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Teacher Perceptions of Equity in High School Computer Science Classrooms

Published: 28 August 2020 Publication History

Abstract

Effective and equitable CS teaching is contingent on teachers’ robust understanding of equity issues in CS classrooms. To this end, this study examined high school teachers’ perceptions of equity during their participation in a CS teacher certificate program over two years. The participants are from various disciplines and from schools that serve under-represented students. Using a qualitative approach, we conducted content analysis of the teachers’ written reflections and responses to semi-structured interviews. Based on the justice-centered framework, we analyzed the major themes that emerged from the content analysis. The findings provide insights into high school CS teachers’ understanding of equity, the strategies that teachers use to address equity issues, and how teachers interpret the causes of inequities in CS classrooms. This research presents frameworks for examining teachers’ conceptualizations of equity and can inform the implementation of future professional development programs for CS teachers.

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Published In

cover image ACM Transactions on Computing Education
ACM Transactions on Computing Education  Volume 20, Issue 3
September 2020
200 pages
EISSN:1946-6226
DOI:10.1145/3406963
Issue’s Table of Contents
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Association for Computing Machinery

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Publication History

Published: 28 August 2020
Accepted: 01 June 2020
Revised: 01 February 2020
Received: 01 July 2019
Published in TOCE Volume 20, Issue 3

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Author Tags

  1. Computer science
  2. equity
  3. secondary education
  4. teacher professional development

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  • Refereed

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  • National Science Foundation

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  • (2023)Computing education pathways from high school to community college: key strategies for aligning institutional systemsComputer Science Education10.1080/08993408.2023.219575534:1(68-86)Online publication date: 28-Mar-2023
  • (2022)Development and Use of Domain-specific Learning Theories, Models, and Instruments in Computing EducationACM Transactions on Computing Education10.1145/353022123:1(1-48)Online publication date: 29-Dec-2022
  • (2022)Examining the What, Why, and How of Multilingual Student Identity Development in Computer ScienceACM Transactions on Computing Education10.1145/350091822:3(1-33)Online publication date: 22-Sep-2022
  • (2022)Equity-based CS Case Study: An Approach to Exploring White Teachers’ Conceptions of Race and Racism in a Professional Development SettingACM Transactions on Computing Education10.1145/348733222:3(1-32)Online publication date: 9-Jun-2022
  • (2022)Teacher Self-efficacy During Professional Development for Game Design and UnityProceedings of the 53rd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 210.1145/3478432.3499039(1144-1144)Online publication date: 3-Mar-2022
  • (2022)Evolution and Impact of Instructional Coaching for Exploring Computer Science Teachers in a Large Urban District2022 Conference on Research in Equitable and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology (RESPECT)10.1109/RESPECT55273.2022.00023(85-89)Online publication date: 23-May-2022
  • (2021)Evaluating Computer Science Professional Development for Teachers in the United StatesProceedings of the 21st Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research10.1145/3488042.3488054(1-9)Online publication date: 17-Nov-2021

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