Putting Making into High School Computer Science Classrooms: Promoting Equity in Teaching and Learning with Electronic Textiles in Exploring Computer Science

Authors

Deborah A. Fields, Utah State UniversityFollow
Yasmin B. Kafai, University of PennsylvaniaFollow
Tomoko Nakajima, University of California, Los Angeles
Joanna Goode, University of Oregon
Jane Margolis, University of California, Los Angeles

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Equity & Excellence in Education

Volume

51

Issue

1

Publisher

Taylor & Francis Inc.

Publication Date

5-21-2018

First Page

1

Last Page

19

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Abstract

Recent discussions of making have focused on developing out-of-school makerspaces and activities to provide more equitable and enriching learning opportunities for youth. Yet school classrooms present a unique opportunity to help broaden access, diversify representation, and deepen participation in making. In turning to classrooms, we want to understand the crucial practices that teachers employ in broadening and deepening access to making. In this paper, we investigate two high school teachers’ approaches in implementing a novel eight-week, electronic textiles unit within the Exploring Computer Science curriculum, where students designed wearable electronic textile projects with microcontrollers, sensors, and LEDs. We share teachers’ emergent practices in transforming their classrooms into makerspaces, including valuing student expertise and promoting connections in personalized work. We discuss the ways these practices succeeded in broadening access to making while deepening participation in computing and establishing home-school connections.

Comments

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Equity & Excellence in Education on 5/21/2018, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/10665684.2018.1436998

Recommended Citation

Fields, D. A., Kafai, Y.B., Nakajima, T.M., Goode, J., & Margolis, J. (2018). Putting making into high school computer science classrooms: Promoting equity in teaching and learning with electronic textiles in Exploring Computer Science. Equity, Excellence, and Education, 51(1), 21-35. https://doi.org/10.1080/10665684.2018.1436998