How Community College Transfer Women in Computer Science Navigate Their Degree Trajectories and Develop Their Disciplinary Science Identity (Poster 14)

• In Event: Excellence in Education Research: Early Career Scholars and Their Work

Abstract

Community college pathways are critical to advancing gender equity in computer science (CS). However, despite a wealth of literature exploring gender and women’s success in undergraduate CS programs, little is known about the experiences of women who begin their CS degrees at community colleges. My research addresses this gap in the literature by exploring the experiences of community college transfer women in CS. This presentation will focus on early project findings, relying on a subset of interview data from 12 women who entered their computer science major by way of community college. More specifically, I use feminist standpoint theory and draw on theories of disciplinary science identity and STEM transfer pathways to explore how community college transfer women make meaning of their CS identity and degree trajectories. Key findings suggest that “finish-in-four stigma” or pressure to complete one’s degree as efficiently as possible sometimes constrained upward transfer women’s ability to develop their CS identity and gain valuable opportunities that would inform their future careers. At the same time, developing a strong CS identity buffered against external pressures and positioned students to exercise agency in pursuing the trajectory that was right for them. Implications point to opportunities to humanize women’s lived experiences in CS and rethink degree efficiency as a unilateral policy priority.

Author

• Jennifer M. Blaney, University of Georgia