Computer Science Education in U.S. and Chinese High Schools

Undergraduate: Wanyi Chen

Faculty Advisor: Ryan Shaw
Department: Information Science

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In today¿¿¿s ¿¿¿information age¿¿¿, across the globe digital technologies are transforming people¿¿¿s everyday lives. These advances have depended on computer science, so it becomes important to ask who will be the next generation of computer scientists: who gets early access and a head start into CS, and who lacks such access. High school CS education plays an important role. In this study, I examined various literatures on how the U.S. and China responded to the opportunities and challenges of bringing CS to high school students. I took a cultural studies approach: cultural studies¿¿¿ concept of articulation¿¿¿the artificial association of distinct notions, provided a framework for analysis. By looking at how CS is articulated with distinct notions such as race, gender, power, and citizenship, I analyzed the reasoning and struggles behind the classroom scenes. I traced through a brief history of K-12 CS education in both countries, and analyzed how various education practitioners (industry, academia, government, nonprofit) approached high school CS education with slightly different roles and motivations. The comparison between countries showed that although currently CS education resources are distributed unevenly, education practitioners in both countries think that CS should be for everyone: it is no longer enough to simply teach students how to use software, but students should be creators of software and drive future innovations.