“What Happens to the Raspado man in a Cash-free Society?”: Teaching and Learning Socially Responsible Computing

Abstract

The Computer Science for All movement is bringing CS to K-12 classrooms across the nation. At the same time, new technologies created by computer scientists have been reproducing existing inequities that directly impact today's youth, while being “promoted and perceived as more objective or progressive than the discriminatory systems of a previous era” [1, p. 5–6]. Current efforts are being made to expose students to the social impact and ethics of computing at both the K-12 and university-level—which we refer to as “socially responsible computing” (SRC) in this paper. Yet there is a lack of research describing what such SRC teaching and learning actively involve and look like, particularly in K-12 classrooms. This paper fills this gap with findings from a research-practice partnership, through a qualitative study in an Advanced Placement Computer Science Principles classroom enrolling low-income Latino/a/x students from a large urban community. The findings illustrate 1) details of teaching practice and student learning during discussions about SRC; 2) the impact these SRC experiences have on student engagement with CS; 3) a teacher's reflections on key considerations for effective SRC pedagogy; and 4) why students’ perspectives and agency must be centered through SRC in computing education.