“These two worlds are antithetical”: epistemic tensions in integrating computational thinking in K12 humanities and arts

Background While advocates for integrating Computational Thinking (CT) into existing K12 classrooms have acknowledged and aimed to address various barriers to implementation, we contend that a more foundational issue – tensions between the epistemology of computing and those of existing disciplines – has largely been overlooked. Studies of contact between heterogeneous disciplinary perspectives in both pedagogical and real world professional settings point to other risks, and harms, that educators may need to consider as they attempt to integrate CT into their teaching. As such, designing for integrated CT pedagogies does not simply require addressing functional problems such as teacher professional learning and limited classroom time, but rather implicates complex epistemological navigations.