2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The purpose of this Work In Progress paper is twofold: 1) to share the story of the evolution of our research to rehumanize our community of computing education researchers and educators and 2) to share our research findings examing the ways in which people are attending to their own whole humanness in order to be able to continue showing up and working toward liberation day after day. What began as a focus on how teams use data to inform equitable programs, policies and practices with a lens on intrateam power dynamics and representation, shifted to seeking to understand how those working towards equity in computing education in an increasingly hostile political climate sustain momentum and persevere. We situate our work in a lineage examining radical self-care, and make a call to invest in our collective professional spaces as communities of care that celebrate individuals while remaining rooted in collective healing. As members of the third cohort of Fellows from the Cultural Competence in Computing (3C) program we were required to complete a project that would implement what we learned through the year-long professional development program.

A set of interviews with state leaders, often based at a university, focusing on expanding equitable computing opportunities in the K-12 system surfaced how challenging it is to work in a rapidly changing environment. A specific question asked participants in the study what they do for self care. Our interviewees commented they had never been asked this question before. Heading into a national conference which brings K-12 CS teachers and researchers together, we prepared a two question survey to further explore the issue. This survey asked “What do you do to care for yourself so you can show up everyday?” Nearly 60% of the 111 respondents reported that they had never been asked this question. Responses included habits of personal care like proper nutrition, exercise, sunlight and professional mental health care. Others discussed grounding themselves in spiritual practice and purpose. A third group discussed maintaining their focus on the “why” by centering their students at the forefront. A much smaller group did not report any self-sustaining activities.

This study surfaced two important considerations for the community. The first is how important it is to discuss self-care as a part of professional practice. Responses we received were highly individual and suggest that there is a communal need to recognize and support individuals to prevent the burnout and dehumanization that we - educators, researchers, leaders -- collectively face. The second consideration is expanding research activities to include humanizing questions so that we can continue to understand the impact of the political and cultural systems on those who are the focus of our research, including ourselves. There is increased recognition that students are people, which has led to significant increases in investment on student well-being. We are calling for that same level of recognition that educators, researchers and faculty, and policy leaders are also people, and are equally in need of investment and support.