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Fri 22 Mar 2024 12:45 - 13:35 at Meeting Rooms C120-122 - Flock 3g

​​Despite being critiqued across political divides, neoliberal capitalism — i.e., a rebuke to the post-WWIl capitalist order by favoring marketization of public resources, including schools, and is driven by deregulation, overturning price controls, and privatizing the social welfare state — is hegemonic. It shapes our institutions and everyday life, including educational practices. The increasing push for market driven computing curriculum and large tech companies’ involvement in research grants and educational programs are some examples of neoliberal influences in CS education. In fact, we find that our educational institutions and curriculum are complicit in enabling neoliberal agenda; e.g., more so than CS departments or colleges of education it is Code.org that reifies many state CS education standards. Thus, a critical and reflective examination of our educational practices is necessary. In this Birds-of-a-Feather (BoF) session, we aim to conduct reflections and discussions on the role and influence of neoliberal capitalism in computing education. We will explore the influence of deregulation, public-private partnerships, and state-subsidized corporate wealth accumulation and centralization on pedagogy, research, and academic “success” within the Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE) community. We will discover reflective questions and practices that could help us critically examine our roles and responsibilities as computing educators and professionals. Eventually, we hope to begin a larger conversation and form a community to develop collective strategies and pedagogical ideologies to resist neoliberal influences, reimagine alternatives, and repair damages caused by neoliberal computing education.

Fri 22 Mar

Displayed time zone: Pacific Time (US & Canada) change

12:45 - 13:35
12:45
50m
Talk
Computing, Education, and Capitalism
Birds of a Feather
Amy Ko University of Washington, Francisco Castro New York University, Aakash Gautam University of Pittsburgh, Anne Drew Hu Michigan State University, Sara Kingsley Carnegie Mellon University, Michael Lachney Michigan State University, Aman Yadav Michigan State University