Teacher And Student Empathy Interviews As An Instrument For Considering More Inclusive K-12 Computing Pathways

This paper presents the development and use of empathy interviews at Iowa City Community School District (ICCSD) which is the fifth largest school district in the state. At this district, equity challenges have arisen as the city has grown rapidly over the past decade, shifting from a rural and predominantly White college town to a burgeoning tech sector with a significant influx of Latinx families. During the first two years of participation in the Developing Inclusive K-12 Computing Pathways Research Practice Partnership (CT Pathways), the district developed a computing pathways document to guide schools and teachers in the integration of computer science (CS) and computational thinking (CT). After a year piloting their pathway, an Inclusive CT Pathways Committee was formed to review the existing pathways document and ensure it was ably addressing the district's overall equity goal of better serving students from Black and Latinx communities. As an orientation step to personalize this goal and understand it within the context of their own classrooms and schools, teachers on the Inclusive CT Committee conducted empathy interviews to learn more about the computing experiences of their students. Teachers reflected upon the structure of the interview protocol, the insights they gained, and the potential opportunities the approach afforded them to address misconceptions about computing. They described the interviews as opportunities to learn more about designing supports, on-ramps, and more inclusive computing opportunities for students.