Race, Intersectionality and Hidden Necessary Labour in Computing Education

This paper foregrounds a form of labour – hidden necessary labour – that post-secondary computing education does not recognize as legitimate work. Hidden necessary labour is the labour without which the institutionally and disciplinarily recognized epistemic and representational work of computing cannot happen for some students – especially historically and intersectionally marginalized students. To bring this labour into view, we develop a theoretical framework – racialized and intersectional valorization regimes – through a critical review of the post-secondary computing education literature, grounded in Marx's critique of the capitalist exploitation of labour. We adopt Marx's notion of valorization to name the process through which computing education recognizes certain forms of labour as legitimate, value-producing work. Within these regimes we distinguish concrete labour – the epistemic and representational work recognized as legitimate computing work – from abstract labour, the expenditure of human labour-power and labour-time on which that recognized work depends. Hidden necessary labour is abstract labour that these regimes require but do not valorize. We identify three dimensions of hidden necessary labour – structural and systemic, intersectional, and embodied and affective – and argue for centering intersectionality in computing education.