Power, Discourse, and Knowledge in Computer Science Education Advocacy: An Analysis of Popular Code.org Videos
Universal computer science education (CS for All) policies have been gaining momentum in localities across the United States. The value of CS education is often presented to the public as non-partisan and non-controversial. To uncover the kinds of discourses about CS education that have become “discursive facts,” and how they define and frame notions of “equity” within CS for All initiatives, I apply theories from poststructural, deconstructionist, and critical traditions to the analysis of two different versions of a popular CS education advocacy video created by the non-profit Code.org. Arguments for computer science education offered in these texts merge historical and traditional views of “science” as apolitical and objective with neoliberal notions about competition, personal agency and individualism, constructions that view programming as tools to further an omniscient male gaze, and programmers themselves as “magic.” By reifying neoliberal and gendered subject positions, such discursive moves in CS ed advocacy potentially hinder equity work in the long-run