Using Online Practice Spaces to Investigate Challenges in Enacting Principles of Equitable Computer Science Teaching

Equity is a core component of many computer science teacher preparation programs. One promising approach is addressing unconscious bias in teachers, which may impact teacher expectations and interactions with students. Since early intervention literature indicates that asking individuals to suppress biases is counterproductive, our work uses online interactive case studies as practice spaces to focus on teaching decisions that may be impacted by unconscious bias. Our initial findings indicate that when embedded within teacher preparation programs, practice spaces produce rich learning opportunities, and our analysis yields insights into how beliefs or biases may interfere with principles of equity like disrupting preparatory privilege.