UC Irvine

This dissertation examines how low-income, racially/ethnically diverse students experience a computer science (CS) program, and the role of the home and school environment on students' program participation. Existing educational research (Yelamarthi and Mawasha 2010; Lam et al. 2004) suggests that students, regardless of race/ethnicity, would increase their interest and knowledge in computer science after participating in high-quality, cultural-inclusive CS programs, especially those facilitated by teachers who share the same racial/ethnic background as their students and can serve as role models for careers in computer science-related fields. This study demonstrates that students' experiences of this computer science program vary by racial/ethnic group and identifies potential mechanisms driving such variations. I find variation by race and ethnicity depends on students' different interactions with their teachers and parents, which influence the connections students make with computer science and their future career interests. These racial differences in perceptions before, interactions during, and takeaways after the program also reveal how students ideate social mobility, which is useful when thinking about whether educational programming will resonate with low-income students from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. I conducted a multiple case study (Cresswell and Poth 2016) at three middle schools to examine how students experience this program based on their home and school context. Each school implemented the program differently, either offering it as part of a class or as an after-school club. Contrary to STEM recruitment and retention models that suggest resources, such as exposure, mentors, and opportunities, will increase underrepresented students' interest and knowledge in these fields, I show that these resources are necessary but insufficient for increasing students' interest in computer science. Rather, I show that whether students' perceptions of computer science are negative or positive, and whether the program is successful in increasing students' interest in pursuing computer science further, are based on negative or positive interactions with teachers, parents, and peers. Students' overall positive or negative experience of the program is largely based on messaging received from the racialized experiences of teachers and parents, which influences whether students find the program's contents relevant when developing educational and occupational aspirations. For instance, the program's effectiveness at increasing students' interest in computer science fields is either augmented or weakened by how students' interactions with teachers align with the career-based messaging from their parents. For Black and Latino/a students, their program experiences are also informed by perceptions of their parents' occupations, such as whether their parents have labor-intensive jobs or work in hostile or disrespectful environments. I find that the participants at the school with predominantly White students received overlapping messages that reinforce the program's training and the students' projects completed as part of the program to computer science careers. White students also learn from teachers and parents that social and financial status associated with computer science occupations are valuable and should be aspired to. Participants at the school with predominantly Black students receive interrelated messages from their teacher and parents that differ from their White counterparts. While Black students' teacher and parents signal that computer science skills are necessary for future career advancement, this teacher communicates that computer science might be a toxic environment for Black workers, and parents advise their children that they should choose a career in which they can prioritize their mental, emotional, and physical health - something some Black parents feel is decidedly unattainable for their children in computer science fields. Black students conclude that computer science is an important skill to learn but not a profession that will allow them to thrive. The participants at the school with predominantly Latino/a students tend to have divergent interactions with teachers and parents. The students with positive interactions with their teachers tend to enjoy the program, and the students with negative interactions tend to conflate their teacher's frustration with a lack of self-efficacy in computer science skills. The parents have less influence in how students make sense of the program given their general unfamiliarity with computer science fields, but do guide their children to careers they are familiar with and consider reputable. Latino/a students were the only ones whose experience with the program was also based on their interactions with peers even though a peer component was not part of the curriculum. The consequences from these interactions and experiences that are informed by race, ethnicity, and class position at home and school result in students having different experiences and developing different perspectives about computer science. These findings reveal how race and ethnicity structure youth's conceptualization of social mobility differently and how that may impact their future career and educational aspirations.