Florida State University’s School of Information Professor Yolanda Rankin‘s paper submission has been accepted to the Special Interest Group in Computer Science Education (otherwise known as SIGCSE) 2019 Conference scheduled for Feb. 27th through March 2nd, 2019 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In addition, Professor Rankin will be participating in a panel discussion of Creating Spaces to Promote Inclusive and Equitable Learning in Computing Education at SIGCSE’19 as well.
One of the panels Rankin will be participating in is titled ‘The Reality of Inclusion: The Role of Relationships, Identity, and Academic Culture in Inclusive and Equitable Practices for Broadening Participation in Computing Education‘. “For this SIGCSE panel,” Rankin explains, “We propose to continue the conversation through a broader conversation around the terms ‘broadening participation’ and the roles of relationships, identity (cultural and personal), and academic, political, and professional perspectives when supporting equity and inclusion in computing education.” The panel will seek to disrupt the conversation about computer science education, and participants to this session will leave having had a safe space in which to discuss issues of identify, race, and privilege that are critical to spaces like SIGCSE.
In her now accepted research paper, ‘Food for Thought: Supporting African American Women’s Computational Algorithmic Thinking in an Intro CS Course’, Rankin explains that African American women who have little if any experience in computer programming prior to matriculation into college often struggle in college-level introductory CS courses that emphasize programming from the outset. These same students feel underprepared and disadvantaged, oftentimes choosing to withdraw from such courses which contributes to the underrepresentation of African American women in CS. The challenge lies in creating equitable learning environments that bridge students’ everyday experiences to fundamental CS concepts. Given this dilemma, Rankin’s team introduces the Dessert Wars Challenge, an alternative pedagogical strategy that leverages students’ everyday experiences with food to forge meaningful connections to CS.
Professor Rankin will also be speaking at the Computer-Human Interaction Conference (CHI 2019) along with iSchool Professor Yubo Kou which will be held in Glasgow, United Kingdom May 4-9, 2019.