Incorporating Readings on Diversity and Inclusion into a Traditional Software Engineering Course

Computer Science courses must increase students' awareness of diverse identities and perspectives in the tech industry, foster a greater understanding of how lack of diversity and belonging in tech affect the world into which tech products are shipped, and inspire students to create more inclusive and welcoming spaces in the field of computing, whether it is the classroom, industry, or academia. This is becoming an increasingly critical objective given recent high-profile cases of discrimination and harassment in the tech industry, as well as the global reckoning of social injustice and systemic racism in the United States and around the world. Despite the importance of this topic, it is rarely included in Computer Science (CS) curricula, particularly in “traditional” CS classes that are otherwise technically focused. This paper presents our experience of addressing diversity and inclusion in computing in a traditional undergraduate Software Engineering course by incorporating reading assignments into the technical curriculum. Over the course of three semesters, nearly 600 students were required to read, reflect on, and exchange ideas regarding articles about why diversity is important, what tech companies are doing about it, and what issues are faced in the field of computing by women, People of Color, members of the LGBT community, and people with disabilities. This paper describes the background and motivation for this work, the logistics of implementing these assignments, and student feedback and observations. Our hope is that other CS instructors will be inspired to incorporate similar types of assignments into their courses as well.