Culturally Informed Advanced CS Principles: Rigorous, Culturally Responsive and Sustaining Computer Science EducationIn-PersonK12MSI
The Advanced Placement Computer Science Principles (AP CSP) curriculum framework has been in use since 2016. The AP CSP framework has leveraged the use of computational thinking skills to scaffold students into understanding a variety of computing topics spread throughout the content of the curriculum. In this Lightning Talk, I explore ideas for future work with high school AP CSP teachers in developing culturally responsive and sustaining (CR-S) curriculum to strengthen the efforts of broadening participation among Black, Indigenous, and other students of color in AP CSP courses. To do this, I approach culturally responsive and sustaining computing strategies as valuable tools to integrate into the AP CSP curriculum, classroom environments, and teachers’ pedagogical approaches. In this case, I look to the Ghanaian practices of adinkra cloth making as a computationally rich cultural practice that can support student learning. The history and cultural practices surrounding Adinkra reveal richly developed, embedded mathematical and algorithmic knowledge, that is relevant to several AP CSP units. I explain how Adinkra artisans use “heritage algorithms” to accomplish the task of creating adinkra cloth. Framing the adinkra process this way has implications for teaching and learning computing as well as broadening participation.