Restorying Computing Futures Through Electronic Quilting¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 1 claim (1 for) · 1 study (1 qualitative), q1 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 1 claim rests on one study

Description¶

A concrete operationalization of Womanist Restorying for computing education. Youth first name their own group's dominant stereotype of "who is a computer scientist" (in the source study: "old white men" who "code" and "know all technology"), then design an interactive quilt patch — built from construction paper, copper tape, microcontrollers, and LEDs — that tells a counter-story centering an underrepresented perspective (e.g., a Black woman founding computer science). The paper-circuit medium is chosen deliberately: it echoes Black women's historical quilt-making as a form of resistance and knowledge preservation, and its "looks simple, but complexity is hidden" character challenges norms about what technical work looks and feels like. Group quilting sessions are explicitly framed as a form of collaborative kinship-building, not solitary maker work.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• A facilitator who can teach basic circuit-building and microcontroller/LED programming alongside the narrative work — the strategy is genuinely dual-purpose (CS skill-building and storytelling), not storytelling with a token tech veneer
• A safe, small-group setting where youth are willing to name stereotypes and share personal narrative material
• Physical materials budget: roughly 6 pieces of construction paper, 2 microcontrollers, and up to 2 LEDs per group member

Constraints¶

• Demonstrated in a museum after-school setting over 4 weeks (8 hours total), not a standard classroom; adapting to in-school time constraints is untested
• Evidence is a single revelatory case study (one focal youth); the pattern of narrative deconstruction is well-documented for that youth but not established across a larger sample

Implementation Variability¶

• The medium (paper circuits/quilting) can be substituted for another craft-based computational medium if the historical/cultural resonance of quilting is not relevant to the specific learner population — the deconstruct/analyze/reconstitute narrative sequence is the transferable core

Target Learners¶

• Youth from groups excluded by computing's dominant "who belongs" narrative, particularly Black girls
• Link to sub-claim: Restorying supports Black girls' identification of and resistance to dominant narratives in computing [+W]

Target Learning Goals¶

• Building critical awareness of whose perspectives a field's dominant narrative centers and silences
• Constructing and computationally encoding a self-authored counter-narrative of belonging
• Link to sub-claim: Restorying supports Black girls' identification of and resistance to dominant narratives in computing [+W]

Instructions¶

1. Deconstruction (Day 1) — Prompt small groups with word-cloud questions: "Who do you imagine has been included in CS historically?" and "What kinds of people are talked about as computer scientists?" Introduce basic programming and paper-circuit construction alongside this discussion.
2. Analysis (Days 2–4, early) — Have groups write out their "dominant CS story" on large chart paper, deepening programming skills through structured challenges in parallel.
3. Reconstitution (Days 2–4, later) — Each group designs an interactive quilt patch that re-imagines at least one element of the dominant story from a less visible perspective, using LED programming to encode a narrative beat (e.g., a light activating at the story's turning point).
4. Close with a presentation or gallery display of the finished quilt, inviting each group to narrate their counter-story aloud.

Related Strategies¶

• (none yet linked)
• Use myriad field texts and the analytical tools of broadening, burrowing, and storying and restorying to move from field texts to research texts

Examples¶

• A 4-week after-school museum workshop where a 15-year-old Black girl, Heather, and her group designed a quilt patch depicting a Black woman computer scientist asserting "I can do this" against a skeptical supervisor, after having named "old white men" as their group's dominant CS stereotype.

Key Sources¶

• Shaw, M. S., Coleman, J. J., Thomas, E. E., & Kafai, Y. B. (2023). Restorying a Black girl's future: Using womanist storytelling methodologies to reimagine dominant narratives in computing education. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 32(1), 52-75. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508406.2023.2179847