2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Motivation. With the growth of primary and secondary computing education research (CER), comes challenges and barriers to conducting this research. Despite previous work investigating barriers to CER focused on diversity, equity and inclusion, there has not yet been an investigation of barriers to conducting CER through the equity lens of the Capacity, Access, Participation, and Experience (CAPE) Framework. The CAPE Framework is a tool used to help people who play a role in computing education, such as educators, policymakers, and researchers, assess equity in computing ecosystems. The framework is composed of four components: Capacity, Access, Participation, and Experience. These components create a linear dependency from Capacity to Experience. The main idea of the framework is that equity must be assessed at every level to exist in an entire entity. Therefore, our objective is to evaluate the different components, or levels, of barriers that researchers in the primary and secondary CER community face when conducting research.
Research Questions. To address the identified research gap, we answer the following research questions: RQ1) What barriers do researchers face in
the CER community when investigating the four components of CAPE (Capacity, Access,
Participation, Experience)?and RQ2) What barriers do researchers face in the CER community when investigating marginalized groups in their research?
Research Methods. We distributed a survey to over 1500 members of the CER community that asked participants about the barriers they face when conducting research in CER. This includes the CSTA message board, the SIGCSE email group, a message board for CER graduate students, and more. The survey asked matrix questions related to the CAPE components that participants investigated or have investigated and open-ended questions about barriers they faced when conducting studies with participants of primary and secondary age.
Results. Using thematic analysis, we were able to identify 20 barriers researchers face when conducting CER. The most common themes were Funding, Time/Timing, Access to Research Populations, and Lack of CER training for Administrators. Another interesting result is that the barrier of Funding is the greatest barrier faced by all involved in primary and secondary CER, regardless of role.
Implications. Our findings give members of the CER community information on why there is a low amount of research studying certain topics and groups and indicate that funding is the most common barrier for all roles in the community. Identification of these barriers can inform the CER community of the challenges the majority of the community faces in publishing primary and secondary CER. To address these barriers, we suggest creating materials, workshops, and professional developments to specifically inform the community about resources and methods to mitigate these barriers.