Cultural Viewpoint Metaphors Resignification to Teach Programming.

This article focuses on applying the Cultural Viewpoint Metaphors (CVM), an epistemic tool from Semiotic Engineering theory, to structure the gradual teaching of programming concepts to beginners. The authors resignify CVM metaphors—originally designed for multicultural system design—to frame programming as a new culture that students progressively explore, moving from familiar daily-life analogies to independent programming projects using visual programming and the BBC Micro:bit device. A semiotic inspection using the Semiotic Inspection Method (SIM) was conducted on the MakeCode platform to evaluate how it communicates programming culture to novices, revealing that while MakeCode supports several CVM metaphors, it lacks features addressing the initial learner’s native culture (the Domestic Traveler metaphor). An introductory workshop applying the resignified CVM approach showed positive results in helping students understand programming concepts and motivated them to transition from visual to textual programming, although limitations included the short duration and lack of comparative studies. The work contributes a novel pedagogical framework for programming education and insights for improving programming platforms’ cultural mediation.