The Wind River Elementary Computer Science Collaborative: Supporting Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Computer Science Education in Indigenous Communities

American Institutes For Research In The Behavioral Sciences, Arlington VA

Investigators

Abstract

In response to local school priorities and interests, three Wyoming school districts with elementary schools on the Wind River reservation have formed a research-practice partnership (RPP) with the American Institutes for Research, Wyoming Department of Education, BootUp Professional Development, and Partner to Improve, called the Wind River Elementary Computer Science Collaborative. The primary goal for this RPP is to increase access to computer science education for elementary students. This project builds on prior research in which the project team developed elementary computer science projects and lessons that integrated the history and language of the local community; provided professional development for elementary teachers and paraeducators; and studied implementation of elementary computer science projects. With buy-in and support from school, district, and local leaders, the RPP will promote the sustainability of elementary computer science and develop resources to support other districts in adopting successful processes for teaching local history through computer science. The project will directly serve three elementary schools, 18 teachers per year, six administrators, up to 18 high school student mentors, and 400+ elementary students. The proposed activities are (a) to expand the Collaborative to include more elementary teachers and incorporate high school, near-peer mentors; (b) to support forms of teacher collaboration that have been critical in the Collaborative's work to date; (c) to further engage the local community through ongoing communication among community leaders, school administrators and families through a variety of engagement events; and (d) to conduct research. Specifically, the research will investigate how teaching localized community historical events through computer science relates to and expands an existing framework for contextualized computer science pedagogy. This research will assess whether and why teachers participating in the Collaborative show increased self-efficacy for teaching computer science and whether and why participating students develop computer science identities that feel compatible with their local community interests. This project aims to produce generalizable knowledge about models of elementary teacher professional development and implementation at the intersection of shared community interests and computer science education. These models will enrich the field's understanding of how frameworks for integrated instruction can be applied to increase student engagement of computer science education and thereby maximize participation in this STEM field. This award is supported by the Computer Science for All: Research and RPPs program. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.