ABSTRACT
There are long-standing debates in the computing education research community around teaching computer science (CS) versus computational thinking (CT). At the same time, schools have begun to embrace CT integration, particularly at the elementary and middle school levels. This chapter applies a systems change and policy implementation perspective to the case of a small school district’s development of a CT-focused computing education initiative in order to examine this issue on the ground. It explores why CT was embraced by district leaders, highlighting motivations that were rooted in goals around both equitable participation in computing education as well as district mission alignment. It then highlights tensions that played out following the move toward CT that were linked to coordination with existing district initiatives, leadership team constitution, faculty buy-in around CT-related instructional shifts, and numerous limitations of the CT frame vis-à-vis the goals of computing education in the district. Our findings reflect how many of the very debates that exist in the “ivory tower” of the CS education research world were mirrored in the “schoolhouse” – the context of real-world implementation – and shed empirical light on how CT as a construct needs to be considered not only from a pedagogical perspective but from an institutional one as well.
