Hello!
My name is Madison Allen Kuyenga. I am a PhD candidate in the Educational Psychology and Educational Technology Program in the Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology, and Special Education at Michigan State University’s College of Education. I study culturally responsive and sustaining (CRS) computer science (CS) education and build upon work in the domain of ethnocomputing. This basically means that I help uncover the embedded computational and mathematical aspects within a culture’s daily practices and/or artifacts. For example, two of my mentors Ron Eglash and Audrey Bennett created the Cornrow Curves applet that uses braiding (a common cultural practice among African and African Americans) and braids (the outcome of braiding) to teach children about iteration (mathematical repetition and scaling). Over the last 5 years, I’ve worked with my doctoral advisor Michael Lachney to create the Barbershop Computing applet that uncovers the engineering knowledge of cutting hair and that lives in Black Barbershops! These exciting projects show that culture and computing share a unique relationship and can learn from one another.
My dissertation project falls in this vein of ethnocomputing work, called Culturally Situated Design Tools. These tools are visual programming environments that extend, remix, and/or replicate defined cultural practices from various indigenous and vernacular cultures. I am currently working with an African American textile artisan and advocate to create Computiles. The first version of this is called Omari and can be accessed here. We designed this project around the computational thinking skills (abstraction, algorithmic thinking, debugging, etc.) that fabric designers have used for centuries. I have used this tool to support teaching computational thinking skills in Advanced Placement CS courses.
In my future career as faculty, I desire to carry out CS education in out-of-school learning environments like museums and libraries. This goal in addition to some of my past experiences have brought me to the Cultural Heritage Informatics Fellowship. When finishing my bachelor’s degree in African American Studies and Sociology, I completed an internship at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. During this time, I was able to see behind the scenes and decision making that goes into the daily functions and development of the museum. I also had the opportunity to work in the archives of the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University. I brought these experiences with me to graduate school and I began working in recreation centers and libraries. Then, the COVID 19 pandemic severely changed the course of my studies. I pivoted and proposed my practicum work to support an emergency remote teaching scenario where we developed a highschool CS curriculum based on the Adinkra knowledge system— based on Ron’s work with fractals and African mathematics. I have been carrying out this type of work since 2019. Though I enjoy it, I’m looking forward to returning to out-of-school, community spaces in my faculty career. The significance of these spaces and the rich learning experiences they provide is something that has been inspiring to me.
Recent Comments