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ERI Scholar of the Month
DR. SHAUN DE VERA
Dr. Shaun de Vera is a TCRED faculty lecturer. He also manages projects for The People’s Think Tank, a coalition of groups working toward educational justice through intersectional organizing. Dr. de Vera has worked to promote educational outcomes for youth and adults from majority-BIPOC communities as a leader, teacher, and instructional coach in high schools and community-based organizations.
WHAT'S THE TOPIC OF YOUR PRESENTATION?
I discuss key findings from my dissertation on the knowledge that six middle and high school computing teachers have about examples of modern techno-racism, a phenomenon in which “the racism experienced by people of color is encoded in the technical systems used in our everyday lives” (Nkonde, 2021).
WHY IS THIS TOPIC IMPORTANT?
Currently, students in K-12 computer science classes largely do not learn about the field’s ability to propagate racial harms (Lachney et al., 2021). However, computing - central to modern life - perpetuates patterns of historical racism in new, tech-aided ways (e.g. the recent proliferation of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT). Understanding what K-12 computing teachers know about techno-racism, and how they learn it, may aid the initiatives of stakeholders who seek to promote antiracist computing education.
HOW DOES THIS WORK FIT WITHIN YOUR BROADER RESEARCH PROGRAM AND/OR WORK AS FACULTY MEMBER?
This research strengthens how techno-racism informs my work to promote racial equity in K-12 education with our teacher candidates, their schools, and wider equity-oriented computer science initiatives, such as an NSF grant-funded interdepartmental collaboration with three other CSUs (CS4NorthCal).
WHAT DO YOU HOPE THE AUDIENCE WILL TAKE AWAY FROM YOUR PRESENTATION?
I want my colleagues to learn about relevant examples of how computing perpetuates modern techno-racism. I also want to strengthen my colleagues’ understanding of how K-12 STEM teachers can enact anti-racism in their courses, and why this is essential to our pursuit of TCRED’s mission toward justice.
LINK TO A RECENT ARTICLE, PROJECT, OR OTHER SCHOLARLY-RELATED WORK:
