Master's Defense: Ian Kollipara
Wednesday, April 15
3:30 PM
256C Avery Hall
Zoom: https://unl.zoom.us/j/95541358304
"The Impact of Community on Professional Identity in Computer Science Education"
This thesis explores the application of Communities of Practice (CoPs) in Computer Science Education. The work consists of two qualitative studies examining related but distinct populations: (1) K–12 CS teachers and (2) undergraduate CS students. The first study presents a retrospective analysis of conneCTION, an online CoP for K–12 CS educators, identifying strengths, weaknesses, and design considerations that inform future platform development. The second study investigates how participation in a CoP can mitigate negative and exclusionary stereotypes in CS. This study was conducted in an under-explored context: a small, private, religious, Midwestern university, and examines an existing community, the Programming Team. Findings from both studies suggest that CoPs can help counter negative stereotypes and support participants’ professional identity development. In addition, the studies identify several practical lessons related to establishing and sustaining CoPs across different environments (e.g., online, learning community) particularly with regard to recruitment and participation. Taken together, these results suggest that CoPs are a promising structure for supporting participants in CS education, especially in addressing persistent challenges such as exclusionary stereotypes and low self-efficacy. Future work should further validate these findings across broader institutional and educational contexts.
Committee:
Dr. Leen-Kiat Soh, Chair
Dr. Stephen Scott
Dr. Stephen Cooper
Dr. Heidi Diefes-Dux