Teaching and Learning "Brogrammers": Gender, Context, and Belonging in Three Postsecondary Computer Science Gateway Courses

• In Event: Gender Narratives and Institutional Contexts

Abstract

Building from findings that computer science continues to have the highest attrition rates proportionally for women within postsecondary science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, this paper uses an in-depth qualitative case study analysis of three gateway computer science courses across three research universities to investigate the relationship between locally-situated systems of educational practice and meaning and women’s persistence decisions. While previous studies have highlighted the connections between female attrition, self-efficacy, and computer experience, our findings also point to differences in local educational fields that, from the perspective of participants, can begin to mediate such influences, including opportunities for collaboration, fuller access to instructors, and departmental and campus support systems that contribute to a more meaningful sense of belonging.

Authors

• Ross Benbow, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Erika Vivyan, University of Wisconsin - Madison