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.

  • Welcome back to another episode of the

    CSK8 podcast my name is jared o'leary

    each week of the podcast has been

    alternating between an interview with a

    guest or multiple guests and a solo

    episode where unpack some scholarship

    in this week's particular episode i am

    unpacking the paper titled

    diversity barriers and k-12 computer

    science education

    goldman structural and social

    now this paper was written by jennifer

    wang and seppere hijazi moghadam

    apologies if i mispronounced names

    here's the abstract for this particular

    paper

    quote as computer science cs education

    expands at the k-12 level

    we must be careful to ensure that cs

    neither exacerbates existing equity gaps

    in education

    nor hinders efforts to diversify the

    field of cs

    in this paper we discuss structural and

    social barriers that influence blacks

    hispanics and girls based on surveys of

    and 2 307 superintendents in the united

    states

    we find that despite high interest in cs

    among black and hispanic students and

    parents

    these students experience greater

    structural barriers in accessing

    computers and cs classes than white

    students

    and while girls have the same access as

    boys social barriers exist with girls

    reporting

    lower awareness of cs opportunities

    outside of classes

    less encouragement from teachers and

    parents and less exposure to cs role

    models in the media

    it is critical for expanding cs

    opportunities to address the unique

    issues for each group

    end quote as always you can find a

    direct link to this paper in the show

    notes and if you click on the author

    last names it'll

    take you to their google scholar profile

    where you can read more publications

    that they have written

    to find those you can go to

    jaredaler.com and click on the podcast

    tab

    or simply clicking the link in the

    description on the app that you're

    listening to this on

    all right so in the introduction and

    relevance section of this paper the

    authors are describing how

    cs is a relatively new subject area

    in k-12 education and i would add

    especially in the elementary areas

    and because it is not required for every

    student to take this class

    it can create some gaps in terms of who

    ends up taking it or who knows they can

    take this kind of course

    and why so for example the authors

    mentioned quote

    blacks and hispanics make up 13.3

    percent and 17.6 percent of the us

    population

    end quote that's from page 615

    however when we look at the ap computer

    science a tests in 2015 we see that

    quote

    only 3.9 percent were black and 9.2

    percent were hispanic

    end quote and they also included lower

    pass rates within those groups

    the authors also mentioned that among

    women there's been a drop

    in enrollment numbers in like university

    courses for computer

    science so for example in 1984 37

    of cs degree earners were women

    but at the time of this publication only

    were cs degree owners in addition going

    back to the ap

    test results only 21.9 of

    students were women now the authors note

    that there are many

    social influences that can inform

    whether somebody wants to go into it so

    for example

    parents may encourage some students to

    go into a field

    or area of study or end up discouraging

    them in addition teachers can also do

    that

    or even just general social perceptions

    so for example how people

    are portrayed in media and have an

    influence on it so as i've talked about

    in previous podcasts if

    only white or asian males are portrayed

    as computer scientists

    then people might look at those examples

    of media and say oh well i don't see

    myself in there because i don't identify

    as a white or asian male

    so quote the purpose of this study was

    to better understand the existing

    context

    and barriers in order to inform efforts

    to broaden participation

    in quote okay so that quote was from

    page 616.

    so the methods section of this

    particular paper highlights

    how they obtained all the data for this

    there's a variety of data sources as i

    mentioned in the abstract

    they interviewed a bunch of students

    parents teachers principals and

    superintendents

    these interviews were about 10 minutes

    in length over the phone but then

    specifically with the principals and

    superintendents they had web-based

    survey that were filled out

    all of the results were weighted to kind

    of account for different things

    for example matching like age gender

    education

    race ethnicity etc depending on location

    in the united states

    so this is supposed to give a sampling

    of information or perspectives from

    across the united states specifically

    around the

    structural and social barriers or

    diversity

    all right so here is the very first

    paragraph on the results section

    this is from page 617 quote we found

    that the structural barriers in

    access and exposure to cs and technology

    were varied for blacks

    hispanics and whites while social

    barriers of perceptions

    and encouragement were not seen to be

    differentiating factors by race or

    ethnicity

    on the other hand social barriers seemed

    to be stronger for girls while

    structural barriers did not differ

    significantly by gender

    unquote alright so i gotta admit while

    reading through this results section i

    highlighted pretty much the entire

    section so i'm gonna do my best to not

    repeat back everything because i do

    recommend that you actually go and read

    this paper

    and i'm going to kind of highlight some

    of the results that really stood out

    or were a particular interest to me it

    might be helpful

    to you and your classroom or the kids

    that you work with

    so when it came to interest in computer

    science it was interesting that they

    found that 31

    of black and 35 percent of hispanic

    students

    indicated that they're interested in

    learning computer science however only

    of white students indicated they're

    interested in learning computer science

    that is fascinating because as i

    mentioned media tends to portray

    white or asian males

    as being a computer scientist now when

    it comes to gender

    specifically along the binary of male

    and female

    the authors did not include non-binary

    or trans individuals

    they found that 34 of boys were

    interested

    in learning computer science however

    only 16

    of girls were interested in learning

    computer science and if we look at the

    negative answer to that so

    students were not at all interested in

    learning computer science they found

    that 24

    of girls were not at all interested in

    learning computer science and 13

    the boys were not at all interested in

    learning computer science now that is

    also fascinating and

    in particular i'm curious to know why is

    it that

    these were the results and the authors

    provide some suggestions but i have some

    my own lingering questions or thoughts

    that i'll share towards the end

    all right now when it came to race or

    ethnicity the authors

    found that white individuals were more

    likely

    to have an adult in their life who works

    with

    computers we're more likely to use

    computers

    at school and we're more likely to use

    computers at home

    than blacks and hispanics now on some of

    these the percentages were relatively

    minor so for example like 68

    of white students versus 65 of black

    students

    for having an adult at home but then

    others are more

    drastic of a difference in that so for

    example in that same question

    only 49 of hispanics felt that there was

    an adult

    in their life who worked with computers

    or different types of technology

    now the authors note that quote less

    computer use corresponded with lower

    confidence in cs

    end quote from page 617 which makes

    sense the more you are able to use your

    computer

    the more experience you're able to have

    with it the more likely

    my guess is that you'd be able to

    develop confidence in using that thing

    if you do something infrequently odds

    are you're not going to be as confident

    with it as if you do something

    frequently so if you cook a meal once a

    month

    you're probably not going to be as

    confident as somebody who cooks a meal

    every single night and if you don't know

    how to cook a meal i highly recommend

    learning

    because it saves you money and it could

    be healthier now in addition to having

    access to

    adults or to devices and how that

    corresponds with confidence

    the authors also looked at having access

    to classes and how that kind of impacted

    an interest in wanting to learn computer

    science

    and they basically found that the more

    access there were to classes the more

    likely

    students were interested in learning

    computer science however they did find

    that

    quote black students are less likely

    than white or hispanic students to have

    access

    in quote from page 618 so even though as

    i mentioned earlier

    it might be more interested in doing

    computer science

    the results from this particular survey

    found that they are less likely to have

    access to be able to do computer science

    now one kind of random question that i

    have about that is i wonder if

    by having more opportunities for

    computer science if students realize

    you know what it's not for me i'm i'm

    not interested in computer science as a

    field

    but i don't know because that wasn't the

    purpose of this particular

    survey so the authors also asked a

    question about

    how people learn computer science so for

    example did you learn it in a class at

    school

    on your own online in a group or club or

    in a formal group outside of school

    now what's interesting is most of the

    respondents said that they

    learned it in school so there's about a

    two percent spread between

    each of the three racial ethnic

    demographics there's also about a

    five percent spread on whether or not a

    student learned on their own

    there's about a one percent spread for

    students learning online

    but then when we get to the in group or

    club

    or learning it in an informal group

    outside of school

    there's a huge spread on this so in the

    group or the club

    group over club 34

    of black students learned in a grouper

    club and 41 of hispanics learned in a

    group or

    club so that was a 23 point spread

    across the percentages

    on that one now the formal group outside

    of school

    black students learned within

    a formal group and then 21 of hispanic

    students learned

    in a formal group outside of school that

    has a 25 point difference in the

    percentages on that particular answer

    that is interesting and here's a quote

    on this from page 618

    quote it is important to note that black

    and hispanic students who have learned

    cs are still twice as likely to have

    learned

    in a class at school as through these

    out of school means

    we see that black and hispanic students

    are more likely than white students

    to participate in out-of-school programs

    end quote that's really interesting

    and i'm really curious well why is that

    so if anyone is a researcher and is

    listening to this

    who's also interested in that i'd be

    curious to know

    or if anyone can point to some more

    research that i could unpack

    in a future episode i'd be happy to do

    that okay so here's another quote from

    page 618

    a couple sentences long but is really

    interesting quote

    black and hispanic students were more

    likely than white students to report a

    parent has told them

    it would be good at cs 40 of black

    and 41 of hispanic students compared to

    this corroborates other data that show

    that black and hispanic parents are more

    likely than white parents to want their

    children to learn cs

    and i believe their child will learn cs

    and 53 of hispanic versus 24 percent of

    white parents

    in contrast to black students we do see

    lower confidence in learning cs among

    hispanic students

    percent of black

    and 56 percent of white students are

    very confident

    end quote so that's really interesting

    i'm curious why it is

    that black and hispanics parents are

    more likely to encourage students to go

    into it i wonder if it has to do with

    money

    and the idea of job access because

    there's all these unmet jobs

    but that's just a guess i have no idea

    because this is a survey of lots of

    people all right so here's kind of a

    summary from page 618

    quote well black and hispanic students

    have less access to computers at home

    and

    in school they and their parents report

    more interest in learning cs

    hispanic students do not have less

    access to cs classes

    but they are less likely to know an

    adult working in technology and less

    likely to be confident

    in learning cs and black students do not

    report less encouragement

    less often seeing people in the media

    like themselves engaged in cs

    or less confidence yet both of these

    groups are underrepresented among apcs

    participants

    cs bachelor's degree earners and the cs

    workforce

    end quote really interesting findings

    and i'm curious why it is that

    although they're more interested in it

    they're less likely to get a degree or

    take ap

    classes the question would be why

    okay so the next section of the results

    section

    is specifically talking about gender

    again so the authors only talk about

    male and female they do not talk about

    non-binary or trans individuals

    but i will talk a little bit about that

    later and the authors found that

    quote besides the mandatory

    participation in classes

    girls are less likely to be aware of

    optional learning opportunities when it

    comes to cs

    end quotes from page 619 here's another

    quote from the same page

    quote when looking at students who have

    learned cs again

    there is no difference by gender for the

    most commonly reported way of learning

    cs

    through a class in school however boys

    are more likely than girls to have

    learned cs in other opportunities

    outside of a class

    again this confirms that when the

    opportunity is not necessarily part of a

    regular or required component

    girls are less likely to participate

    this also means that boys are spending

    more of their own free time learning cs

    possibly contributing to preparatory

    privilege as they become more

    experienced and knowledgeable than other

    students

    unquote now interestingly the amount of

    encouragement

    that boys received versus what girls

    received was pretty drastically

    different so for example

    they would be good at cs whereas only 12

    of girls were told that it would be good

    at cs by

    a teacher a similar spread was found

    among parents so 43 of boys were told by

    a parent that they'd be good at computer

    science but only 17 percent of girls

    were told

    it would be good at computer science by

    a parent now the authors

    also asked questions about gender

    representation

    in media and they found that only 11

    percent of girls

    felt that they were represented in

    computer scientists within media

    but 21 percent of boys felt that they

    were represented

    in computer scientists that are

    portrayed via media

    and then if we go to the extreme end of

    it where they were never likely to see

    someone who looked like themselves

    themselves in

    computer scientists in media and only 18

    of boys

    so that they never saw themselves in

    computer scientists portrayed in media

    so those are pretty stark differences so

    here's a final quote from page 619

    quote with gender we saw that girls have

    lower confidence in their ability to

    learn cs

    report less interest in learning cs and

    are less likely to have learn cs

    compared to boys

    furthermore we found that students who

    are more interested in learning cs

    are also more likely to believe they

    will have a job using cs with boys more

    likely to believe so

    for girls access may not be the

    challenge instead the belief that girls

    are less likely to be interested in cs

    may result in them receiving less

    encouragement from parents and teachers

    which in turn exacerbates girls beliefs

    that they do not belong in cs

    end quote all right so that concludes

    like the main findings of this

    particular study however

    there was a bunch more that i ended up

    not talking about

    because i would have basically read the

    entire thing out loud to you

    so i highly recommend actually going and

    reading this paper which again i link to

    in the show notes

    all right as always in these unpacking

    scholarship episodes i like to talk

    about some lingering questions or

    thoughts

    just thinking out loud and not

    critiquing the authors in any way

    because i really enjoyed their paper

    so the first question that i have is if

    everyone within a demographic category

    participates in cs as part of a

    mandatory class

    but only a subset of the demographic

    chooses to further their learning

    outside of the class

    why is that so for example if boys girls

    non-binary trans individuals are all

    required to take a class

    but only let's say the non-binary and

    trans individuals decide that they want

    to continue to learn computer science

    outside of class why would that be what

    about for the students who chose not to

    continue their learning outside of class

    is because the subject area in general

    is considered to be boring to them

    does it have to do with how it was

    taught or how the curricula was used or

    what was in the curriculum

    i actually do unpack some papers that

    talk about that a little bit more

    so i'll link to those in the show notes

    now i asked this because it's important

    to look at the differences among

    demographic information or at least it

    can be

    but what's really important is once we

    find differences we need to ask the

    follow-up question of why

    why is that why is it that some people

    are really interested

    in this subject area or approach or

    curriculum or whatever

    and other people less so another

    question that i have is if non-binary

    individuals were also included in this

    survey

    how would the results potentially change

    the rationales for the findings

    so in particular the idea that because

    people don't see themselves in media

    they can't imagine themselves doing

    computer science

    what does that mean for trans

    individuals who are often excluded from

    media or

    discourse entirely so for example they

    weren't mentioned in this paper

    do trans or non-binary individuals tend

    to fall within the results of the sex

    that was assigned at birth

    do they tend to group with the

    perspectives of the gender they most

    identify with

    or is it something completely different

    and as a non-binary individual

    i'm genuinely curious about this and i

    really wish more researchers would

    actually include

    perspectives outside the gender binary

    so if we could do a follow-up study

    similar to this one

    please include non-binary and trans

    individuals the last question that i

    have is what other ways

    might we address demographic imbalances

    in cs education and cs as a field

    so for example in addition to continuing

    to elevate the voices of

    marginalized individuals and groups what

    if we also challenge the assumption that

    you have to see yourself

    represented within a career before you

    can believe you can do that career

    or instead of thinking about in career

    just think of it as a hobby or a leisure

    pursuit so for example

    my parents said that i could be anything

    if i put my mind to it

    but it doesn't sound like that's what

    many of the survey respondents believe

    and it's likely a result because they

    weren't really encouraged that

    they could do anything like computer

    science

    so again representation is very

    important i'm not saying we shouldn't

    focus on that

    i'm just thinking out loud what if we

    also encouraged a growth mindset

    and encourage kids to pursue their

    interests regardless of if they see

    other people like them doing what

    they're interested in

    so if we could couple that approach with

    approach of elevating more voices

    having more representation how might

    that be able to impact

    demographic imbalances again this is

    just me thinking out loud

    if there is research on that i would

    love to read it so please let me know by

    pressing the contact me button on my

    website all right so those are just kind

    of my

    lingering thoughts and questions for

    this particular paper again i really

    enjoyed it

    i don't know if they've done a follow-up

    study on this as this was published in

    but i highly recommend everybody

    checking it out which again you can find

    at jrdelivery.com

    or clicking the link in the show notes

    for the app that you're listening to

    this on

    thank you so much for listening to this

    particular episode if you enjoyed it

    please consider sharing with somebody

    else

    and stay tuned next week for an

    interview hope you're all staying safe

    and are having a wonderful week

Article

Wang, J., & Moghadam, S. H. (2017). Diversity barriers in K-12 computer science education: Structural and social. Proceedings of the Conference on Integrating Technology into Computer Science Education, ITiCSE, 615–620.


Abstract

“As computer science (CS) education expands at the K-12 level, we must be careful to ensure that CS neither exacerbates existing equity gaps in education nor hinders efforts to diversify the field of CS. In this paper, we discuss structural and social barriers that influence Blacks, Hispanics, and girls, based on surveys of 1,672 students, 1,677 parents, 1,008 teachers, 9,805 principals, and 2,307 superintendents in the United States. We find that despite higher interest in CS among Black and Hispanic students and parents, these students experience greater structural barriers in accessing computers and CS classes than White students. And while girls have the same access as boys, social barriers exist with girls reporting lower awareness of CS opportunities outside of classes, less encouragement from teachers and parents, and less exposure to CS role models in the media. It is critical for expanding CS opportunities to address the unique issues for each group.”


Author Keywords

Diversity, gender, girls, race, ethnicity, Black, African American, Latino/a, Hispanic, K-12, pre-university, students, parents, teachers, interest, access, exposure, perceptions, encouragement, pathways


My One Sentence Summary

This publication describes potential structural and social barriers for Black, Hispanic, and female students in K-12 contexts.


Some Of My Lingering Questions/Thoughts

  • If everyone within a demographic category participates in CS as part of mandatory classes, but only a subset of the demographic chooses to further their learning outside of the class, why is that?

  • If non-binary individuals were also included in this survey, how would their results potentially change the rationales for the findings?

  • What other ways might we address demographic imbalances in CS education and CS as a field?


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