ABSTRACT
The barriers to diversity in computer science (CS) are complex, consisting of both structural and social barriers. In this paper, we focus on social perceptions for students in grades 7-12 in the U.S. using surveys of nationally representative samples of 1,672 students, 1,677 parents, 1,008 teachers, 9,805 principals, and 2,307 superintendents. Building on qualitative work by Lewis, Anderson, and Yasuhara [1,2], we sought to understand social beliefs regarding students' fit and ability as well the external context. We examined these factors' relationships to students' interest. The results are consistent with the current body of research on gender differences in social perceptions in CS. They also identify new findings for race/ethnicity, specifically Black and Hispanic students. As K-12 CS expands, these findings could inform differentiation strategies in equitably engaging students.
- Lewis, Colleen M., Ruth E. Anderson, and Ken Yasuhara. 2016. I Don't Code All Day: Fitting in Computer Science When the Stereotypes Don't Fit. In Proceedings of the 2016 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research, 23--32. ACM, 2016. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Lewis, Colleen M., Ken Yasuhara, and Ruth E. Anderson. 2011. Deciding to major in computer science: a grounded theory of students' self-assessment of ability. In Proceedings of the seventh international workshop on Computing education research, 3--10. ACM, 2011. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Google Inc. & Gallup. 2016. Trends in the State of Computer Science in U.S. K-12 Schools. Retrieved from http://goo.gl/j291E0.Google Scholar
- Margolis, Jane, Rachel Estrella, Joanna Goode, Jennifer Jellison Holme, and Kim Nao. 2010. Stuck in the shallow end: Education, race, and computing. MIT Press, 2010.Google Scholar
- Susan Colby, Helen Ma, Kelsey Robinson, and Lareina Yee. 2016. What It Will Take to Make the Tech Industry More Diverse. Harvard Business Review.Google Scholar
- Victoria J. Rideout, Kimberly A. Scott, and Kevin A. Clark. 2016. The Digital Lives of African American Tweens, Teens, and Parents: Innovating and Learning with Technology. (Fall 2016). Retrieved April 1, 2017 from https://cgest.asu.edu/sites/default/files/digital_lives_report_0.pdf.Google Scholar
- Lori Carter. 2006. Why students with an apparent aptitude for computer science don't choose to major in computer science. ACM SIGCSE Bulletin 38, 1 (2006), 27--31. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Tor Busch. 1995. Gender differences in self-efficacy and attitudes toward computers. Journal of educational computing research 12, 2 (1995), 147--158. Google ScholarCross Ref
- Anne-Kathrin Peters and Arnold Pears. 2013. Engagement in Computer Science and IT--What! A Matter of Identity?. In Learning and Teaching in Computing and Engineering (LaTiCE), 2013, 114--121. IEEE, 2013. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Tamar Levine and Smadar Donitsa-Schmidt. 1998. Computer use, confidence, attitudes, and knowledge: A causal analysis. Computers in human behavior 14, 1 (1998), 125--146. Google ScholarCross Ref
- Allison Master, Sapna Cheryan, and Andrew N. Meltzoff. 2016. Computing whether she belongs: Stereotypes undermine girls' interest and sense of belonging in computer science. Journal of Educational Psychology 108, 3 (2016), 424.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Linda J. Sax, Kathleen J. Lehman, Jerry A. Jacobs, M. Allison Kanny, Gloria Lim, Laura Monje-Paulson, and Hilary B. Zimmerman. 2017. Anatomy of an enduring gender gap: The evolution of women's participation in computer science. The Journal of Higher Education 88, no. 2 (2017), 258--293. Google ScholarCross Ref
- Amanda B. Diekman, Elizabeth R. Brown, Amanda M. Johnston, and Emily K. Clark. 2010. Seeking congruity between goals and roles: A new look at why women opt out of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics careers. Psychological Science 21, 8 (2010), 1051--1057. doi:10.1177/0956797610377342. Google ScholarCross Ref
- Jacquelynne S. Eccles. 2007. Where Are All the Women? Gender Differences in Participation in Physical Science and Engineering. In S. Ceci (Ed); Williams, Wendy M. (Ed). (2007). Why aren't more women in science?: Top researchers debate the evidence, (pp. 199--210). Washington, DC, US: American Psychological Association, xx, 254 ppGoogle ScholarCross Ref
- David C. Webb and Susan B. Miller. 2015. Gender analysis of a large scale survey of middle grades students' conceptions of computer science education. In Proceedings of the Third Conference on GenderIT, 1--8. ACM, 2015. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Jill Denner, Linda Werner, Lisa O'Connor, and Jill Glassman. 2014. Community college men and women: A test of three widely held beliefs about who pursues computer science. Community College Review 42, 4 (2014), 342- 362. Google ScholarCross Ref
- Monica M. McGill, Adrienne Decker, and Amber Settle. 2016. Undergraduate Students' Perceptions of the Impact of Pre-College Computing Activities on Choices of Major. ACM Transactions on Computing Education (TOCE) 16, no. 4 (2016), 15. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Mark Guzdial, Barbara J. Ericson, Tom McKlin, and Shelly Engelman. 2012. A statewide survey on computing education pathways and influences: Factors in broadening participation in computing. In Proceedings of the 9th Annual International Conference on International Computing Education Research (ICER'12). ACM, New York, NY, 143--150. http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/2361276.2361304. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Joanna Goode, Rachel Estrella, and Jane Margolis. 2006. Lost in translation: Gender and high school computer science. na, 2006.Google Scholar
- Joanne M. Badagliacco. 1990. Gender and race differences in computing attitudes and experience. Social Science Computer Review 8, 1 (1990), 42--63. Google ScholarCross Ref
- Thomas J. Smith, Spencer L. Pasero, and Cornelius M. McKenna. 2014. Gender effects on student attitude toward science. Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society 34, 1--2 (2014), 7--12.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Yuk Fai Cheong, Frank Pajares, and Paul S. Oberman. 2004. Motivation and academic help-seeking in high school computer science. Computer Science Education 14, 1 (2004), 3--19. Google ScholarCross Ref
- Heather Dryburgh. 2000. Underrepresentation of girls and women in computer science: Classification of 1990s research. Journal of educational computing research 23, 2 (2000), 181--202. Google ScholarCross Ref
- Allan Fisher, Jane Margolis, and Faye Miller. 1997. Undergraduate women in computer science: experience, motivation and culture. In ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, vol. 29, 1, pp. 106--110. ACM, 1997. Google ScholarDigital Library
- United States Census Bureau. 2016. Current Population Survey. Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/cps.html. Google Inc. & Gallup. 2016. Diversity Gaps in Computer Science: Exploring the Underrepresentation of Girls, Blacks and Hispanics. Retrieved from http://goo.gl/PG34aH.Google Scholar
- Google Inc. & Gallup. 2016. Diversity Gaps in Computer Science: Exploring the Underrepresentation of Girls, Blacks and Hispanics. Retrieved from http://goo.gl/PG34aH.Google Scholar
- Carol S. Dweck. 2008. Mindset: The new psychology of success. Random House Digital, Inc., 2008.Google Scholar
- Irene V. Blair. 2002. The malleability of automatic stereotypes and prejudice. Personality and Social Psychology Review 6, 3 (2002), 242--261. Google ScholarCross Ref
- Molly Carnes, Patricia G. Devine, Linda Baier Manwell, Angela Byars- Winston, Eve Fine, Cecilia E. Ford, Patrick Forscher, Carol Isaac, Anna Kaatz, Wairimu Magua, Mari Palta, and Jennifer Sheridan. 2015. Effect of an intervention to break the gender bias habit for faculty at one institution: a cluster randomized, controlled trial. Academic medicine: journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges 90, 2 (2015), 221.Google Scholar
- Sarah M. Jackson, Amy L. Hillard, and Tamera R. Schneider. 2014. Using implicit bias training to improve attitudes toward women in STEM. Social Psychology of Education 17, 3 (2014), 419--438. Google ScholarCross Ref
- Jason A. Okonofua, David Paunesku, and Gregory M. Walton. 2016. Brief intervention to encourage empathic discipline cuts suspension rates in half among adolescents." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2016). doi: 10.1073/pnas.1523698113. Google ScholarCross Ref
- Robert W. Lent, Steven D. Brown, and Kevin C. Larkin. 1984. Relation of selfefficacy expectations to academic achievement and persistence. Journal of counseling psychology 31, 3 (1984), 356.Google ScholarCross Ref
Index Terms
- Social Perceptions in Computer Science and Implications for Diverse Students
Recommendations
Landscape of K-12 Computer Science Education in the U.S.: Perceptions, Access, and Barriers
SIGCSE '16: Proceedings of the 47th ACM Technical Symposium on Computing Science EducationThrough surveys of 1,673 students, 1,685 parents, 1,013 teachers, 9,693 principals, and 1,865 superintendents across the United States, this study explores perceptions, access, and barriers to computer science education at the K-12 level. We found most ...
Diversity Barriers in K-12 Computer Science Education: Structural and Social
SIGCSE '17: Proceedings of the 2017 ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science EducationAs computer science (CS) education expands at the K-12 level, we must be careful to ensure that CS neither exacerbates existing equity gaps in education nor hinders efforts to diversify the field of CS. In this paper, we discuss structural and social ...
Income, race, and class: exploring socioeconomic differences in family technology use
CHI '12: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing SystemsMinorities are the fastest growing demographic in the U.S. and the poverty level in the U.S. is the highest it has been in 50 years. We interviewed middle to upper class, suburban, white American parents and low-income, urban, African-American parents ...
Comments