Intercultural Computing Education: Toward Justice Across Difference

Even in the turn toward justice-oriented pedagogy, computing education tends to overlook the quality of intergroup relationships, which risks entrenching division. In this article, we establish an intercultural approach to computing education, informed by intercultural and peace education, prejudice reduction, and the sociology of racism and ethnicity. We outline three major concerns of intercultural computing: shifting from content toward relationships, from cultural responsiveness to cultural reflexivity, and from identity to identification. For the last, we complicate discourses of race and identity widespread in U.S. education. Drawing from studies of youth programming classes in East Africa and U.S. contexts, we then reflect on our attempts to address the first shift of fostering relationships across difference. We highlight three promising design tactics: intergroup pairing, interdependent programming, and making relational goals explicit. Overall, we find that computing can indeed be a site of intergroup bonding across difference, but that bonding can carry complications and tensions with other equity goals and tactics. Rather than framing justice-oriented CS primarily as changes to the aims of computational learning, we argue that future work should explore making relational goals explicit and teach students how to attend to friction.

Fostering Cultural Responsiveness in an Urban High School: A Case Study

Scholars and practitioners have increasingly recognized the role of culturally responsive school leadership (CRSL). However, few studies have applied recent comprehensive CRSL theoretical frameworks. This in-depth case study explores how a school leader understands and shapes a school culture to be increasingly culturally responsive to students. Utilizing recent conceptualizations of CRSL as a lens, two major findings were developed. First, the principal’s understanding of what it means to be a culturally responsive leader is centered on the student experience: meeting basic needs, seeking “vertical” engagement, and transforming student world views. Second, to meet those student needs the principal practiced differentiated instructional leadership according to individual teacher needs and oriented to fostering a culturally responsive school culture. We suggest future research carefully examine (1) the interplay of beliefs, dispositions, and values in CRSL play, and (2) how CRSL (where it exists) manifests as an organizational.

INTERNATIONAL PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT OF CRITICAL THINKING: FRAMEWORK FOR TRANSLATION AND ADAPTATION

Higher education institutions worldwide claim they impact students’ learning outcomes within and across academic domains. Critical thinking (CT) is prominent among the intended outcomes (Braun et al., 2020). In this context, there is increasing interest in ecologically valid performance assessments (PAs) of CT that can be used internationally (Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia et al., 2018). While several studies have aimed to measure and compare CT skills across countries, this typically has been done using multiple-choice questions. Only a few studies involve adaptation of PAs. Their results point to the need for a more refined adaptation process (Braun et al., 2020), especially in terms of functionally equivalent adaptation and redesign. Based on a review of previous approaches related to test adaptation, with focus on the challenges of achieving cultural responsiveness, we propose a conceptual framework for adapting PAs of CT for international studies. The framework differentiates between two stages and three adaptation designs. The first stage involves a collaborative approach to the design of PAs of CT. The second stage offers three design alternatives which differ in their emphasis on linguistic considerations and cultural responsiveness. While this paper focuses on PAs of CT for higher education, it may be applicable to pre-college education.

Testing Psychology of Working Theory Among Spanish-Speaking Latinx Workers in the U.S.

Psychology of Working Theory (PWT) has recently gained empirical support; however, its assumptions have yet to be tested for cultural responsiveness in Latinx communities, one of the fastest-growing worker populations in the U.S. The current study had two major aims: (a) to translate and validate instruments measuring PWT constructs from English into Spanish, and (b) to test theorized PWT predictors of decent work in a sample of Latinx workers ( N = 287). First, we translated and validated instruments measuring economic constraints, lifetime marginalization, work volition, and decent work using confirmatory factor analyses (CFA). We then tested a structural model predicting decent work. Results partially supported PWT hypotheses, suggesting its utility and cultural responsiveness in studying the work patterns and conditions in Latinx communities. Practical implications are discussed.

Engaging English Language Learners as Cultural Informants in the Design of a Social Robot for Education

Background: There are 4.9 million English Language Learners (ELLs) in the United States. Only 2% of educators are trained to support these vulnerable students. Social robots show promise for language acquisition and may provide valuable support for students, especially as we return to needing smaller classes due to COVID-19. While cultural responsiveness increases gains for ELLs, little is known about the design of culturally responsive child–robot interactions. Method: Therefore, using a participatory design approach, we conducted an exploratory study with 24 Spanish-speaking ELLs at a Pacific Northwest elementary school. As cultural informants, students participated in a 15-min, robot-led, small group story discussion followed by a post-interaction feedback session. We then conducted reflexive critiques with six ELL teachers who reviewed the group interactions to provide further interpretation on design feature possibilities and potential interactions with the robot. Results: Students found the social robot engaging, but many were hesitant to converse with the robot. During post-interaction dialogue students articulated the specific ways in which the social robot appearance and behavior could be modified to help them feel more comfortable. Teachers postulated that the social robot could be designed to engage students in peer-to-peer conversations. Teachers also recognized the ELLs verbosity when discussing their experiences with the robot and suggested such interactions could stimulate responsiveness from students. Conclusion: Cultural responsiveness is a key component to successful education in ELLs. However, integrating appropriate, cultural responsiveness into robot interactions may require participants as cultural informants to ensure the robot behaviors and interactions are situated in that educational community. Utilizing a participatory approach to engage ELLs in design decisions for social robots is a promising way to gather culturally responsive requirements to inform successful child–robot interactions.