How to Encourage Young Women and Marginalized People to Participate in CS and Engineering (part one)

by Pati Ruiz

This past July, I had the opportunity to present my dissertation research at the Computer Science Teachers Association conference in Omaha, Nebraska! My presentation was titled 5 Ways to Encourage Young Women & AHN to Participate in CS and Engineering. In this series of two posts I will summarize the highlights and share resources that I found incredibly helpful as I conducted my research.

In a recent Medium post, Code.org reported that in 2018, young women still only account for 28% of all students participating in AP Computer Science exams and only 21% of African Americans/Blacks, Hispanic/Latinx, and Native Americans/Alaskan Natives (AHN) youth participate. This is a problem that researchers like Jane Margolis have been working on for years. Dr. Margolis describes this structural inequality in computer science (CS) participation as an issue of empowerment and preparatory privilege. Addressing and dismantling the systems that perpetuate the underrepresentation of women and other groups in CS is important for the sake of equity and would also offer economic benefits (Beyer, 2014). With technology ubiquitous and mediating much of our daily lives, access to CS has become a civil rights issue. It is essential that those who sit at the design tables and those who lead technology projects represent diverse perspectives and the needs of our population as a whole. Unfortunately, there is a deep-seated lack of representation of women and AHNs in the computing field. This problem is the one I set out to study. My research focused on:

• The intersectional identities of young women,
• The distribution of power in computing, and
• The elements that support, promote, and sustain the participation of women and underrepresented minorities in technical fields.

While I did study participants who identify as female, when I use the term “underrepresented minorities” I am including a range of identifiers that are considered marginalized in tech and computing, including the gender spectrum, age, race, socioeconomic status, and ability. Through my study, I wanted to gain a better understanding of the lived experiences of underrepresented women in undergraduate computer science and engineering programs. Among my primary findings is that more work needs to be done for positive advances to be made in the field.

This problem is particularly relevant to me. When I was in college, I studied CS in the school of business. That meant learning fundamental methodologies and approaches to computer programming with an emphasis on examining the complex relationships among science, information technology, business, and society. I did not go into the technology field immediately after graduation, though. The tech bubble had just burst, and I kept hearing about how hard it would be for me to find a job in tech. That — mixed with traditional CS world stereotypes (male, antisocial, etc.), stereotype threat, and not knowing anyone in the field or having a helpful advisor or any friends in my major who could help me — led me to pursue another passion: teaching. While I am so thankful to have gotten to teach Spanish (my first language) and Computer Science in grade 6-12 settings for over 15 years, I often wondered what would have happened if I had persisted in the tech world upon graduating. Where would I be now? Furthermore, as an educator interested in diversity and inclusion efforts, and someone who identifies as Latina, I have always been interested in the work being done to increase young women’s and AHN’s participation in computing from elementary school through industry. So, how can educators (specifically K-12 educators) encourage the participation of young women and AHNs in this field? Here are five ways:

• Model an interest and passion for CS
• Create safe spaces for making mistakes
• Build community and connect youth with mentors
• Introduce youth to careers in the field
• Make interdisciplinary connections

You are probably familiar with these methods, and you are probably integrating many of these elements in your classrooms already! I will discuss the first two here and in my next post, I will provide some resources you might find helpful and that you can share with others as you continue to support all learners in your classroom.

Model an Interest and Passion for CS

My research and that of others shows that there are several ways that teachers can share their passion for the subject with students. Participants in my study identified teachers who modeled an interest and passion for CS and Engineering as creating opportunities for their students to engage with design, personalize their learning, share it with friends and family, and reflect on it. What my study participants were describing as supporting them in the CS classroom is a constructionist learning environment. Constructionist learning environments give students the opportunity to engage with design, personalize their learning, share, and reflect on their work.

As I conducted my research, I drew from two main frameworks when I looked to design engaging learning environments. First were the engagements practices found on the NCWIT EngageCSEdu platform and the repository of course materials centered around this research-based framework.

In my research, I found that the integration of these practices–growing an inclusive community, making it matter, and building confidence and a professional identity–engage diverse learners. Supporting these goals, the materials that are shared on the website can be sorted by engagement practice, course level, and programming language.

The second, very helpful resource that I use as an educator is the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) guidelines. This framework, described in more detail in this CIRCL Primer, is designed to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on learning science research. The goal of UDL is to support learner variability by providing options to develop self-regulated learners who comprehend content and have high executive functioning skills.

So, as CS teachers, you can model your interest and passion for CS by designing and delivering meaningful and interesting curriculum!

Create Safe Spaces for Making Mistakes

Learning environments that support metacognitive acts and encourage collaboration can support the persistence of girls in CS courses and careers as they learn to be resilient when faced with CS problems and challenges (Werner & Denning, 2009). Participants in my study described the importance of engaging in exploratory talk – or metacognitive monitoring of themselves and their partners. They described feeling very comfortable making mistakes with partners in pair programming activities because the stakes were not that high and they were able to talk through their work with someone else; it didn’t fall on them alone.

Modeling making mistakes is important. Let your students hear your problem-solving process and encourage them to share their own processes. But also make mistakes and talk about those mistakes. When I’m programming along with students (code along) and projecting my work on a screen, I make lots of mistakes and talk through those mistakes with my students. “My code didn’t run —  oh, I forgot to change directories in terminal and the file was not found, or I forgot a semicolon.” This modeling of mistakes is so important for students to see and hear.

One important note is that when grouping students, it is best to put those students with similar experience levels together and to avoid isolating women and underrepresented students – put young women and AHNs together so they can support one another, if you can. While some teachers may want to put an advanced student with a less advanced one, this is not always good. In Strategies for Educators to Support Females in STEM, Dr. Wiest (2014, p. 1) reminds educators to:

“Use varied, student-centered teaching methods within a ‘safe’ classroom climate. In particular, use mixed-ability, collaborative (rather than competitive) group work, hands-on methods, and meaningful (such as real-world and interdisciplinary) contexts. Use mixed-gender groups, but avoid placing only one girl in a small group, even if that results in having one or more all-male groups. Monitor and rotate these groups regularly.”

Read part two of this post here.

How do you model an interest and passion for CS? And, how do you create safe spaces for your students? Tweet @CIRCLEducators and tell us!