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We detail our experience running an annual four-day workshop at the University of Minnesota, called the Mathematics Project at Minnesota (MPM). The workshop is for undergraduates who come from groups underrepresented in mathematics and aims to increase the participation and success of such groups in the mathematics major at the University. In this paper, we explain how MPM is organized, discuss its objectives, and highlight some of the sessions that we feel are emblematic of the program's success. The paper concludes with an analysis of achievements and obstacles in the programs' first three years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on data from the National Science Foundation (NSF) ADVANCE-funded LATTICE program (Launching Academics on the Tenure-Track: an Intentional Community in Engineering) to examine how a diverse group of women worked across social and professional identities to support early-career women in academic engineering. We used ethnography to elucidate the social dynamics and power relations involved in forming a coherent group identity for the LATTICE leadership team, and the boundaries we negotiated in running the LATTICE program. We identify the processes and behaviors through which we made boundaries between members salient yet porous to build a coherent community across various dimensions of difference. We offer three actionable strategies that impact change agents' engagement and the group's coherence across multiple dimensions of difference: (1) intentionally creating a socio-emotional culture in our group, one that spans across group members' personal and professional identities; (2) validating other group members' perspectives, and (3) striving to build consensus using storytelling. These strategies of the LATTICE leadership team provide guidelines for others who work across intersecting dimensions of difference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Context: Non-traditional training grounds such as coding boot camps that attract a higher proportion of women are important sites for understanding how to broaden participation in computing. Objective: This work aims to help us better understand the women choosing boot camps and their pathways through these camps and into the computing workforce. Method: This paper reports on a longitudinal, qualitative study investigating female boot camp attendees. Findings: Findings show that women attending boot camps are career changers that develop an interest in software development too late to major in CS, discovering a post-college enjoyment of programming undertaken to support work goals at a current job or an aspirational job. Implications: Women at boot camps illustrate a missed opportunity to diversify postsecondary CS classrooms when not recruited early, not given interdisciplinary options, not exposed to enjoyable programming tasks, and not exposed to the array and number of job prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Culturally responsive computing (CRC) frames the localized knowledges and practices of Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities as assets for working toward racial justice in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). A key part of CRC is the role that local communities play in designing and/or implementing curricula and technologies. Yet, there is a dearth of research on collaborating with local knowledge experts and what they think about CRC. In response, this paper details a two-year long research project on the design and implementation of one CRC program called pH Empowered. pH Empowered uses computing to bridge Black hairstyling, chemistry, and entrepreneurship. Through a mixed-methods study of one pH Empowered professional development workshop, we show how cosmetologists, urban farmers, and librarians had diverse perspectives about how to be culturally responsive with STEM and the racial justice goal of broadening participation in STEM education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As new efforts seek to expand computer science education across the globe, there has been a widespread effort to prepare school teachers for teaching computer science to culturally and racially diverse students. This effort to center diversity and equity is notable as computer science courses are typically homogenous in terms of race and gender, making the need to center diversity in teacher education spaces. This paper reports on an ethnographic study in the United States that describes how teachers dialogue around issues of race and computer science education in a residential week-long professional development workshop. Drawing from the dialogue of a geographically, racially, and culturally diverse group of teachers, this article describes how teachers evade, deflect, center, and reflect on racially explicit discourse around teaching computer science. Grounded in vignettes from two teacher classrooms, this research study considers how culturally responsive computing and critical race theory can illuminate the ways in which teachers discuss race and culture in computer science professional learning environments. The study's findings demonstrate features of long-term professional preparation that can surface colorblind ideologies and help teachers move toward a culturally responsive pedagogy to teaching computer science. Abbreviations: CS - computer science ; PD - professional development ; CRT - critical race theory [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we provide a detailed account of how to implement a peer role model (PRM) program similar to the one that we developed at San Diego State University (SDSU) to broaden participation of college women in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). In particular, we summarize our findings of the PRM program's best practices, explaining how we recruit, select, and train PRMs, and giving a protocol for successful presentation and implementation of the program. We begin with some background information so that readers understand the rationale for developing the PRM program. We then offer a step-by-step guide to building a PRM program, so that educators and practitioners have a clear guide to follow when implementing their own PRM program. Our PRM program was facilitated by a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF DRL 1535117) and the strong support from the mathematics department at SDSU. We recognize that not everyone interested in implementing their own PRM program has access to the same resources and that institutions may differ in the structure of their calculus sequence; hence, in the discussion section we provide some suggestions for how the PRM program's methodology might be adapted and scaled to other institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ongoing efforts to broaden the participation of women and people of colour in engineering degree programmes and careers have had limited success. This paper describes a different approach to broadening participation that seeks to work with all students and develop inclusive engineering identities. Researchers worked with the instructors of two first-year engineering courses to integrate curriculum activities designed to promote the formation of engineering identities and build an appreciation for how diversity and inclusion strengthen engineering practice. Multilevel modelling results indicated positive effects of the intervention on appreciation for diversity but no effects on engineering identity, and qualitative results indicated students learned the most about diversity not through one of the intervention activities, but through team projects in the courses. We also describe lessons learned in how to teach engineering students about diversity in ways that are relevant to engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Makingis a rapidly emerging form of educational practice that involves the design, construction, testing, and revision of a wide variety of objects, using high and low technologies, and integrating a range of disciplines including art, science, engineering, and mathematics. It has garnered widespread interest and support in both policy and education circles because of the ways it has been shown to link science learning to creativity and investigation. Making has taken root in out-of-school settings, such as museums, science festivals, and afterschool and library programmes; and there is now growing interest from primary and secondary educators in how it might be incorporated into the classroom. Making expands on traditions associated with Technology Education and Design-Based Learning, but differs in ways that can potentially broaden participation in science and STEM learning to include learners from communities historically underrepresented in STEM fields. STEM-Rich Making is centrally organised around design and engineering practices, typically integrating digital tools and computational practices, and positions scientific and mathematical concepts and phenomena as the materials for design. This paper takes a critical view of the claims about Making as a productive form of science teaching and learning, and reviews the current research literature’s substantiation of the ways in which Making supports students’ agency, promotes active participation in science and engineering practices, and leverages learners’ cultural resources. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This mixed methods case study presents the experience of a group of middle school students in a year-long, after-school computing programme in a large, inner-city school district in the southeastern United States. The purpose of this research is to explore informal educational strategies that are conducive at giving underrepresented minority youth access to information and communication technology tools and content. Results indicate that hands-on support from mentors, peer collaboration, and options for customising work and creating unique projects contributed positively to the student experience in the programme. This study suggests giving students more creative freedom, adequate scaffolding and the option for peer collaboration when working in informal learning environments. Results are specific to the context of the one school in which this pilot study was conducted, though the findings confirm the research of others in this area. Data sources included a perceptions survey, participant interviews and researcher observations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: As teachers work to broaden the participation of racially and ethnically underrepresented groups in computer science (CS), culturally responsive computing (CRC) becomes more pertinent to formal settings. Objective: Yet, equity-oriented literature offers limited guidance for developing deep forms of CRC in the classroom. In response, we support the claim that "it takes a village" to develop equity-oriented CS education but additively highlight the roles of cultural experts in the process. Methods: We use a case study methodology to explore one instance of this: a collaboration between a multi-racial team of researchers, a Black cosmetologist, and a White technology teacher. Findings: Three themes supported the CRC collaboration: multi-directional relationship building, iterative engagement with culture-computing, and collaborative implementation of a hybrid lesson. Implications: As opposed to orienting broadening participation around extractive metaphors like "pipelines," our case study constructs the metaphor of an "open village" to orient CS education toward collaborations between schools and the communities they serve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent scholarship in computer science (CS) education shifts from a focus on the technical-cognitive skills of computational thinking to the socio-cultural goal of computational participation, often illustrated as remixing popular media (e.g. music, photos, etc.) in online communities. These activities do enhance the participatory dimensions of CS, but whether they also support broadening the participation of underrepresented youth remains unclear. While online communities that are dedicated to computational participation have existed in the U.S. for over a decade, many communities of color remain underrepresented in CS disciplines. How might CS educators, researchers, and technologists promote culturally responsive forms of computational participation? To answer this question, we propose a culturally responsive framework for computational participation called generative computing. Generative computing approaches CS as a means for strengthening relationships between learning environments and local communities, leveraging culturally relevant sources of wealth generation in technology design and implementation. To explore this concept, we conducted a mixed-methods study with a cosmetology high school program that predominantly serves young African-American women. Through a series of computationally and culturally rich cosmetology projects, we tested our hypothesis that generative computing can enhance connections between Black heritage, CS, and cosmetology while supporting students' academic interests and knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To build educational capacity for the rapidly evolving science and profession of geocomputation, the American Association of Geographers piloted an Encoding Geography research-practice partnership (RPP) composed of geography and computer science educators and researchers. This commentary describes the process, known as Collective Impact, that was implemented to investigate the persistent problems of practice that have limited the participation of women and minorities in geocomputational education and careers. We also discuss the RPP's data-driven approach for developing an inclusive curriculum pathway aligned with student aspirations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article develops a conceptual model of users' and designers' knowledge roles in the information and communication technology design process. The "ideal" center at the intersection of the axes for division of knowledge work and privileging of knowledges represents a balanced distribution of knowledge work between users and designers and an avoidance of privileging either group over the other. The article then applies this model to analyses of the design process for six video games wherein the knowledges of Indigenous peoples in North America were mobilized. It concludes by discussing implications for research and design practice, particularly for broadening the participation and self-articulation of marginalized groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dedicated science learning spaces such as science museums, science cafes, or science media attract mostly those who seek out science learning experiences. This self-selection represents a major challenge for broadening participation in informal science learning (ISL). In this study, we examine an approach to ISL that aims at reaching audiences who may not ordinarily engage with science. Termed Guerilla Science, this approach blends elements of access, by removing barriers to participation by embedding science into unexpected places, with those of inclusion, by designing activities that speak to the learning identities of participants. Our research investigated whether such ISL experience are indeed able to attract and engage 'new' audiences. In this study, Guerilla Science events were featured at the Oregon Eclipse Festival, a large multi-day music and arts festival. We conducted a multi-method study that included participants of the Oregon Eclipse Festival who engaged with Guerilla Science events, and those who did not, with a focus of understanding whether these two groups were different in key characteristics associated with their interest in, and engagement with science. The full range of festival goers, from those with little connection and interest in science to science enthusiasts, who participated in Guerilla Science, were similar to festival goers overall, indicating the effectiveness of the approach for engaging adults from beyond the science choir. Providing access points to science engagement within non-science cultural contexts and designing the science experiences to align with cultural identity of the audience represents an evidence-based practice for broadening participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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