaviors attitudes and policies that

    come together in a system agency or

    among professionals and enable that

    system agency or those professionals to

    work effectively in cross-cultural

    situations the word culture is used

    because it implies the integrated

    pattern of human behavior that includes

    thoughts communications actions customs

    beliefs values and institutions of a

    racial ethnic religious or social group

    the word competence is used because it

    implies having the capacity to function

    effectively in quote s from page 214 so

    in this paper and in that definition

    culture is used to refer to different

    social constructs such as race ethnicity

    gender sexual orientation religious

    affiliation etc that's from page 214 so

    following this introduction of what

    cultural competence is Washington

    outlines five of the key elements that

    make up cultural competence so the first

    one is valuing diversity which quote

    means people understand appreciate and

    respect it's worth unquote now an

    important thing to note about valuing

    diversity is that Washington points out

    that quote a diverse environment can

    still lack inclusion especially when

    individuals in key positions refuse to

    address systemic issues such as micro

    and macro aggressions bias and

    discrimination which are common in

    computing and tech environments in quote

    best from page 214 now this is important

    to note you will have heard some people

    in previous interviews and interviews

    that have not been released yet kind of

    talking about some of these things in

    terms of like the micro macro

    aggressions or systems of oppression in

    education that either are designed to or

    unintentionally and cause harm or forms

    of violence so we as educators shouldn't

    just value diversity in terms of like

    understanding and appreciating it we

    also need to be inclusive in our

    settings and so some of the previous

    podcast guests that have been on the

    show I've mentioned they like to have

    students go out and recruit other

    students so that way there's a variety

    of voices who are sharing the message of

    what computer science can offer to them

    in the classes that are available in

    your school and hopefully reach

    populations that you as a single

    individual would not be able to do on

    your own okay so the second element of

    cultural competence is cultural

    self-assessment so this process is quote

    accurately and exhaustively assessing

    one's current beliefs against current

    practices one my valued diversity and

    still display bias and discriminatory

    behavior encode so one of the interviews

    that has not been released yet and will

    come out later a guest mentions that

    while they are actively working on

    incorporating anti-racist practices in

    their classroom they are still

    unintentionally displaying biases and

    discriminatory behaviors that can be

    described as racism if that sounds

    alarming it should be for one but two it

    is a result of biases that are

    unconscious that are simply being

    acknowledged and this guest is

    personally working through them as we

    all hopefully are and if further clarify

    this episode that will release a few

    weeks from now the guest considers

    themselves to be a co-conspirator not

    just an outline but someone who is

    willing to put their body in harm's way

    to help somebody else however they are

    still acknowledging that they have

    biases because they are engaging in

    these self assessments and realize that

    sometimes biases and discriminatory

    behaviors emerge even when they are

    actively trying their best to not do

    that so something that I encourage for

    everybody else and I am also

    participating in it is that constant

    cultural self-assessment okay so the

    third element of cultural competence is

    management of dynamics of difference so

    here's an embedded quote from page 214

    quote when a system of one culture

    interacts with a population from another

    both may misjudge the other's actions

    based on learn expectations unquote so

    not only do we need to reflect upon and

    assess our own cultural biases and

    understandings we also need to think

    about how our understandings and our

    ways of being in cultures intersect and

    interact with other cultures in ways

    that might be unintended or be perceived

    as problematic now obviously this is

    very hard to do so some of the guests

    that I have spoken with about similar

    topics have recommended going into these

    confer

    sessions with humility and willingness

    to learn and just know that you are

    going to make mistakes and instead of

    hiding from those mistakes or denying

    them - instead stick with it and

    continue the conversation even when it

    gets uncomfortable and simply

    acknowledge how you have unintentionally

    made somebody feel and actively find

    ways to work through that and grow from

    that experience and I say that as

    somebody who has unintentionally

    insulted other people because of

    cultural differences it has been

    uncomfortable and I have learned from

    those experiences

    okay so element for institutionalization

    of cultural knowledge so Washington

    points out that you can't simply go to

    like a webinar or a PD session and then

    suddenly become woke and Wow all of a

    sudden I know everything that I need to

    know about a particular culture it's not

    gonna happen this needs to be an ongoing

    process and it needs to happen over an

    extended period of time so this is not

    even something that you can do in a

    semester by taking a single course on

    this if you are taking a course related

    to cultural competence and similar

    topics yeah you might learn a lot

    through that experience but this is an

    ongoing thing and one of the reasons why

    is because culture is constantly

    changing and evolving so we need to stay

    on top of those changes so as an example

    think of a place that you visited that

    you've only visited one time and maybe

    you went there maybe 10 20 years ago and

    if you were to go back today and kind of

    compare how the place differs in terms

    of this culture and the ways that people

    are interacting and the way that the

    environment is set up etc it's likely

    going to be very different in ways that

    you might not have predicted

    so because culture is constantly

    changing we as individuals need to

    constantly try and continue to learn and

    grow and adapt by constantly seeking to

    understand these changes in different

    cultures now one thing that Washington

    points out is that we can't become the

    cultural bears for cultures that we are

    not a part of so we need to seek out

    individuals from different cultures and

    have them be the main contributors of

    those conversations when it comes to

    different questions and concerns about a

    particular call

    so the final element of cultural

    competence is adaption to diversity now

    an example that's given by Washington is

    that quote just as individuals from

    different cultures have different

    beliefs and experiences organizations

    and individuals should ensure that their

    cultural competence values respects and

    addresses the needs of all individuals

    in quote that's from page 215 so even

    though that's the last element I think

    it is a very important one we need to

    ensure that the things that we are doing

    as individuals and in organizations that

    we work with that we all reflect a

    diverse set of needs okay so in the next

    section Washington outlines some stages

    of cultural competence and there are six

    stages the first one is cultural

    destructiveness the second one is

    cultural incapacity the third one is

    cultural blindness the fourth one is

    cultural pre competence the fifth one is

    cultural competence and the sixth one is

    cultural proficiency so let's unpack

    what each of those are okay so the first

    one cultural destructiveness so cultural

    destructiveness is when your ways of

    paying your ways of acting and engaging

    with other cultures are destructive to

    that culture or to the individuals

    within a particular culture so some

    examples that were given by Washington

    are homophobia misogyny and white

    supremacy those examples are given on

    page 215 in stage two in cultural

    incapacity this stage has people in it

    who are not necessarily trying to be

    destructive but are unable to actually

    provide help to marginalized groups now

    some examples of cultural incapacity

    includes some of the fears that some

    people have around other cultures and

    how those can extend into different

    hiring practices or microaggressions or

    expectations of other cultures and

    groups of people all right so the third

    stage is cultural blindness so this is

    characterized primarily by assimilation

    and ignoring different strengths of

    different cultures so for example

    instead of

    highlighting encouraging differences

    being shared across different cultures

    we instead trying to homogenized

    everything by getting marginalized

    groups to all conform to the dominant

    culture so this is equivalent to people

    who are saying I don't see color

    everyone's the same to me

    and the denial that you have bias which

    by the way I'll include a link in the

    show notes to an unconscious bias test

    that you can take in a variety of

    different categories to actually learn

    more about some of the biases that you

    do have so for example I took a couple

    of them and found out that I had some

    biases that I was aware of as well as

    some others that are surprised about now

    one of the interesting things that's

    related to this particular stage is

    there can be a lot of victim blaming in

    terms of not understanding why some

    people from different cultures are

    unable to assimilate or align with the

    dominant cultures and success is viewed

    within this stage as quote how closely

    marginalized groups can approximate

    middle class non-minority existence in

    quote s from page 215 okay now we're

    going to move on to the more positive

    side of this continuum or stages so the

    fourth stage is cultural pre competence

    so this is the stage where I think a lot

    of people are in right now in terms of

    what's going on with learning more and

    trying to do something in particular

    related to racism in education

    and in society so cultural pre

    competence involves people who are

    making intentional efforts from an

    organizational level they might be

    hiring intentionally for diverse

    perspectives and experiences however in

    this stage it can stop here with this

    false sense of accomplishment that

    Washington describes or even a tokenism

    of different cultures or marginalized

    groups because the table doesn't

    actually respect in value cultures it's

    just learning more and understanding

    about them but not necessarily playing

    to those strengths in stage five however

    which is called cultural competence

    here's a quote from page 215 quote

    organizations actively hire unbiased

    employees constantly work to improve

    practices and seek the expertise of

    marginalized groups to better assess how

    to meet their needs many components of

    the stage include an understanding of

    the effects of policy on practice and

    actively working to ensure that enacted

    policies support a diverse and inclusive

    environment in quote so it's not enough

    to just learn about different cultures

    and to be an ally for different cultures

    you need to actively reflect upon the

    different practices and policies that

    can impact having a diverse and

    inclusive environment one of the things

    that I would argue against though is

    actively trying to hire unbiased

    employees again I think is impossible

    because we all have these unconscious

    biases that being said I think hiring

    people who are actively exploring their

    unconscious biases is something that can

    definitely be done all right so the last

    stage is called cultural proficiency so

    this involves organizations who are just

    constantly trying to find diverse

    perspectives and experiences and people

    and are constantly re-evaluating what

    they're doing ok so what does this have

    to do with computer science education so

    the remainder of this paper Washington

    kind of outlines some different ways

    that using cultural competence can

    impact si s education

    so the first outline that Washington

    gives is on page 216 and it is quote

    appropriately respond to current and

    projected demographic changes and quote

    so in particular in this section

    Washington

    describes how the United

    is going to be changing demographically

    over the next few decades in terms of

    percentage of people by race percentage

    of people by ability to speak more than

    one language percentage of immigrants

    etc and Washington particularly outlines

    some of the demographics of race in

    relation to faculty members and students

    in computing degrees and in particular

    when speaking of nationwide demographics

    of students and faculties in computing

    courses and degree programs we need to

    have them aligned to the demographics of

    the United States so the second reason

    for encouraging cultural competence in

    computing courses and undergraduate

    programs is to quote eliminate

    long-standing income disparities from

    diverse backgrounds in quote so in

    particular Washington points out that

    computer science majors earn more money

    than other majors or people with high

    school degrees which if we read between

    the lines we can look at this and go

    okay this could be a way of helping

    elevate people out of poverty or low

    socioeconomic status the next rationale

    that Washington mentions also on the

    same page 216 is quote improved

    Technology Development to account for

    differences in quote so in particular

    Washington mentions that there's a lot

    of research that talks about bias in

    related to algorithms and such as fake

    facial recognition programs or even

    infrared sensors for hand-washing etc

    some of the things that we've talked

    about in previous episodes and even some

    of the upcoming episodes and how having

    a diverse set of computer scientists in

    an organization or a company or in a

    school can help prevent some of those

    algorithmic biases so the next rationale

    is specifically around how there are

    more jobs available right now than there

    are qualified people to actually fill

    them in relation to stem and computer

    science in particular so by broadening

    our scope of the typical students who

    kind of go into these programs we might

    be able to help fill this gap and the

    fifth rationale is quote improved

    retention of students and employees from

    marginalized groups unquote so there

    have been studies that have demonstrated

    that students in schools and even

    students in some organizations have

    left because they felt like they did not

    belong in the particular culture so for

    example I've had multiple colleagues and

    friends who have come to Arizona from

    other states and they felt like the

    culture that they are used to and that

    they love and embody are not represented

    within the Southwest in particular in

    the Phoenix area so they have felt a

    little out of place and some of them

    have actually left the valley because of

    this so having a more diverse set of

    cultures within the organization or the

    school or the company might help out

    with retention and the final rationale

    is that that might result in a decrease

    in lawsuits related to discrimination

    complaints okay so Washington concludes

    this section by basically saying look if

    we don't talk about this stuff in our

    undergraduate classes then when they go

    into industry setting and start working

    as si as professionals then they're

    likely not going to question some of the

    expectations and norms set by some of

    the more dominant cultures that exist

    within industry settings so Washington

    mentions a course called

    race gender and computing and it's

    broken down into three parts in

    particular and again this is an

    undergraduate course and I'm gonna

    unpack here in a moment what could this

    look like in elementary setting so the

    first part was just kind of getting some

    of the basics of terminology related to

    quote race ethnicity bias

    microaggressions marginalization and

    historically disenfranchised groups

    through various articles publications

    and current events related to the topics

    in quote that's from page 217 the next

    part of this course was to then have

    students focus on biases as they present

    themselves in technology as I mentioned

    like some of a facial recognition bias

    and infrared biases with hand-washing

    stations things like that and then the

    final portion of this course involves a

    presentation of a reflection of things

    that were learned over the course of the

    semester

    all right so Washington in the

    conclusion points out that quote

    regardless of institution type the three

    C program should be required for all

    computing undergraduates nationwide

    enclose that's from page 218

    all right so I think this is very

    important to note because just because

    we might be working in locations where

    the majority of the students who are

    there are from marginalized groups it

    doesn't mean that we shouldn't talk

    about this though regardless of what

    school you're in we need to be engaging

    with this so this leads to some of my

    lingering questions so in each one of

    these unpacking scholarship episodes I

    like to kind of share some of the

    questions or thoughts that I had after

    reading their particular paper which I

    really enjoyed this paper and I hope you

    go and read it but here's one of my

    first questions so how my k-12 CS

    educators adapt the structure of the

    race gender and computing course so in

    particular what kind of actionable

    project could apply understandings at

    the culmination of the course so I like

    the idea of like exploring some of the

    topics in terms of unpacking what does a

    microaggression mean what does a

    marginalization mean etc and learning

    more about that then I really like the

    part two we're kind of situates those

    into industry related stuff or in the

    k-12 setting it could just simply be

    situating it into concepts and practices

    that are part of the computer science

    standards that you are using in your

    school and then part three I like that

    it's a reflection on understandings and

    kind of sharing how your understandings

    have maybe changed over time after

    learning more about the different

    terminology and learning about how such

    forms of oppression or violence exist in

    technology in the design of Technology

    but I think a part four in particular

    for k-12 settings could be okay now that

    you were reflected on this what can you

    actively do to help improve people's

    lives either in your own life or the

    lives of other people in your community

    or beyond them so while I think it is

    definitely important to include a course

    like this at the undergraduate level for

    anyone who is intending on getting a

    degree in computer science I honestly

    think that we could integrate these

    practices and ways of unpacking systems

    of oppression and just learning how to

    better understand and elevate different

    cultures and perspectives and ways of

    being all this can be done within a k-12

    setting and in any kind of classroom

    doesn't have to just be computer science

    so my challenge to all the other k12 CS

    educators and even the undergraduate and

    graduate research is out there is try

    and find some ways that you can

    incorporate cultural competence and the

    classrooms that you're working with or

    even what I talked about two weeks ago

    culturally relevant pedagogy which if

    you haven't listened to that episode I

    highly recommend it or even some of the

    other concepts that are going to come up

    in future interviews such as critical

    race theory and better understanding

    double consciousness etc which if you

    don't know those terms don't worry

    future interview is going to talk about

    that now the last question relate to

    this article that I have is how do the

    enrollment demographics for 2020 CS

    programs differ from a few years ago and

    the reason why I asked is because there

    has been a huge push or k12 C s

    initiatives in the last several years

    and this has pushed this ban on related

    to CS for all trying to get everybody

    into computing but I'm wondering have

    the percentages of incoming freshmen in

    computer science programs changed as a

    result of this so we've had several

    years now where kids have had the

    opportunity or at least the increased

    opportunity to learn computer science

    and across the board are we seeing any

    changes in enrollment and if so why and

    if not why all right so those are just

    kind of main questions and ours having

    after reading through this paper which

    again I highly recommend you check out

    so if you are a member of ACM go into

    the show notes and click right on the

    title of this paper and it will take you

    directly to it and you can download the

    PDF to read it I hope you enjoyed

    listening to this episode stay tuned

    next week for another interview and then

    two weeks from now we're going to have

    another unpacking scholarship episode I

    hope you're all staying safe and healthy

    in our hope you are having a wonderful

    week

Article

Washington, A. N. (2020). When Twice as Good Isn’t Enough: The Case for Cultural Competence in Computing. Proceedings of the 51st ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE ’20), 213–219.


Abstract

“The commonly documented diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) issues in the computing workforce are the direct result of corporate cultures that benefit specific groups and marginalize others. This culture usually begins in undergraduate computing departments, where the demographic representation mirrors that of industry. With no formal courses that focus on the non-technical issues affecting marginalized groups and how to address and eradicate them, students are indirectly taught that the current status quo in computing departments and industry is not only acceptable, but also unproblematic. This directly affects students from marginalized groups (as the reasons for attrition are similar in both higher education and industry), as well as faculty (as biased student evaluations directly affect hiring, promotion, and tenure decisions). This position paper presents the need for cultural competence as a required focus for university computing departments nationwide. By improving these issues before students complete baccalaureate computing degrees, companies will have talent pools that better understand the importance and necessity of DEI and also work to ensure they help foster a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment. In addition, more students from marginalized groups will be retained in the major through degree completion.”


Author Keywords

Cultural competence, computing, diversity, inclusion, race, gender


My One Sentence Summary

This paper unpacks the five elements of cultural competence and the six stages of cultural competence in relation to undergraduate computing programs.


Some Of My Lingering Questions/Thoughts

  • How might K-12 CS educators adapt the structure of the “Race, Gender, and Computing” course?

    • What kind of actionable project could apply understandings at the culmination of the course?

  • How do the enrollment demographics for 2020 CS programs differ from a few years ago?


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