The push for computing education in P-12 schools, which parallels the ongoing proliferation of computing in society, has accelerated in recent years. With respect to racially minoritized groups, this dynamic of computing creep has manifested in calls to "broaden participation," typically with the promise of access to economic…

The unexamined power and prejudice embedded within technologies and societies has led to direct harm to individuals of color, minoritized groups, and the US ideal of a multi-racial democracy. Rather than an accident of AI or a "glitch" of the system, these inequities highlight the invisible and oppressive architecture -- a "New Jim…

Since Wing "Communications of the ACM," 49, 33-35, (2006) popularized computational thinking (CT) as a skill for every student, it has gained significant traction as an approach to bring computer science tools and practices into K-12 classrooms. At the same time, teachers often see the relevance of CT as a tool to introduce problem…

Despite the value that cultural experts bring to efforts to broaden the participation of racially minoritized youth in US computer science, there has been little research on supporting their knowledge of computing. This is a missed opportunity to explore the diffusion of computing knowledge across local community contexts where underrepresented…

In many discussions of the ways in which abstraction is applied in computer science (CS), researchers and advocates of CS education argue that CS students should be taught to consciously and explicitly move among levels of abstraction (Armoni "Journal of Computers in Mathematics and Science Teaching," 32(3), 265-284, 2013; Kramer…

In the recent years, there has been a push to engage primary and secondary students in computer science to prepare them to live and work in a world influenced by computation. One of the efforts involves getting primary and secondary students to think computationally by introducing computational ideas such as, algorithms and abstraction. Majority…

The recent focus on computational thinking as a key 21st century skill for all students has led to a number of curriculum initiatives to embed it in K-12 classrooms. In this paper, we discuss the key computational thinking constructs, including algorithms, abstraction, and automation. We further discuss how these ideas are related to current…

Developing students' 21st century skills, including creativity, critical thinking, and problem solving, has been a prevailing concern in our globalized and hyper-connected society. One of the key components for students to accomplish this is to take part in today's participatory culture, which involves becoming creators of knowledge rather than…