Pathways Have Two Ends: Mixed Methods to Understand Girls' Trajectories to Computing Careers

• In Event: 42.041 - Innovations in Methods and Approaches to Tracing Youth Pathways Into STEM

Abstract

The lack of diversity in computer science has been the subject of both academic and media attention – of the STEM disciplines, computing has one of the highest rates of participation by White and Asian men, and correspondingly low rates of participation by other populations. To understand girls’ and women’s interest and pathways to computing careers, the researcher engaged in two studies, using varied methods.

The first study looked forward in direction, following school-aged girls from middle school to high school. A longitudinal repeated measures survey was conducted with young women who had extensive in-school computing experience in middle school. The girls were surveyed first at the end of 8th grade, then again at the end of high school, four years later. Data collected included participants’ experiences in formal and informal computing experiences, the social support they perceived for their participation in computing, and genres of experience – that is, whether they created artistic works (e.g. art, music), literary works (e.g. online publishing), or computational works (e.g. robots, computer programs, simulations). Results suggest that for girls who developed high computing career interest in middle school, they continue to find opportunities to participate in computing such as clubs, and develop social supports such as friends who encourage these interests.

The second study was a retrospective life history study, in which working female computer scientists were interviewed to investigate their pathways to computing careers. Most of the women described early computing experience, though not all described it as formative. Many of the women did not have school-based opportunities to learn computer science in high school, but most of them majored in computer science.

The purpose of this poster is to begin to combine these two data sets to understand what experiences and supports can encourage pathways into computing. For example, both studies suggest that early experience may be a powerful component in developing interest, but that high school may be a less important time to develop an enduring interest than either earlier ages or college-based opportunities.

This poster should encourage discussion not only of the commonalities and differences in findings between these two data sets, but also how different methods might be combined to support conclusions about trajectories. Traditionally in computer science education research, qualitative methods have been considered suspect; this poster provides and opportunity to discuss whether studies utilizing different methods might be combined to increase the validity of findings and to support the findings of each of the original studies.

Author

• Michelle Friend, University of Nebraska - Omaha