Designing for Equity in Education Via Computational Thinking: A Case Study

Abstract

CADRE (Catalyst for Actively Designing and Researching Equity) is a Researcher-Practitioner Partnership (RPP) that empowers in-service K-12 educators to learn and leverage Computational Thinking (CT) to design for equity in their classrooms, schools, and districts. We cast equity gaps as bugs in education and focus on helping educators debug the system with CT-based tools, methods, and strategies such as user-centered design, system abstraction, and iteration. In this paper, we first describe how educators were taught CT and provide an example of how they applied these skills in practice. We then highlight the results of the qualitative case study of 34 educators where we found that CT helped CADRE participants gain a better understanding of the equity gaps their students faced and improve their instructional practices within their locus of control. Implications for future research are also discussed.