Sukanya Moudgalya

Social Justice · Computer Science Education · Educational Technology · moudgal1@msu.edu

Hi Everyone! My name is Sukanya Moudgalya. I am an Assistant Professor of STEM Education at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. My research addresses various aspects of Socially Just Computer Science and Technology Education. Socially just Computer Science and Technology education (like Culturally Responsive Computing) has mostly been researched in informal contexts. I extend the research in formal P-16 contexts (Pre-Kindergarten to Undergraduate degrees) by (1) studying teacher preparation for justice-oriented education, (2) disrupting whiteness in CS and tech-fields, (3) designing tech-tools meant for civic participation, (4) studying the impact of anti-racist technology education on youth. I also aim to bridge informal and formal spaces so that local residents in a community can work with formal educators towards community needs and growth.


Education

Click here for a PDF version of my CV

Michigan State University

Ph.D.
Department of CEPSE - Educational Psychology and Educational Technology
Thesis Title - Navigating Whiteness in Computer Science to Support Youth Civic Participation
August 2017 - Present

The University of Texas at Austin

Master of Arts
Department of Curriculum & Instruction - Learning Technologies
August 2015 - May 2017

SASTRA University, India

Bachelor of Technology
School of Chemical and Biotechnology - Biotechnology
July 2010 - May 2014

Publications

  • Peer-Reviewed Articles:
    • 3. Allen, M., Green, B., Lachney, M., Moudgalya, S. K., & Robinson, C. (n.d.). Seeding Equity: UsingAdinkra to Seed an Equity Ethic in US Urban STEM Education. (Under Review in The Journal of Moral Education).
    • 2. Moudgalya, S. K., Lachney, M., Yadav, A., & Allen, M. (n.d.) Doubly White: Exploring WhiteComputer Science Teachers Ideas about Culture, Community, and Responsiveness in their Classrooms. (Under Review in the Journal of Teacher Education).
    • 1. Lachney, M., Bennett, A. G., Eglash, R., Yadav, A., & Moudgalya, S. K. (2021). Teaching in an open village: A case study on culturally responsive computing in compulsory education Computer Science Education, (pp. 1-27).

  • Peer-Reviewed Conference Proceedings:
    • 5. Mayfield, C., Moudgalya, S. K., Yadav, A., Kussmaul, C., & Hu, H. H. (2022). POGIL in CS1: Evidence forStudent Learning and Belonging. In Proceedings of the 53rd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE)
    • 4. Moudgalya, S. K., Mayfield, C., Yadav, A., Hu, H. H., & Kussmaul, C. (2021). Measuring Students’ Sense of Belonging in Introductory CS Courses. In Proceedings of the 52nd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE) (pp. 445–451).
    • 3. Moudgalya, S. K.,Yadav, A., Sands, P., Vogel, S., & Zamansky, M. (2021). Teacher Views on Computational Thinking as a Pathway to Computer Science. In Proceedings of the 26th ACM Conferenceon Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 1 (ITiCSE) (pp. 262–268).
    • 2. Yadav, A., Mayfield, C., Moudgalya, S. K., Kussmaul, C., & Hu, H. H. (2021). Collaborative Learning, Self-Efficacy, and Student Performance in CS1 POGIL. In Proceedings of the 52nd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE) (pp. 445–451).
    • 1. Moudgalya, S. K., Rich, K. M., Yadav, A., & Koehler, M. J. (2019, February). Computer Science Educators Stack Exchange: Perceptions of Equity and Gender Diversity in Computer Science. In Proceedings of the 50th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (pp. 1197-1203).

  • Lightly-Reviewed Conference Papers, Panels, and Presentations:
    • 6. Lira, A., Moudgalya, S. K., & Schimdt, J. (2022). Points of entry for disciplinary change: A panel ondisrupting education through innovation. American Educational Research Association (AERA) annual meeting , American Educational Research Association (AERA).
    • 5. Sands, P.,Moudgalya, S. K. & Yadav, A. (2021). Teacher Beliefs about CT Integration in K-5Curriculum. American Educational Research Association (AERA) annual meeting , American Educational Research Association (AERA).
    • 4. Moudgalya, S. K. (2020, April). Online Sharing Practices in a Computer Science Education Discussion Forum. American Educational Research Association (AERA) annual meeting , American Educational Research Association (AERA) (Conference was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic) .
    • 3. Staudt Willet, K. B. & Moudgalya, S. K. (2019, October). Community, network, or space: Conceptualizing inspired professional learning in an online discussion forum. Paper presented at the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) International Convention 2019. Las Vegas, NV.
    • 2. Moudgalya, S. K., & Willet, K. B. S. (2019, March). Communities and Clusters: User Interactions in an Online Discussion Forum for Computer Science Education. In Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference (pp. 2037-2044). Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).
    • 1. Staudt Willet, K. B., Moudgalya, S. K., Boltz, L. O., Greenhalgh, S. P., & Koehler, M. J. (2018, March).Back to the gaming board: Understanding games and education through board game reviews. In Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference (pp. 495-503). Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).

  • Doctoral Consortium Presentation:
    • 1. Moudgalya, S. K. (2019, July). Educator Supports in Broadening Participation in Computing. In Proceedings of the 2019 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research (ICER) (pp. 343-344). ACM

  • Invited Talks and Presentations:
    • 1. Moudgalya, S. K. (2021, November) Measuring students’ Sense of Belonging in Introductory CS courses. COMPUTE-21 Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) India Council

Research Projects

    Students’ sense of belonging in Computer Science (CS)

  • As a part of the IntroCS POGIL Project, I was primarily interested exploring students’ sense of belonging in CS due to the effects of teamwork in their introductory CS courses. I explored the validity of a large-scale instrument that measured students’ sense of belonging in CS using factor analyses and correlations. I also researched the survey’s validity in different learning contexts and among various student groups. In my paper at SIGCSE ’21 technical symposium, I proposed and encouraged researchers to consider the nuances of using quantitative surveys and predictive models, especially when researching sense of belonging for minoritized Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) students in CS.


  • Anti-racist approaches to K-12 CS teacher education

  • CS Educators Stack Exchange and Gender Equity I researched how educators explored gender and CS in an Q&A forum. I used educator questions and answers, then thematically analyzed ways in which they envivisoned women’s roles incomputing fields. I also explored ways of their communication and sharing praactices using social network analysis. This project lead to publications and presentations in several venues such as AERA, AECT, SIGCSE, and SITE.

  • Computational Thinking and Equity: I helped conduct workshops for a diverse group of New York City pre-service and in-service K-5 teachers (from ELA, Social Sciences, Science, and Math) to help them integrate Computational Thinking (CT) in their classrooms. I was especially interested in exploring if exposure to inclusive practices, and to CT as a whole, helped teachers better negotiate questions like “who can be a computer scientist?”. My involvement in this project lead to a paper in the ITiCSE conference.

  • Teachers’ thoughts on Culturally Responsive Computing: I interviewed High-School CS teachers and helped conduct a summer professional development workshop. Through these initial data sources, I began exploring if conditions of whiteness shape White high-school CS teachers' ideas of culture, community, and cultural responsivity. I analyzed the teacher interviews using qualitative coding techniques such as values coding, in-vivo coding, and codeweaving. I wrote an article that is under review in the Journal of Teacher Education

  • Engaging with a computing tool for civic engagement in High-School CS courses: I conducted workshops for High-School CS teachers on anti-racist computing. hrough a case-study approach, I am studyinh how they reflect on their identities and Whiteness as it operates in the society. I also am analyzing how they explored a computing tool to address school desegregation and the techniques they used to integrate social, historic, and societal aspects of using computing in their classrooms.

Teaching

I have been an Instructor and Teaching Assisstant at Michigan State University for several semesters. Please see below a list of courses that I have taught.

  • [6 semesters] CEP 416: Teaching and Learning with Technologies
    I have been both a Teaching Assistant (2 semesters) and Primary instructor (4 semesters). This course is an 400 level undergraduate introductory course to Educational Technology. This course discusses Design Thinking, Equity and Technology, Social Media, Media and Information Literacy, Coding and Computational Thinking, etc, in order to facilitate integration of technology in the future classrooms of the pre-service teachers. I have taught it in two modes: online asynchronous and hybrid (online/in-person).
  • [2 semesters] CEP 807: Capstone in Educational Technology: This course is an 800 level asynchronous online Capstone course for in-service teachers who are in the Masters of Educational Technology (MAET) program. This course focuses on the students (in-service teachers) showcasing the projects and artifacts they make during the their entire program by creating digital portfolios.
  • [1 semester] TE 150: Reflections on Learning This course is an 100 levelundergraduate introductory course to Educational Psy-chology. Pre-service teachers learn and reflect on the research behind human learningand development. I cover topics such as theories of learning, motivation, culture andglobal perspectives, and equity as they relate to teaching in K-12 classrooms. I have taughtit inin-personmode

Awards

  • Dissertation Completion Fellowship-Michigan State University (2022)
  • Dissertation Development Fellowship-Michigan State University (2022)
  • Dissertation Development Fellowship-Michigan State University (2021)
  • Erickson Research Fellowship-Michigan State University [2017-2022]
  • CUMREC Fellowship-Michigan State University (2017)
  • Desh Videsh Scholarship-SASTRA University (2014)
  • Dean's Merit List-SASTRA University [2010-2014]