The Weave Project

A Collaboration between Arizona State University (ASU), Dublin City University (DCU), Carlow IT and the Professional Development Services for Teachers in Ireland (PDST).

By Jennifer McGarry

About the Weave Project

The Weave Project is an exciting collaboration between ASU and two Irish universities (DCU and IT Carlow) and the Irish Professional Development Services for Teachers (PDST). It is a two year project that aims to co-develop a cross-curricular, culturally responsive computational thinking framework and a supporting suite of resources for primary schools in Ireland. To achieve its aims, the project will iteratively develop the framework with four Irish schools, working with participating teachers and students to co-develop resources so that they are reflective of, and localised to, the contexts and backgrounds of the individual school communities.

Team Members

The team working on the Weave Project consists of Irish and American academics who are recognised experts in their fields. Dr. Monica Ward (Assistant Head for Teaching Excellence in the School of Computing, DCU), Prof. Deirdre Butler (Internationally known leading scholar and creative practitioner of methods supporting teachers’ professional development and students’ learning, DCU) and Dr. Yvonne Kavanagh (Assistant Registrar with Carlow IT) will work alongside Dr. Kimberly Scott to leverage her twenty-year history of developing culturally responsive computing frameworks within national and international settings to extend and develop this framework in an Irish context.

Working alongside the academic team in the co-development of the resources, are the teachers and students involved in the Weave Project. Initially this involves 8 teachers and 186 students in all-girl primary schools based in the counties Carlow and Dublin. Over the course of the 2 year project, the numbers of teachers will grow to 16 and subsequently 32 teachers, with student numbers increasing to approximately 1080 students by the end of Year Two. Although the co-development of the Weave Project begins working with all girl schools, the project will expand to include all boys and mixed gender schools in Carlow and Dublin as it is designed to be gender neutral.

Another key team member in the Weave Project, is the PDST (https://www.pdst.ie/). Leveraging the support and knowledge base of the PDST right from the beginning of this project is crucial in responding to and supporting the localised needs of the participating schools. Furthermore, their participation in the co-creation process is central to expanding the framework nationally, in a sustainable and scalable manner.

Why a Culturally Responsive Computational Thinking Framework?

Academic success does not happen in isolation: there are a number of other key factors, such as personal attributes and one's economic background (amongst others), that are connected to students performing well in academic spheres (Gay, 2018). However, there is also a need for an awareness and inclusion of other factors influencing student success, including but not limited to; cultural competence, moral and ethical development, and enhancement of non-cognitive skills to be afforded space in learning experiences (Gay, 2018; Gutman & Schoon, 2013). Consequently, underlying a culturally responsive framework is the creation of learning experiences that incorporate an individual’s interest, that pushes students to actively participate and engage with what is going on in the world around them enabling them to become, “active learners, social contributors, collaborative critical thinkers, resilient problem solvers, effective communicators, courageous dreamers, as well as being able to reflect on their own learning, setting their own goals and working across disciplines” (Butler et al., p. 42, 2021). Supporting the Weave Project in the co-development of such learning experiences that provide the space for culturally responsive computational thinking to happen, are the three key pillars (asset building, connectedness and reflections) of the COMPUGIRLS program developed by Dr. Scott. We are only in the initial phases of the Weave Project and we are excited to see where this Irish/American co-creational endeavour will take us - watch this space!

References

Butler, D., Hurley, M., McLoughlin, E., 2021. Immersive STEM Learning Experiences to Shape Shared Futures, Dublin: Dublin City University.

Gay, G., 2018. Culturally Responsive Teaching. 3rd ed. New York: Teachers College.

Gutman, L. M., Schoon, I., 2013. The impact of non-cognitive skills on outcomes for young people, London: Institute of Education.