Integrating Social Justice in Computer Science Pedagogy

Handouts Media

Presented at 9:15am in Westminster I on Thursday, November 21, 2019.

#29505

Speaker(s)

  • Rua Williams, Integrating Social Justice in CS Pedagogy, University of Florida

Session Details

  • Length of Session: 1-hr
  • Format: Lecture
  • Expertise Level: Intermediate
  • Type of session: General Conference

Summary

This presentation will highlight via case studies the essential need for critically conscious pedagogy in computer science coursework. The presenter will demonstrate practical means of implementing pedagogical strategies for integrating ethics, social justice, and critical theory into learning outcomes to produce more a conscious student body.

Abstract

Critically Conscious Pedagogy is a matter of access and inclusion that is under-considered in accessibility and inclusion policy. What good have we done if we bring marginalized students into our classrooms, only to exclude them with curriculum that imply their otherness in the very content? It is not enough to ensure access via accommodation. It is not enough to virtue signal accessibility through universal design. It is not enough to isolate social justice and accessibility in special topics courses. For our students from marginalized communities, their identities are not fringe topics -- they are pervasive experiences that shape how they interact with the world, and how the world interacts with them. Centering social justice in all course materials demonstrates an authentic commitment to producing a campus climate that is a place of true belonging for all students.

Keypoints

  1. Accommodations are what we do to grant access to the excluded. Access is what we do to prevent exclusion.
  2. Critically Conscious Pedagogy is a matter of access, social justice, ethics, and educational duty.
  3. Critically Conscious Pedagogies are how we build access, deconstruct barriers, and forge coalitional community

Disability Areas

All Areas, Cognitive/Learning, Other, Psychological

Topic Areas

Accessible Course Design, Accessible Educational Materials, Administrative/Campus Policy, Teaching about Accessibility in Curriculum, Uncategorized

Speaker Bio(s)

Rua Williams

Rua M. Williams is a Ph.D. student in the Human-Centered Computing program at the University of Florida, advised by Dr. Juan E. Gilbert. They are Autistic, multiply disabled, and Nonbinary. They research the interaction between technology and disability justice, with a focus on research, pedagogy, and design ethics. They have presented work on ethical problems in technological applications for autism intervention and publish work that figures disabled embodiment as natural use contexts for tech.

Handout(s)