Abolitionist Computer Science Teaching: Moving from Access to Justice

Abolitionist Computer Science Teaching: Moving from Access to Justice
Jared O'Leary

In this episode I unpack Ivey et al.’s (2021) publication titled “Abolitionist computer science teaching: Moving from access to justice,” which argues that the field of CS education can use abolitionist pedagogical practices to move from focusing on access to focusing on the full humanity of students.

Article

Ivey, A., RunningHawk Johnson, S., Skorodinsky, M., Snyder, J., & Goode, J. (2021). Abolitionist Computer Science Teaching: Moving from Access to Justice. Research in Equity and Sustained Participation in Computing (RESPECT), 1–4.


Abstract

“As high school computer science course offerings have expanded over the past decade, gaps in race and gender have remained. This study embraces the “All” in the “CS for All” movement by shifting beyond access and toward abolitionist computer science teaching. Using data from professional development observations and interviews, we lift the voices of BIPOC CS teachers and bring together tenets put forth by Love (2019) for abolitionist teaching along with how these tenets map onto the work occurring in CS classrooms. Our findings indicate the importance of BIPOC teacher representation in CS classrooms and ways abolitionist teaching tenets can inform educator’s efforts at moving beyond broadening participation and toward radical inclusion, educational freedom, and self-determination, for ALL.”


Author Keywords

Computer science teaching, social justice, abolitionist teaching, critical computer science pedagogies


My One Sentence Summary

This paper argues that the field of CS education can use abolitionist pedagogical practices to move from focusing on access to focusing on the full humanity of students.


Some Of My Lingering Questions/Thoughts

  • What other abolitionist practices are missing from this article that you might recommend?

  • How might these pedagogical practices inform how you consider other demographic categories besides race/ethnicity alone?

  • When is centering a demographic or genetic characteristic a form of axiological colonization?


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