Exploring Intercultural Approaches to Resolving Sociocultural Tension in CS Classes.

CS education currently considers problems of access or participation for various marginalized groups, often in the U.S.-based settings. Yet even where such thorny problems are resolved, equity research suggests that sociocultural tension in classrooms -often between students themselves -may reproduce disparities and boundaries of the wider society, even (or especially) in politically- or ethically-conscious curricula (as argued recently by STEM equity researchers such as Sepehr Vahil and Na'ilah Nasir). A challenge thus remains in some diverse classrooms and contexts to teach understanding between all students, rather than purely computing. This lightning talk introduces our effort for intercultural computing education called the Nairobi Play Project, a computational thinking (CT) course for multi-ethnic East African youth that integrates intercultural competence and peace-building activities. We talk about our current exploration of theoretical and pedagogical alignments (and tensions) between CT and intercultural learning, and our current challenges in dealing with the complications of intercultural computing endeavors. We hope the talk opens up further discussion and debate on the role of CS educational spaces as sites sociocultural learning and disruption of the reproduction of disparities.