The Authentic Inclusion of Community Colleges in National Efforts to Broaden Participation in Computing: A Workshop Proposal

Santa Fe College, Gainesville FL

Investigators

Abstract

Santa Fe College proposes a workshop to bring the voices and perspectives of Community Colleges into the national conversation about broadening participation and education in computing (BPC). As a first Community College-driven BPC education event, it will bring together theoretical and practitioner perspectives to listen to each other and use an inclusive, more holistic perspective to drive next steps for engaging the Community College community in the BPC movement effort. Community Colleges (CC) serve a more diverse population than 4-year institutions, so they are a natural but often overlooked venue for increasing diversity. This workshop -- led by a multi-institutional leadership committee with representatives from three community colleges, one research university, and two education research organizations, all of whom are active in CS BP research and interventions -- will develop a conceptual model for increasing the participation of CC in BPC initiatives that leverages existing CC collaborations and investments, including the National Center for Women and Information Technology's (NCWIT) Community College Outreach group, and attendees of the 2017 CISE BP Community Meeting. What is missing from most current BPC CC-focused research or interventions is an understanding of what CC themselves want to know and how they would like to be involved in research and intervention projects. The conversational prompts for this meeting will include: 1. The current state of knowledge on issues that relate to equity and inclusion in computing disciplines at CCs. Some examples of known issues are faculty shortages, professional development, lack of consistent articulation/transfer guidelines, lack of student supports (e.g., financial, remediation) and unclear or disconnected curricular pathways. 2. Identification of opportunities to enable CCs to more fully engage in the national movement to broaden participation in computing. This will include organizational constructs that need to be in place (e.g., administrative buy-in), effective interventions (e.g., culturally responsive and gender equitable teaching practices), relevant partners (e.g., university, industry, K-12) across geographies; and incentives to spur action. 3. Next steps for CC engagement.