Ableism: Implicit or explicit social preference for nondisabled bodies and minds that creates prejudice and oppression of disability and disabled people (Shew, 2020).

Academic language: Specialized language used in academic settings.

Access: Giving all students the opportunities and support they need to participate in computer science (CS).

Accessibility: The process of making activities, environments, information, and interactions available to people with different needs.

Accommodations: Changes to a learning environment or to the presentation of curricular content that are offered to help students access content and complete learning tasks that are a regular part of the curriculum. Examples include using a microphone, arranging seating to facilitate movement, or using assistive technologies.

Advocacy: Publicly supporting and championing policies and changes that support equity-oriented CS education. Advocacy involves taking action to disrupt the status quo.

Affinity group: A group of people with shared identities who come together to connect around a common goal.

Antisemitism: A system of prejudice, discrimination, and hostility toward Jewish people.

Archaeology of self: The “deep excavation and exploration of beliefs, biases, and ideas that shape how we engage in the work [of equity]” (Sealey-Ruiz, 2022, p. 22).

Assimilation: Processes through which minoritized and marginalized groups are encouraged or forced to adopt dominant norms and practices.

Assistive technologies: Technology that helps people with disabilities perform tasks more easily or safely so that they can live, move, participate, and contribute in society more fully. Assistive technologies may include devices (e.g., walkers, prosthetics), materials (e.g., curricular aids), services (e.g., technical assistance), or software (e.g., screen readers).

Audit: A process of systematically reviewing your curriculum and instructional practices to assess where you are and where you can grow.

Biases: Attitudes, beliefs, or actions for or against an idea or group when compared with another; may be conscious or unconscious.

Bi/multilingual learners: We use this term to emphasize students’ varied and dynamic linguistic resources. We use “multilingual” to highlight how we may not be able to assume that a learner only uses two languages and may have a broader linguistic repertoire (Holdway & Hitchcock, 2018).

Broadening participation: A way of thinking about equity, similar to access, that seeks to increase the participation of members of underrepresented and/or marginalized groups in CS and CS Education (CS Ed). These groups have historically been excluded from computing fields.

Classism: A system of prejudice and discrimination in favor of people with higher socioeconomic status (e.g., upper middle-class) and against people with lower socioeconomic status (e.g., lower class).

Commitment: A statement that involves aligning personally with a set of values and pledging to a course of action based on those values.

Community literacies: Ways of reading, writing, speaking, creating, and interacting with the world that students learned from friends, family, and other communities outside of school.

Computational literacies: Real-world conversations where students use code and computing to create and communicate about CS.

Co-teaching: An instructional model where a general education teacher and a special education teacher teach together in the same classroom.

Critical consciousness: A social and political awareness that allows for a critique of how cultural norms, values, and institutions reproduce social inequities (Ladson-Billings, 1995).

Critical friend: A supportive person with whom there is a relationship of trust who can provide constructive feedback and ask difficult questions related to equity.

Critical race theory: A scholarly theory that frames race as a socially constructed reality embedded into society. Critical race theory recognizes racism as complex and intersectional with other social identities. It seeks to center racially marginalized voices through a commitment to challenge the status quo and work toward social justice (Bell, 2023; Delgado & Stefancic, 2023; Ledesma & Calderon, 2015).

Culturally sustaining pedagogies: Ways and approaches to teaching that value and center students’ cultural identities, practices, and ways of knowing as resources for learning rather than excluding or eradicating students’ cultures from the classroom (see Ladson-Billings, 2021; Paris & Alim, 2017).

Dead angle: An issue or topic related to equity that a person lacks awareness of or experience with or holds negative biases in ways that prevent equitable change. It also avoids ableism implicit in terms like “blind spot.”

Deficit narratives: Broadly held beliefs, including stereotypes, that identify groups of people as lacking or deficient in some way (Louie et al., 2021; Steele, 2011).

Digital racial literacy: Fostering digital racial literacy in CS Ed involves (1) developing students’ awareness of the role of human bias in shaping algorithmic bias and the ways in which racially marginalized communities are represented in and threatened by current and existing technologies; (2) preparing students and colleagues to manage the emotions they will face as they interact with CS products and possible workplace experiences that embed racism; and (3) empowering students to critique the impact of technologies on their communities and in their daily lives and empowering students to use technology to disrupt systems of oppression and galvanize their communities.

Disability: Any physical, mental, or emotional variance that impacts, limits, or makes more difficult major life activities in society as it exists today.

Disabled exceptionalism: Narratives that position disabled people as inspirational because they were able to “overcome” their disability and accomplish great things. Disabled exceptionalism objectifies those with disabilities and recenters ableist norms.

Disciplinary literacies: Ways of reading, writing, creating, and interacting with the world in ways that are connected to school subject areas and academic disciplines (e.g., history, math, science).

Diversity: Collectives of individuals with different identities, perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds. Diversity is often described in terms of social categories like age, disability, gender identity and sexual orientation, educational background, language, national origin, race and ethnicity, religion, and socioeconomic status.

Dynamic disabilities: Disabilities that have symptoms that fluctuate in severity, and daily functioning varies from day to day.

Dysgraphia: A learning disability that may affect a person’s physical ability to write and/or impact their ability to express their thoughts through writing.

Equality: An approach to addressing inequity that focuses on giving everyone the same resources and opportunities.

Equity as access: Giving all students the opportunities and support they need to participate in CS. Equity as access emphasizes giving everyone what they need to participate in mainstream CS. This approach recognizes that members of marginalized groups may not have the same opportunities to participate in CS, leading to a focus on broadening participation in CS and CS Ed.

Equity as transformation: A way of thinking about equity that recognizes that because the status quo tends to reproduce inequity, it needs to be transformed. Equity as transformation works to disrupt what is considered “normal” in CS disciplines and industries by valuing and centering marginalized knowledge systems, tools, and people.

Erasure: Processes and efforts that render invisible the presence and labor of marginalized and oppressed groups.

Essentialization: Reducing the complexity inherent in people or groups and portraying them in stereotypical ways.

Ethnocomputing: The study of computational practices that are entwined in marginalized/minoritized communities’ cultural practices (Eglash et al., 2006).

Exclusion: Processes and efforts that limit the presence and participation of marginalized and oppressed groups in a space.

Four I’s of Oppression and Advantage: A theory that illustrates how systems of oppression and advantage (like ableism, classism, or racism) are produced across multiple layers of society. The four I’s are ideological, institutional, interpersonal, and internalized. (See Bell, 2013; Chan & Coney, 2020; Chinook Fund, n.d.; Kuttner, 2016.)

Frayer model: A graphic organizer that helps students learn new vocabulary words and understand their meanings. The model places the vocabulary word/concept at the center of the map then explores the term across four quadrants: a definition, facts and/or characteristics, examples, and non-examples to clarify what the concept is not.

Funds of knowledge: Funds of knowledge describe the bodies of knowledge, cultural practices, and ways of interacting that students bring into classrooms with them from their home communities and cultures. Funds of knowledge may include students’ academic and personal background knowledge, lived experiences, skills to navigate everyday social contexts, and world views based on broader historical and cultural influences (González et al., 2005; Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, 2023).

Gatekeeping: Institutional policies and structures that control who gets to participate in opportunities and who has access to resources in ways that limit the participation of marginalized groups.

Generative computing: Computing approaches that connect computational thinking and computing practices to local community practices in culturally responsive ways (Lachney et al., 2019).

Homophobia: A system of prejudice and discrimination against or fear or discomfort with people who identify as LGBTQIA2S+.

Host leadership: Building coalitions across communities that draw on multiple perspectives to work collectively for equity-oriented change.

Hybridity: Bringing everyday and out-of-school knowledge into the classroom to help students learn academic content (Gutiérrez et al., 1999).

Identity-first language: A way to talk about disability that centers the disability (e.g., “a disabled person”). For some people with disabilities, identify-first language is an important way to reclaim their disabled identities so that disability is not perceived as negative. It is best to ask individuals whether they prefer identify-first or person-first language.

Ideological oppression: Dominant sets of beliefs and values that justify and maintain systems of oppression; often disguised as “common sense.”

Ideologies: Systems of ideas that circulate in society. Dominant ideologies perpetuate ideas that reinforce the supremacy of certain groups over others.

Imposter syndrome: Feelings and beliefs of intellectual and professional inferiority or incompetence; “a perceived self-doubt in one’s abilities and accomplishments compared with others, despite evidence to the contrary” (Walker & Saklofske, 2023, n.p.).

Individualized Education Program (IEP): A legal document mandated by federal law (IDEA, U.S. Department of Education, 2004) that outlines services and support that a student with disabilities will receive as part of their public education.

Inequity: Injustice or unfairness that is created and reproduced by social forces. It is important to remember that “fairness” does not mean “sameness,” so working to right unfairness and inequity does not mean just giving everyone the same thing.

Institutional oppression: Structures and policies within institutions that disadvantage certain groups and benefit others.

Intercultural competence: An awareness of one’s own cultural perspectives and identities and an ability to engage effectively with others across cultures.

Internalized oppression: Acceptance of negative stereotypes about one’s own group, leading to self-doubt and discouragement.

Interpersonal oppression: Prejudice and discrimination experienced by individuals or small groups in interpersonal interactions.

Intersectionality: A theory that recognizes how people’s different identities (e.g., disability, gender, race) overlap and intersect, creating access to privilege or resulting in oppression in ways that cannot be understood or addressed by considering each identity separately (Crenshaw, 1991; Collins, 2019).

Invisible disabilities: Disabilities that are not readily perceived by society.

Language agnostic: Computing approaches that focus on core computing skills that can be applied across different programming languages.

Language ideologies: Ideas, values, and assumptions about languages, language speakers, and language use that link language to broader social and political systems in different contexts (Irvine & Gal, 2000).

Language injustice: The systematic denial of people’s rights to use the language practices of their families, cultures, and communities or the systematic privileging of certain groups’ language practices over others’.

Language (linguistic) justice: Challenging white supremacy and dismantling linguistic racism to ensure that all people have the right to use the language practices of their families, cultures, and communities, eliminating the systematic privileging of certain groups’ language practices over others’ (Baker-Bell, 2020).

Language repertoire: A collection of resources used to communicate, make sense of the world around us, and learn.

Language resources: A collection of words, sounds, and syntaxes, gestures, signs, symbols, objects, and social knowledge about how, when, and where to use those forms in different contexts that make up our language repertoire.

Languaging: A verb used to indicate how language is something that people do in social contexts rather than emphasizing language as a noun referring to a static linguistic system.

Literate programming: An understanding of code as a form of expression that is part of a social conversation because computer code (programs) is meant to be read and understood by people and not just computers (Knuth, 1984).

Marginalization: The social process of excluding or oppressing individuals who hold identities that are devalued or differ from society’s “ideal” norm.

Marginalized/minoritized identities: Identity categories that are devalued by society, often because they are different from what society has established as the “ideal” norm. Those with marginalized/minoritized identities often face oppression and exclusion from mainstream society. We use marginalized and minoritized as adjectives to emphasize how social processes actively construct inequity (Black et al., 2023). The term “minoritized” emphasizes historical systematic oppression and may be used regardless of whether an identity group actually represents a numerical minority in a context (see Black et al., 2023; Flores & Rosa, 2015).

Matrix of domination: Intersecting systems of power that produce distinct and interlocking forms of oppression (Combahee River Collective, 1977; Collins, 2019).

Medical model of disability: A model that understands disability as an individual medical problem that should be fixed or cured.

Microaggression: Common, everyday slights (verbal or behavioral) toward socially marginalized groups or individuals; microaggressions may be intentional or unintentional, but they still significantly impact those receiving them.

Modifications: Changes to what a student is expected to learn or produce. Examples include shortening an assignment or adjusting a grading scale so that spelling doesn’t count toward a grade.

Neurodiversity: The recognition that there are a range of differences in how our brains work.

Neuro-variability: A term developed by the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) to describe how no two human brains are alike and that, consequently, there is no one “right” way to learn.

Opportunity hoarding: Processes through which privileged groups control and prevent access to resources for marginalized groups.

Othering: The process of treating a group of people (often those with minoritized or marginalized identities) as intrinsically different from the dominant social norm.

Paternalism: Treating individuals with disabilities in condescending or patronizing ways that deny them their agency and dignity.

Person-first language: A way to talk about disability that avoids defining people in terms of their disability (e.g., “a person with a disability”). It is best to ask individuals whether they prefer identify-first or person-first language.

Praxis: The combination of teaching practices and theory. This guide supports praxis by providing theories about equity that help teachers develop mindsets to take transformative action toward equitable CS Ed.

Pull out model: An instructional model where students with disabilities are pulled out of, or leave, their general education classrooms to receive specialized support from a special education teacher for a given amount of time.

Push in model: An instructional model where a special education teacher pushes into, or enters, a general education classroom to support students with disabilities for a given amount of time.

Racial-ethnic: This term recognizes race and ethnicity as social constructions. Both race and ethnicity — and the conflicts that emerge related to them — are relevant to issues of inquiry in CS and CS Ed. This term captures how both constructs need to be considered as part of developing digital racial literacy.

Racial-ethnic socialization: The process by which we as individuals develop racial identities and a sense of racial meaning based on social norms and expectations. Our racial-ethnic socialization shapes our attitudes, beliefs, and behavior, especially related to racial issues (Hughes et al., 2006).

Racial literacy: The historical and factual awareness of racial issues in the classroom and the emotional preparedness needed to discuss and engage with these issues (Stevenson, 2014).

Racial self-efficacy: The belief that one can cope with and manage racial-ethnic encounters in everyday life (Stevenson, 2014).

Raciolinguistic ideologies: Sets of ideas that draw on racism to shape dominant ideas about language (Flores & Rosa, 2015).

Racism: A system of prejudice and discrimination based on race that privileges individuals racialized as white and oppresses racially minoritized individuals.

RECAST framework: The Racial Encounter Coping Appraisal Socialization Theory, or RECAST, framework offers support to address racial stress and trauma and discuss racial topics in the classroom. The RECAST framework has three parts: (1) READ or becoming aware of racial stress and trauma; (2) RECAST or managing and coping with racial stress; and (3) RESOLVE or taking action against the root causes of racial tension (Stevenson, 2014).

Savior complex: Attitudes and actions where a person believes that they are responsible for “saving” or “rescuing” others by fixing their problems. The person acting as a “savior” often has a sense of superiority and takes action without the consent of those they are “helping,” denying their agency.

Segregated settings: A term used by disability scholars to describe how self-contained classrooms often reproduce racial segregation because of the overrepresentation of racially marginalized students in these settings.

Self-contained classroom: An instructional model where students with disabilities are educated in a special education classroom rather than a general education classroom.

Self-efficacy: A belief in one’s ability to accomplish a task or achieve a goal.

Sexism: A system of prejudice and discrimination based on gender and gender identity that privileges men and oppresses women, non-binary, and gender-fluid individuals.

Social justice: A view that wealth, opportunities, and privileges should be equitably distributed to all members of society.

Social-emotional learning: Learning skills and behaviors needed to develop healthy identities, manage emotions, and maintain healthy and supportive relationships (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, n.d.).

Social model of disability: A model that understands disability as diversity within minds and bodies, where individuals are disabled because of how society is built and organized.

Standard English: A socially constructed, idealized form of English that is not used by people in everyday life (Chang-Bacon, 2020; Flores & Rosa, 2015).

Structural oppression: Historically maintained structures and policies across institutions (e.g., the CS industry, education) that disadvantage certain groups and benefit others over time.

Syncretic: Combining different cultural, social, or religious beliefs and perspectives to create new practices.

Syncretic computational literacies: Merging literacies from students’ homes and communities, different academic disciplines, and CS to create new types of literacies and conversations.

Technoableism: The belief that technology is a “solution” for disability and that disabled people can be “fixed” by technology (Shew, 2020).

Theory: A set of ideas based on scholarship and practice that are used to explain and interpret how society works.

Therapeutic practices: Practices that can improve quality of life by addressing and helping manage and resolve discomfort, emotional distress, pain, or stress.

Tokenism: Treating a single individual as representative of an entire group or allowing the presence of a few people with marginalized identities give an illusion of representation and inclusion.

Translanguaging design: Pedagogical designs that incorporate translanguaging practices into classroom activities in ways that allow students to use all of their language resources in learning.

Translanguaging pedagogy: A way of teaching that builds on students’ diverse language backgrounds, supporting them to leverage existing resources in their language repertoires and to develop new ones.

Translanguaging shifts: In-the-moment moves and changes that teachers make to respond to students and allow them to use all of their language resources in learning.

Translanguaging stance: An orientation that frames language diversity across and within individuals as a resource, not a deficit.

Translanguaging theory: A theory of language that argues that people have one system of language features and practices that they draw on to make meaning, learn, and express themselves. These features and practices defy the named languages (like English and Spanish) that society has used to categorize language.

Transmisia/transphobia: Both terms describe a system of prejudice and discrimination against people who are transgender or non-binary and a fear or discomfort with people who are transgender or non-binary. Transmisia emphasizes how prejudice and discrimination are linked to hatred, revulsion, and disgust rather than fear (KosmicKult, 2020). It is an alternative to ableist language connected with the word “phobia” (Planned Parenthood, n.d.)

Trigger: A topic or conversation that surfaces strong emotions or memories; triggers can motivate equitable action or reproduce inequitable patterns.

Underrepresentation: A group of people who are not represented within a context or setting proportionate to their overall representation within the general population.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL): An instructional planning and teaching approach that seeks to meet the needs of all learners by reducing barriers to learning. The three principles of UDL include providing learners with (1) multiple means of engagement, (2) multiple means of representation, and (3) multiple means of action and engagement (CAST, 2024).

Xenophobia: A system of prejudice and discrimination against foreigners.

Baker-Bell, A. (2020). Linguistic justice: Black language, literacy, identity, and pedagogy. Routledge.

Bell, J. (2013). The four “I’s” of oppression. Begin Within. https://beginwithin.info/articles-2/

Bell, D. A. (2023). Who’s afraid of critical race theory? In E. Taylor, D. Gillborn, & G. Ladson-Billings (Eds.), Foundations of critical race theory in education (3rd ed., pp. 30-41). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/b23210-4

Black, C., Cerdeña, J. P., & Spearman-McCarthy, E. V. (2023). I am not your minority. Lancet Regional Health Americas, 19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lana.2023.100464

Center for Applied Special Technology [CAST]. (2024). The UDL guidelines. Center for Applied Special Technology. https://udlguidelines.cast.org/

Chan, E. L., & Coney, L. (2020). Moving TESOL forward: Increasing educators’ critical consciousness through a racial lens. TESOL Journal, 11(4), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesj.550

Chang-Bacon, C. K. (2020). Monolingual language ideologies and the idealized speaker: The “new bilingualism” meets the “old” educational inequities. Teachers College Record, 123(1), 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1177/016146812112300106

Chinook Fund. (n.d.) 4 I’s of oppression. Chinook Fund. https://chinookfund.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Supplemental-Information-for-Funding-Guidelines.pdf

Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning [CASEL]. (n.d.). What is the CASEL Framework? CASEL. https://casel.org/fundamentals-of-sel/what-is-the-casel-framework/#:~:text=High%2Dquality%20SEL%20instruction%20has,Guide%20to%20Effective%20SEL%20Programs

Collins, P. H. (2019). Intersectionality as critical social theory. Duke University Press.

Combahee River Collective. (1977). The Combahee River Collective statement. BlackPast. https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/combahee-river-collective-statement-1977/

Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241-1299.

Delgado, R., & Stefancic, J. (2023). Critical race theory: An introduction (4th ed.). NYU Press. https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9781479818297.001.0001

Eglash, R., Bennett, A., O’Donnell, C., Jennings, S., & Cintorino, M. (2006). Culturally situated design tools: Ethnocomputing from field site to classroom. American Anthropologist, 108(2), 347-362. https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.2006.108.2.347

Flores, N., & Rosa, J. (2015). Undoing appropriateness: Raciolinguistic ideologies and language diversity in education. Harvard Educational Review, 85(2), 149-171. https://doi.org/10.17763/0017-8055.85.2.149

González, N., Moll, L. C., & Amanti, C. (2005). Funds of knowledge: Theorizing practices in households, communities, and classrooms. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Gutiérrez, K. D., Baquedano‐López, P., & Tejeda, C. (1999). Rethinking diversity: Hybridity and hybrid language practices in the third space. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 6(4), 286-303.

Holdway, J., & Hitchcock, C. H. (2018). Exploring ideological becoming in professional development for teachers of multilingual learners: Perspectives on translanguaging in the classroom. Teaching and Teacher Education, 75, 60-70.

Hughes, D., Rodriguez, J., Smith, E. P., Johnson, D. J., Stevenson, H. C., & Spicer, P. (2006). Parents’ ethnic-racial socialization practices: A review of research and directions for future study. Developmental Psychology, 42(5), 747.

Irvine, J.T., & Gal, S. (2000). Language ideologies and linguistic differentiation. In P. Kroskrity (Ed.), Regimes of language: Ideologies, polities, and identities (pp. 35-83). School of American Research Press.

Knuth, D. E. (1984). Literate programming. The Computer Journal, 27(2), 97-111.

KosmicKult. (2020, July 19). Hate is NOT fear: Reframing homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia. Medium. https://medium.com/@kosmickult/hate-is-not-fear-reframing-homophobia-biphobia-and-transphobia-beabec366dc6

Kuttner, P. J. (2016). Hip-hop citizens: Arts-based, culturally sustaining civic engagement pedagogy. Harvard Educational Review, 86(4), 527-555. https://doi.org/10.17763/1943-5045-86.4.527

Lachney, M., Babbitt, W., Bennett, A., & Eglash, R. (2019). Generative computing: African-American cosmetology as a link between computing education and community wealth. Interactive Learning Environments, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2019.1636087

Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). But that’s just good teaching! The case for culturally relevant pedagogy. Theory Into Practice, 34(3), 159-165. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405849509543675

Ladson-Billings, G. (2021). Culturally relevant pedagogy: Asking a different question. Teachers College Press.

Ledesma, M. C., & Calderón, D. (2015). Critical race theory in education: A review of past literature and a look to the future. Qualitative Inquiry, 21(3), 206-222. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800414557825

Louie, N., Adiredja, A. P., & Jessup, N. (2021). Teacher noticing from a sociopolitical perspective: the FAIR framework for anti-deficit noticing. ZDM-Mathematics Education, 53. (95-107). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-021-01229-2

Paris, D., & Alim, H. S. (2017). Culturally sustaining pedagogies: Teaching and learning for justice in a changing world. Teachers College Press.

Planned Parenthood. (n.d.). What’s transphobia, also called transmisia? Planned Parenthood. https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/gender-identity/transgender/whats-transphobia

Sealey-Ruiz, Y. (2022). An archaeology of self for our times: Another talk to teachers. English Journal, 111(5), 21-26. https://doi.org/10.58680/ej202231819

Shew, A. (2020). Ableism, technoableism, and future AI. IEEE Xplore, 39(1), 40-85. https://doi.org/10.1109/MTS.2020.2967492

Steele, C. M. (2011). Whistling Vivaldi: How stereotypes affect us and what we can do. W. W. Norton & Company.

Stevenson, H. C. (2014). Promoting racial literacy in schools: Differences that make a difference. Teachers College Press.

U.S. Department of Education. (2004). Individuals with disabilities education act. Public Law 108-446. Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 20 U.S.C. § 1400

Walker, D. L., & Saklofske, D. H. (2023). Development, factor structure, and psychometric validation of the impostor phenomenon assessment: A novel assessment of imposter phenomenon. Assessment, 30(7), 2162-2183. https://doi.org/10.1177/10731911221141870