Making Visible and Modeling the Underrepresented

Abstract

This work contributes to understanding of computing teachers' perceptions of themselves as role models. Role models are described as important to address under-representation, yet there is little indepth research on how role modeling works and what university teachers in computing can model to broaden participation in the discipline.In this paper we analyze teachers' reflections on how they may, or want to, be perceived by their students, particularly in terms of professional competencies, emotions and attitudes towards wellbeing. We use and further develop an already existing framework on role modeling in computing, and we relate our findings to existing research on computing and science identities. Modeling aspects outside the computing norm can help provide students with a wider notion of what it means to be a computer scientist.Besides developing the theoretical understanding of computing teachers as role models, our work supports various ways of developing computing teachers' competences and departments' teaching culture. The results are one way to contribute to student diversity and equitable access, and more broadly increase the relevance of computing education for sustainability.