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Norms and values in computing education are constantly changing as dominant narratives about the role of computing in society evolve over time. Within the current evolving landscape of computing education, researchers and practitioners have advocated for ensuring people from all backgrounds, and particularly women, non-binary, and Black, Indigenous, and Latinx people, are able to participate equitably within the field of computing. Yet, the values of computing educational experiences are narrowly framed within career outcomes, such as securing a career in computing, leaving many important experiences and ways of participating in the field out of the picture. To address this, we conducted reflective interviews with women who participated in broadening participation in computing (BPC) programs to understand their perceptions of computing and how it aligns (or not) with what they value about their experiences in computing learning environments. We investigate the following research questions: (1) How do women who participated in BPC programs describe their perceptions of computing? (2) How do those perceptions align or misalign with the program outcomes they valued? The findings from our study call attention to tensions arising from centering “computing careers” in BPC work and highlight the outcomes of participation valued by the women in our study, such as developing communities and relationships, gaining communication skills, and expanding perspectives on skills computer scientists should possess.
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Moms Can Be Computing Leaders, Too!; Why we need computing community learning centers designed and lead by mothers
Women in underserved communities of computing such as women of color, women in poverty, elderly women, women with disabilities, and mothers who prioritize their families over their careers have little to no access to training or career development in a technical field due to lack of childcare, limited availability, lack of education, lack of employment history, transportation, and financial cost of training. Women from these groups often suffer from trauma or imposter syndrome lacking the confidence to believe they are capable of working with technology. Yet, in 2022, women are 91% of the households with children in public housing, which is more than 232 thousand households. Children from these households have very little possibility of social mobility from the bottom to the top quintile. There is a dearth of computer training opportunities for these women. A community computing learning center that is inclusive of and tailored to all mothers and their children would help to fill the void in the US technical workforce and break the cycle of poverty that exists in many low-income communities. Universities can play a critical role in the participatory design of these centers so that they can dually serve as an equity-enabling computer education research center for its faculty and students. Women led the computing revolution in the past and can lead the culturally responsive computing education movement of the future.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2321761
- PAR ID:
- 10525763
- Publisher / Repository:
- ACM
- Date Published:
- ISBN:
- 9798400704246
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1936 to 1936
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Location:
- Portland OR USA
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.1145/3626253.3635353
