CS Teachers Talk explores the significance of race and equity in secondary computer science (CS) education. Despite the importance of CS across all aspects of life, there is little racial diversity in the field along the pathway from elementary school to industry. At the secondary level, even students who are highly interested and confident in CS remain underrepresented in the field.
To address this problem, researchers have created culturally responsive computing approaches to effectively engage more students in CS. However, progress in implementing these approaches is limited by the low number of experienced CS teachers. WestEd aims to support secondary teachers in developing both subject matter knowledge and racial equity strategies for teaching CS.
There are three goals for the CS Teachers Talk project:
- Develop a set of professional learning activities that vary in the ways they address CS subject matter and racial equity topics.
- Examine how well each activity engages teachers in learning and talking about CS content, race, and equity pedagogy.
- Interview teachers to learn how their racial identity, past experiences in CS, and teaching experiences influence their participation in professional learning activities.
The project aims to identify the most effective activities for learning about both racial equity and CS subject matter. The outcomes of this project may support other researchers and teacher educators to train more teachers who are equipped to provide equitable CS learning experiences for all secondary students.
