Design Agency
Audrey Bennett, Ron Eglash, Michael Lachney, William Babbitt · Advances in educational technologies and instructional design book series · 2016
The race and gender gap in US STEM education achievement reflects the legacy of historical forces which include colonialism and the exclusion of women in higher education. But it also reflects the decontextualized character of standard educational forms. We report on cSELF (Computer Science Education from Life), an intervention which brings together two alternative approaches. The “creative medium” approach offers a blank slate in which youth create their own innovations. The “indigenous knowledge” approach helps to translate traditional math and computing concepts into contemporary forms. Using the concept of “design agency” the authors describe how this merging of abstract formal structures, material creative practice, and cultural knowledge can improve underrepresented student performance, and foster learning practices in computing that offer broader forms of social expression and deeper STEM engagement for all students.