Training Effective Facilitators to Scale Equity-Focused Computer Science Professional Learning

Creating computer science (CS) classrooms in which all students - especially those historically excluded in CS - feel a sense of belonging is critical to equitably expanding CS education. Providing professional learning that prepares teachers to cultivate inclusive and culturally responsive environments at the scale needed to address inequities in CS education is a major challenge. This paper explores our experience scaling inclusive CS teaching through the development of a professional learning course for teachers and accompanying facilitator training. We describe key design decisions made over several iterations of the teacher-facing course and facilitator training. Our approach has aimed to balance the need for building community and safe spaces to converse about sensitive topics with the capacity to reach teachers at scale. We discuss findings from recent facilitator trainings and discuss best practices we have learned for scaling equity-based professional learning in CS.