The Fetishization of Coding

STEM Education & the Rise of a Generation of Coders

So it happened again…yet another one of my former college mates has decided to drastically switch his career path by learning to code and becoming a programmer. I run across this sort of update every other week or so in my social media feed, and I’m never really too surprised that another colleague has left teaching behind to find greener pastures. But I’m frequently perplexed to find that so many are leaving to embark on a career in coding — a discipline that seems so far removed from the arts and humanities trajectory we pursued in college together not too many years ago.

And coding isn’t just popular among my former colleagues. As an educator, I’ve noticed that many parents, too, are encouraging their children to learn to code. The recent boom in kids coding classes draws attention to public perceptions that coding is a crucial part of our children’s education. And the surprisingly high rate of enrollment in these programs indicates that many parents see coding as a valuable skill for their children’s employability and pursuit of a viable career in the future.

Over the last five years, I’ve noticed that coding has become fetishized as the cure-all for concerns related to employability now and in the future. Learning to code is celebrated as a way to secure a sustainable career in an industry that seems to be growing and evolving more rapidly than we can keep up. But is this the reality? I mean, how many more coders could we possibly need?

Here I take a look at how public perceptions of coding have been shaped through the promotion of STEM-based learning programs, movements, and initiatives since 2012. And I question whether learning to code is actually as crucial to skills development and future employability as it’s publicized to be, or whether these assumptions are a misinterpretation of the larger benefits and purpose of a good STEM-inspired education.

The Rise of a Fetish

Since 2012, STEM education initiatives have given rise to a number of campaigns and projects emphasizing the importance of computer science in primary and secondary school curricula. Media and industry reports over the past 5–6 years are littered with studies that promote coding as an important aspect of children’s education. And some educational institutions, such as state-run schools in England have even gone as far as to declare coding a mandatory subject for their students.

Over this same period, learning to code has been linked to meaningful social movements emphasizing equal opportunity for girls and underserved youth. This is especially apparent in initiatives such as the nonprofit Code.org, whose mission is to expand access to computer science in high-needs schools and, more specifically, increase diversity in computer science by encouraging participation by women and underrepresented minorities and populations.

The emphasis on computer science in primary and secondary education has given rise to assumptions that children simply won’t be employable in the future without some knowledge of coding. In response to parents’ concerns about their children’s future employability, there has been a dramatic increase in recent years in “coding for kids” programs and classes — classes in which parents eagerly enroll their children out of fear that their kids’ future livelihood depends on being able to code.

Promotion of kids’ coding programs is a beautifully choreographed, highly convincing campaign that (1) taps into parents’ fears about their children’s futures and (2) engages public support by aligning with social movements for equality in education and the workplace. Many STEM learning programs advocate that coding is a way to empower children for the jobs of the future; learning to code helps children build skills in critical thinking, innovation, and creativity. Others argue that access to coding courses is a fundamental right that should be extended to all students, regardless of their race, gender, background, or financial situation. And some even go as far as claiming coding skills are fundamental to literacy in the 21st century — right up there with reading, writing, and arithmetic.

It seems the future of our children, workforce, and nation all depend on coding.

A Basic Literacy Skill?

Advocates for this “learn to code” movement argue that all jobs in the future will somehow be impacted by coding. All jobs will require workers to use computers, apps, software, and other digital tools to complete their work. And while this may be true, it doesn’t necessarily mean everyone needs to know how to code. Our future workforce doesn’t need to know how to build digital tools with code in order to use them effectively and efficiently to complete work.

Coding itself is not a basic literacy skill and shouldn’t be championed as such. Basic literacy skills, such as reading, writing, and math, are applicable anywhere in any situation, in any field, in any job. Knowing how to code will only help you if you’re a software engineer.

Focusing on learning to code instead of learning to use digital tools is like teaching children how to build a car engine instead of how to drive the car. It’s like teaching them how to put together a computer from scrap parts instead of how to use a computer to complete their work. Or teaching them how to set up audio equipment and connect all its necessary cables, but not teaching them how to use that equipment to record, amplify, and produce sound.

But there is something to the whole STEM/ digital focus that is drawing attention to a set of skills required for success in the jobs of the future — and arguably for success in the jobs of now as well. These might be called basic digital literacy skills: knowledge of how to use email and digital file transfer platforms, how to share or access files in the cloud, how to access and use information and media online, how to use apps to coordinate tasks and communication, how to network professionally on social media, and so forth.

We often take our knowledge about using email, social media, apps, and the cloud for granted, but not everyone knows how to use these tools in their daily lives. And that is the real challenge as jobs and the way we work continue to evolve: to ensure that the upcoming generation has a basic understanding of using these digital tools to complete their work. But, again, this is much different from being able to use code to create those tools.

STEM Education is Not — and Should Not Be — Just About Coding

Thanks to initiatives introduced during the Obama era, today’s students have better access to quality STEM learning programs and opportunities to engage in STEM-thinking exercises and activities. And STEM programs in primary and secondary schools have certainly increased opportunities for underrepresented populations and underserved youth to explore STEM disciplines as options for their careers.

But the fetishization of coding itself within these programs seems to have missed the boat on the larger benefits and purpose of STEM education entirely. While there certainly are benefits in learning the language of computer science, coding is only one small part of STEM. And it’s really only applicable to the small percentage of the workforce who intends to write computer programs, software, or apps for the rest of us. Encouraging an entire generation to pursue a career in coding will only saturate the market and lower possible overall pay for anyone entering the field. Plus, there is always the possibility that coding will be replaced by AI bots who can build desired software platforms more quickly, accurately, and efficiently than humans.

STEM-based learning initiatives should focus on the larger goals of training our future workforce to hone skills in critical thinking and in using digital tools to solve problems and complete work efficiently and effectively. We must remember that coding practices themselves will change and continue to evolve. Coding practices that children learn today will be outdated by the time they are ready to enter the workforce.

But skills in critical thinking and problem solving combined with the knowledge of how to use and apply digital tools will never be outdated. Everyone will need to be able to devise innovative solutions to the problems of the future and use digital tools to get work done. These skills will become a basic requirement for professional work and tasks, in the same way that using word processing software or excel sheets is now an assumed prerequisite for most positions and workplace environments.

The more meaningful purpose of a good STEM education is to help students develop skills in critical thinking, exploration, and problem solving — skills that are emphasized in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics classrooms and approaches. These are the skills that will guide youth toward becoming more employable in the future in any profession, any position, any field. And while we can use coding as a platform for STEM-based learning, coding is not — and should not be — the only hands-on activity to develop and harness these skills.