Girls Can't Code and Other Myths: Middle School Girls' Identities and Future Career Interests in Programming

• In Event: 32.082 - Roundtable Session 11
  In Roundtable Session: 32.082-20 - Girls as Students in STEM

Abstract

The under-representation of women in technology and programming continues to be a significant social problem. Persistent stereotypes of who a programmer is and what a programmer does, distance girls from being engaged in programming and therefore inhibit them from pursuing computer science (CS) related careers in the future. In this study we are interested in understanding this gap in representation in CS related fields through lens of identity. We examine middle school girls’ narrated and performed identities during the course of the implementation of an embodied-based computational thinking (CT) software and curriculum. We are interested in exploring how the identities formed during this intervention influence programming/CT interests and future career interests in computer science.

Authors

• Nikeetha Dsouza, Clemson University

• Alison E Leonard, Clemson University

• Shaundra Bryant Daily, Duke University

• Sophie Joerg, Clemson University

• Sabarish Babu, Clemson University

• Dhaval Parmar, Clemson University

• Lorraine Lin

• Kara Gundersen, University of Florida

• Elham Ebrahimi, Clemson University