Lost in Translation: Gender and High School Computer Science

Prologue Carolina is one of six females taking the Computer Programming course at East River High School, a predominantly Latino/a high school located in a low-income neighborhood on the east side of Los Angeles. She is one of the top students in her Honors Geometry class and has a strong history of academic achievement, particularly in mathematics and science. Carolina was recruited, along with other similarly strong female mathematics students, by a well-meaning and committed mathematics teacher, who had been assigned to teach Programming and was eager to increase female enrollment in what had been a predominantly male classroom. As the course evolved, the teacher, who was teaching himself programming while running the course, decided to take advantage of the more knowledgeable students by pairing " experts " with " novices. " With two exceptions, these pairs included an older, more tech-savvy male—the " big brother " —and a younger, inexperienced female. Despite the girls' high standing in high level mathematics classes, the students quickly fell into " traditional " roles, with girls taking on more " secretarial " tasks. Carolina, who found this arrangement to be frustrating, states: We [the girls] called them " big brothers " ….I would type and he [partner] would like think about it—we would both think about it but he would like be the one with the most ideas…I was not always able to understand the ideas. Sometimes I just went along with it. Meanwhile, across town in a school on the more affluent west side of Los Angeles, Grace, a Pilipina senior at Canyon High, is the only female in her AP Computer Science course (APCS). Unlike the other female student who quit after the first semester, Grace decided to " stick it out " because, as she states, she is " not a quitter. " Moreover, Grace is very interested in technology and plans to major in computer engineering. Grace became hooked onto computers because of her interest in cell phone technology. In the Philippines, there are many cottage industries focused upon making the cell phone more fun, unique, and " hip " and this was fascinating to Grace, piquing her curiosity and prompting her to pursue computer science. In addition, Grace's father has experience working with computers, particularly in web design, which Grace believes also influenced her technology interests. Grace lives in downtown Los Angeles, but travels a long distance to …