Developing Relationships, Changing Participation: Computational Identity

Abstract

This paper examines a single case of an African American boy, Eric, who enrolled in a free week-long summer camp called Art and Coding. We consider how his participatory identity developed in relation to the design of tasks, the students and teachers with whom he interacted, and the tools that he leveraged. With the goal of better understanding the relationship between participation and the development of beliefs about oneself, we then connect our analyses with the students' self-reflections in interviews. For Eric, a novice programmer whose passion is art, the experience of being positioned routinely as a knowledgeable explorer supported him to feel capable of resolving problems and attaining goals that he set for himself, even as he encountered challenges and frustration.