Materiality Matters in Computing Education: A Duoethnography of Two Digital Logic Educators

Abstract

Computer science needs to be sustainable, and CS educators have an important role to play in changing the discipline. Recent efforts have emerged to teach CS in ways that apply computing to mitigate climate change, but this alone is insufficient: we must also change what it means to do computing. We use duoethnography to interrogate our practices as CS educators to support the goal of integrating sustainability into CS. Despite being invested in these goals, we each realized that we had been nevertheless reinforcing the cultural norms that underpin the environmental and social damage caused by computing. We found five themes in the qualitative analysis of our reflections: (1) A lack of materiality in CS classes makes it difficult for computer scientists to scrutinize the environmental costs of hardware, (2) The discourse on "greenness" in computing neglects the role of embodied emissions, (3) The lack of context in CS education teaches students to perceive the status quo as "natural", (4) Those who have bought into the dominant ideology of CS can be resistant to innovating CS education, and (5) Materiality helps with teaching computing. We illustrate how changing CS to become more sustainable requires deeper thought than "add sustainability and stir" to the curriculum, and insights toward addressing the root ideology of CS education.

Passion as Capital: The Cultural Production of "Good Computer Scientists"

“…Cultural hegemony refers to the process by which a dominating class manipulates culture such that dominant-class ideologies become accepted by other groups as natural and inevitable (Gramsci 2007;Mayhew and Patitsas 2021;Hodges 1998). This process allows for the "consent" of unequal power relations, as alternatives to the status quo become unimaginable (Gramsci 2007;Breslin 2018).…”

“…In particular, Celothel noted the disconnect between what she learned in school and the aspects of CS that were "fun" and would make them employable (such as group work). It is crucial for instructors to be explicit about how the concepts they are addressing in class connect to other aspects of computing ( "applied", theoretical, and material (Mayhew and Patitsas 2021)) in order to promote understanding and prevent students from feeling "lost, unsupported, unconnected, and unable to bolster their own sense of belonging in the field" (Margolis and Fisher 2002). It is up to instructors to foster a level of understanding and interest that allows students to persist in the field.…”

Studying Gender While ‘Studying Up’

“…4 These technical solutions are presented as a 'natural' part of human practice and thought, distinct from social/cultural practice, as has similarly been discussed in relation to a variety of technical and scientific practices and even of all of 'modernity' (e.g. Haraway 1997;Latour 1993;Mayhew and Patitsas 2021). That is, the hegemonic epistemology in computer science entails practices of rendering technical, which shape the possibilities for thinking about what are valid or real problems in computer science and in the world.…”