We Tell These Stories to Survive: Towards Abolition in Computer Science Education

Abstract

Computer science (CS) education finds itself at a pivotal moment to reckon with what it means to accept, use, and create technologies, with the continued recruitment of minoritized students into the field. In this paper, we build on the oral traditions of educating with stories, and take the reader on two journeys. We begin with a story that leads us in thinking about where computer science education is, in the wake of slavery, under the New Jim Code. Within a BlackCrit framework, we shake the grounds of the computer science field, where technologies are often promoted as objective, but reflect and reproduce existing inequalities. In tune with maintaining current systems of power, efforts to broaden participation in computer science have been heavily driven by industry, government, and military interests. These interests ultimately push us farther away from sustainable relations with the earth and with each other, and risk the very lives of the same communities the field claims to help. However, we can rewrite the narratives of the role of technology in our lives. We present a second story in which we place abolitionist theories and practices in conversation with computer science education. In this paper we explore ( 1) In what ways does computing education support systems that enable Black death? and (2) How might integrating an abolitionist framework into computer science open up possibilities for worldbuilding and dreaming in the name of Black Life? We imagine a different future where computer science is used as a tool in life-affirming, world-building projects. We invite readers to engage with this piece as a part of an active dialogue towards combating anti-Black logics in the field of computer science education.Résumé La formation en informatique se trouve à un moment charnière alors que l'on prend conscience de ce que cela signifie d'intégrer, d'utiliser et de créer des technologies et que l'on continue de recruter des étudiants issus de minorités pour oeuvrer dans ce domaine. Dans cet article, nous partons des traditions orales d'enseignement par récits et amenons le lecteur à s'engager sur deux parcours.

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