Integrating computer science education with identity development empowers young people to see themselves as coders connected to their cultural heritage. The iCode curriculum makes these connections explicit as facilitators value individual and family identity, teach social justice, and help youth develop computer science skills and mindsets.
Culture includes the practices, traditions, values, norms, beliefs, routines, and tools adopted, shared, contested, and modified by groups of people. Learning about cultures is a never-ending quest. Helping young people explore and deepen their ethnic-racial identity may promote better understanding of their cultural identity and heritage, and improved resiliency.
During middle adolescence (typically 14-17 years old), youth begin to develop a new understanding of their race and ethnicity. For youth from diverse backgrounds, gaining a sense of clarity about who they are can serve as a protective factor in their development.
In this video, you will see how youth learn what culture is and share their experiences with peers in an unplugged activity. Notice how the facilitators integrate learning about culture into lessons where youth develop their coding skills. See how youth create their own projects using Scratch that share their family stories.
1. As you watch the video, think about this:
- Notice how the unplugged iCode lesson, Exploring Culture, creates a richer context for youth to tell their own stories in the lesson, Exploring Connections to Family and Ancestral Roots where they are coding in Scratch.
- What race or ethnicity do you self-identify with? How does your identity make you more successful in your work?
- What strategies in the video balance learning computer science skills with learning about culture?
2. Watch the video:
3. Share what you noticed:
- What did you notice in the video?
- What adjectives did youth use to describe families? How did it change when they were asked to describe their own family?
- Why might it be valuable to create a coding project that reflects a young person’s identity?
4. Teaching Computer Science
Integrating learning about culture and exploring their own ethnic-racial identity with learning about computer science empowers young people to see that being a coder can be connected to their cultural heritage. This approach enhances their computer science skills and strengthens their motivation and confidence to pursue careers in STEM.
Identify one change you want to make in your youth programs to support the positive ethnic and racial identity of diverse youth.
5. Key Take-Away:
- iCode helps young people understand the intersection of ethnic-racial identity and computational identity in their lives. It helps educators learn how to help youth explore both concurrently.
- Supporting young people in deepening their own identity a developing a better understanding of culture provides a foundation for confidence to pursue a career in STEM while honoring their unique identities.
- Using strategies that balance teaching computer science with strengthening their understanding of their own identity is a protective factor that can help them manage stress and be resilient when faced with challenges.
Developed in collaboration with click2computerscience.org and UC ANR News & Information Outreach in Spanish. Funded by National Urban Research and Extension Center.
Resources:
These practices are also more fully described in 4-H Social Justice Youth Development: A Guide for Youth Development Professionals