Investigating Black Educator Attitudes and Motivations for Teaching K-12 Computer Science (BEAMS-CS)

The American Institutes for Research® (AIR) and Teach For America (TFA) are undertaking a Research Strand project for the NSF Computer Science (CS) for All: RPP program to examine the motivational factors underlying pre-service and in-service Black teachers’ decisions to become CS teachers. Currently, many U.S. K-12 students lack access to or participation in CS instruction.

A shortage of K-12 CS teachers is a significant contributing factor to students' lack of access to CS education, with roughly 70% of schools reporting it difficult to fill CS teacher vacancies in 2023. CS teacher shortages don’t impact all students equally; despite similar levels of interest in CS, Black students have access to and participate in fewer K-12 CS courses than their White peers.

There is not only a shortage of CS teachers, but Black teachers are underrepresented in the CS teacher workforce, with only about 8% of CS teachers identifying as Black compared to 15% of K-12 students. Students’ lack of access to racially representative teachers is concerning, as teachers are influential in shaping students’ CS academic and workforce trajectories.

Additionally, prior research has identified several academic benefits for students who have at least one same-race teacher. Unfortunately, CS teacher preparation pathways are limited. Black teachers also face racialized experiences in the profession, and there is little understanding of how these experiences affect Black teachers’ motivations to teach CS.

Given these substantial barriers for Black individuals to become CS teachers, and their historic exclusion from CS, this project will provide vital information about the motivational factors, experiences, and perceptions underlying Black teachers’ decisions to teach CS.

During the last decade, a growing amount of research has focused on the Black experience in computing education and computing based industries. However, few studies investigate how Black teachers’ professional motivations are influenced by their racialized experiences in the teaching profession within the unique context of U.S. CS K-12 education.

Further, research on recruiting Black pre-service and early career teachers into the K-12 CS teacher workforce has been limited. To address these research gaps, this project will focus on four research questions centered around motivational factors related to pre-service Black teachers’ interest in teaching CS; motivational factors that predict in-service Black teachers’ teaching CS; how Black teachers’ perceived barriers and facilitators to becoming CS teachers change from pre-service to in-service; and how Black teachers’ perceptions regarding teaching CS change from pre-service to in-service.

The researchers are surveying Black teachers in the TFA Corps during pre-service training and one year after in-service; conducting focus groups with Black teacher survey respondents during their pre-service training and one year after in-service; and directing sensemaking sessions with prior focus group participants to present study findings and understand potential methods for alternative teacher preparation programs to recruit Black teachers into the CS teacher workforce. The study uses the Factors Influencing Teacher Choice Framework, which posits eight motivational factors associated with teachers’ choice to enter the profession.

Elements of this framework align with professional considerations for CS teachers and Black teachers. In the long term, knowledge from this project could be used by alternative teacher preparation programs to recruit Black CS teachers and expand the CS teacher workforce, which is vital as alternative pathways prepare approximately 35% of Black teachers.

This project’s findings could also be applied to develop research-based approaches to increase the number of Black teachers in other STEM domains. This project is funded through the Computer Science for All: Research and RPPs program.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.