Participation in Computing

The National Science Foundation’s Expansionary Programs

verfasst von: William Aspray

Verlag: Springer International Publishing

Buchreihe : History of Computing

Enthalten in: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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Über dieses Buch

This book provides a history of the efforts of the US National Science Foundation to broaden participation in computing. The book briefly discusses the early history of the NSF's involvement with education and workforce issues. It then turns to two programs outside the computing directorate (the ADVANCE program and the Program on Women and Girls) that set the stage for three programs in the NSF computing directorate on broadening participation: the IT Workforce Program, the Broadening Participation in Computing program, and the Computing Education for the 21st Century program. The work looks at NSF-funded research and NSF-funded interventions both to increase the number of women, underrepresented minorities (African Americans, Hispanics, and American Indians) and people with disabilities, and to increase the number of public schools offering rigorous instruction in computing. Other organizations such as the ACM, the Computer Science Teachers Association, and Code.org are also covered. The years covered are primarily 1980 to the present.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

Chapter 1. Introduction

Abstract

This chapter provides an introduction to the book by covering two topics: the extent and importance of underrepresentation in computing, and the place of computing in the organization and programs of the National Science Foundation over time. Women, African Americans, American Indians, Hispanics, and People with Disabilities have been significantly underrepresented in computing since at least the 1980s. Computing was one the last of the content-oriented directorates to be founded within NSF; it was regarded in two different ways within the NSF, as a science in its own right and as a servant to other sciences; and this dual view has caused tensions from time to time as to where to place funding and effort. This chapter also describes the early history of computing education and computing infrastructure programs at NSF. These programs were directed at the entire community, not particularly at minority-serving institutions or at student populations underrepresented in the computing field. While there were occasional concerns at NSF about underrepresentation in the science and engineering disciplines during its first three decades, it was only around 1980 that NSF made a major effort to broaden participation.

William Aspray

Chapter 2. Opening Computing Careers to Underrepresented Groups

Abstract

This chapter describes the history of NSF programs to broaden participation in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines generally and in the computing discipline specifically. The reauthorization of the NSF in 1980 led to the creation of the Commission on Equal Opportunity in Science and Technology. Between 1980 and 1992, numerous small programs were established at NSF to address issues of broadening participation; but they did not lead to the changes in numbers of participants that the Commission had hoped for. Two new STEM programs, the Program on Women and Girls and the ADVANCE program, provided help to the computing directorate when it created its own broadening participation programs. The IT Workforce program built a community of scholars interested in this topic. The Broadening Participation in Computing Alliances became NSF’s most successful program with this purpose in the higher education domain. A successor program, Computing Education in the Twenty-First Century, expanded ties to the education directorate and initiated a successful precollege program.

William Aspray

Chapter 3. The Broadening Participation in Computing Alliances

Abstract

This chapter tells the story of the Broadening Participation in Computing Alliances, arguably the National Science Foundation’s greatest achievement in broadening participation in computing at the postsecondary level. The historical backgrounds of the Alliances are given, together with their current activities. The Alliances profiled in this chapter include ones focused on specific minority groups such as African Americans (iAAMCS), and Hispanics (CAHSI), both women and minorities (CRA-W/CDC), geographical regions (Georgia Computes, CAITE, and STARS), and persons with disabilities (AccessComputing).

William Aspray

Chapter 4. Recent Efforts to Broaden Formal Computer Science Education at the K-12 Level

Abstract

This chapter discusses efforts to improve and enhance the teaching of computer science at the K-12 level. It begins with an account of the CS10K vision of having 10,000 trained teachers in 10,000 schools teaching substantive courses in computer science. The chapter then turns to how various projects and organizations have engaged the components of the CS10K goal: building a new curriculum (the Exploring Computer Science and Computer Science Principles projects), creating a community of practice so that these teachers can carry out their educational work in a professional way (the Computer Science Teachers Association and the online CS10K Community), and carrying out policy work to persuade decision-making bodies in all 50 states and thousands of local communities to support computer science as a core element of high school education (the ACM Education Policy Committee, the Computing in the Core Coalition, and the Computer Science Teachers Association). The chapter ends with an account of the recently established organization, Code.org, which is engaging in multiple activities to create formal computing education at the K-12 level

William Aspray

Chapter 5. Recent Efforts to Broaden Informal Computer Science Education

Abstract

This chapter describes some examples of recent efforts to broaden informal computer science education. The first half of the chapter discusses efforts targeted primarily at young people. Three organizations are profiled here: the Computer Science Collaboration Project (funded by the National Science Foundation), GoldieBlox (a construction toy intended to inspire interest in science and engineering among young girls), and Black Girls Code (an organization bringing technology education to African-American girls aged 7–17). The second half of the chapter concerns entrepreneurial efforts to teach computing to college-age and adult women. We present four examples: Geek Girl, Girl Develop It, PyLadies, and she++. They are all small, agile, entrepreneurial organizations created by small groups of people – mostly from the professional community. The skills that are taught here are mostly basic programming skills or the ability to use off-the-shelf technologies. Thus, these experiences represent not only an alternative path to formal education, but they emphasize a lower and less conceptual skill set that can be learned and put into practice quickly.

William Aspray

Chapter 6. Conclusions

Abstract

This chapter summarizes the earlier chapters. It also provides a discussion of a number of more general issues: the organizational capability of NSF to deal with deeply embedded social and cultural issues; how politics and the built environment have affected bottom-up and top-down initiatives related to broadening participation in computing; the impact of labor practices and funding models on the effectiveness of broadening participation programs; questions about where broadening participation programs should reside in NSF, the tensions between funding research and funding implementations, and differences in understanding of computer scientists and social scientists in carrying out these programs; the implications of adopting a pipeline metaphor; and topics not covered.

William Aspray

Backmatter

Titel: Participation in Computing
verfasst von: William Aspray
Verlag: Springer International Publishing
Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-24832-5
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-24830-1
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24832-5