Employing an Abolitionist, Critical Race Pedagogy in CS: Centering the Voices, Experiences and Technological Innovations of Black Youth
Tiera Tanksley
Abstract
This paper proposes a pedagogical extension of culturally responsive praxis called abolitionist, critical race pedagogy in CS. To showcase the power and potentiality of this pedagogy, this paper examines the experiences of 2 cohorts of Black high school students (n = 30) who participated in a critical race technology course that was taught during the dual pandemic of COVID-19 and anti-Black racism. The goal of this summer course was to employ an abolitionist, critical race pedagogy in CS to foster Black students’ ability to critically examine the ubiquity of anti-Black racism within the socio-technical architectures (e.g. code, data, algorithms and interfaces) of popular technologies, and to leverage critical race computational thinking to design race-conscious and justice-oriented technology products.