Developing the next generation of diverse computer scientists: the need for enhanced, intersectional computing identity theory

Abstract This theoretical paper explores the need for enhanced, intersectional computing identity theory for the purpose of developing a diverse group of computer scientists for the future. Greater theoretical understanding of the identity formation process specifically for computing is needed in order to understand how students come to understand themselves as computer scientists. To ensure that the next generation of computer scientists is diverse, this paper presents a case for examining identity development intersectionally, understanding the ways in which women and underrepresented students may have difficulty identifying as computer scientists and be systematically oppressed in their pursuit of computer science careers. Through a review of the available scholarship, this paper suggests that creating greater theoretical understanding of the computing identity development process will inform the way in which educational stakeholders consider computer science practices and policies.

[1]  K. Malone,et al.  Narrations of Race in STEM Research Settings: Identity Formation and Its Discontents. , 2009 .

[2]  K. Crenshaw.  Mapping the margins: intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color , 1991 .

[3]  Amy M. Hightower,et al.  Science and Engineering Indicators , 1993 .

[4]  Arnold Pears,et al.  Engagement in Computer Science and IT -- What! A Matter of Identity? , 2013, 2013 Learning and Teaching in Computing and Engineering.

[5]  J. L. Holland,et al.  Making vocational choices : a theory of vocational personalities and work environments , 1984 .

[6]  Karen L. Tonso,et al.  Teams that Work: Campus Culture, Engineer Identity, and Social Interactions , 2006 .

[7]  Billy Wong,et al.  ‘I’m good, but not that good’: digitally-skilled young people’s identity in computing , 2016, Comput. Sci. Educ..

[8]  William Aspray,et al.  Women and Information Technology : Research on Underrepresentation , 2010 .

[9]  Etienne Wenger,et al.  Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity , 1998 .

[10]  M. Muro,et al.  Digitalization and the American Workforce , 2017 .

[11]  Allan Fisher,et al.  Unlocking the Clubhouse : Women in Computing by Allan Fisher , 2015 .

[12]  John C. Weidman.  Academic Disciplines: Holland's Theory and the Study of College Students and Faculty , 2005 .

[13]  N. Brickhouse,et al.  What Kind of a Girl Does Science? The Construction of School Science Identities , 2000 .

[14]  Norma E Gonzalez.  What Will We Do When Culture Does Not Exist Anymore , 1999 .

[15]  Jrène Rahm.  Urban youths’ hybrid positioning in science practices at the margin: a look inside a school–museum–scientist partnership project and an after-school science program , 2008 .

[16]  Kathleen J. Lehman,et al.  Anatomy of an Enduring Gender Gap: The Evolution of Women’s Participation in Computer Science , 2017 .

[17]  Linda J. Sax,et al.  Women planning to major in computer science: Who are they and what makes them unique? , 2016, Comput. Sci. Educ..

[18]  Mark Zuckerberg,et al.  Computer Science for All , 2016 .

[19]  A. Davis.  Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment , 1993 .

[20]  Bente Rasmussen,et al.  Excluding women from the technologies of the future , 1991 .

[21]  Nanette Veilleux,et al.  The role of belonging in engagement, retention and persistence in computer science (abstract only) , 2012, SIGCSE '12.

[22]  Stuart Hall,et al.  Questions of Cultural Identity , 1996 .

[23]  Lilian Leivas Pozzer,et al.  Conceptualizing Identity in Science Education Research: Theoretical and Methodological Issues , 2015 .

[24]  Lorelle L. Espinosa,et al.  Inside the Double Bind: A Synthesis of Empirical Research on Undergraduate and Graduate Women of Color in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics , 2011 .

[25]  William Aspray,et al.  A Critical Review of the Research on Women's Participation in Postsecondary Computing Education , 2008 .

[26]  F. Gall,et al.  The Identity Theory , 1936, Nature.

[27]  J. Clausen,et al.  Socialization and society , 1969 .

[28]  Richard T. Snodgrass,et al.  The Emerging Role of Self-Perception in Student Intentions , 2015, SIGCSE.

[29]  R. P. Kandle,et al.  Occupational Outlook Handbook , 1952 .

[30]  Amer Diwan,et al.  Student culture vs group work in computer science , 2004, SIGCSE '04.

[31]  Kyung Min Lim,et al.  Major Matters: Exploration of the Gender Wage Gap among STEM Graduates , 2016 .

[32]  Thomas D. Snyder,et al.  Digest of Education Statistics 2002 , 2001 .

[33]  Susan M. Haller,et al.  Deterrents to women taking computer science courses , 2004, IEEE Technology and Society Magazine.

[34]  E. Wenger.  Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity , 1998 .

[35]  D. Long,et al.  Women's Science: Learning and Succeeding From the Margins , 1999 .

[36]  C. Steele,et al.  Ambient belonging: how stereotypical cues impact gender participation in computer science. , 2009, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[37]  Carsten Schulte,et al.  Attitudes towards computer science-computing experiences as a starting point and barrier to computer science , 2007, ICER '07.

[38]  Linda J. Sax,et al.  Investigating forty years of stem research: How explanations for the gender gap have evolved over time , 2014 .

[39]  W. Faulkner.  The technology question in feminism: A view from feminist technology studies , 2001 .

[40]  Juan C. Lucena,et al.  When Students Resist: Ethnography Of A Senior Design Experience , 2002 .

[41]  Heidi B. Carlone,et al.  Understanding the Science Experiences of Successful Women of Color: Science Identity as an Analytic Lens. , 2007 .

[42]  Christina Björkman,et al.  Crossing Boundaries, Focusing Foundations, Trying Translations : Feminist Technoscience Strategies in Computer Science , 2005 .

[43]  Arnold Pears,et al.  Students' experiences and attitudes towards learning computer science , 2012, 2012 Frontiers in Education Conference Proceedings.

[44]  J. Gee.  Identity as an analytic lens for research in education , 2000 .

[45]  R. Estrella,et al.  Stuck in the Shallow End Education , Race , and Computing , 2008 .

[46]  J. Lemke.  Across the Scales of Time: Artifacts, Activities, and Meanings in Ecosocial Systems , 2000 .

[47]  Roli Varma,et al.  Why so few women enroll in computing? Gender and ethnic differences in students' perception , 2010, Comput. Sci. Educ..

[48]  Linda J. Sax,et al.  “But I’m Not Good at Math”: The Changing Salience of Mathematical Self-Concept in Shaping Women’s and Men’s STEM Aspirations , 2015, Research in Higher Education.

[49]  Dorothy Holland,et al.  History in Person: Enduring Struggles, Contentious Practice, Intimate Identities , 2001 .

[50]  C. Goodenow.  Classroom Belonging among Early Adolescent Students , 1993 .

[51]  M. J. Goldston,et al.  Teaching evolution: Narratives with a view from three southern biology teachers in the USA , 2009 .

[52]  Lecia Jane Barker,et al.  Making Visible the Behaviors that Influence Learning Environment: A Qualitative Exploration of Computer Science Classrooms , 2004, Comput. Sci. Educ..

[53]  N. Brickhouse,et al.  Embodying science: A feminist perspective on learning , 2001 .

[54]  Anne-Kathrin Peters,et al.  The role of students' identity development in higher education in computing , 2014 .

[55]  Colleen M. Lewis,et al.  Deciding to major in computer science: a grounded theory of students' self-assessment of ability , 2011, ICER.

[56]  Anders Berglund,et al.  First Year Computer Science and IT Students' Experience of Participation in the Discipline , 2014, 2014 International Conference on Teaching and Learning in Computing and Engineering.

[57]  Robert McCartney,et al.  Student transformations: are they computer scientists yet? , 2009, ICER '09.

[58]  Colleen M. Lewis,et al.  "I Don't Code All Day": Fitting in Computer Science When the Stereotypes Don't Fit , 2016, ICER.

[59]  E. Cech.  Culture of Disengagement in Engineering Education? , 2014 .

[60]  Nathan Ensmenger,et al.  Making Programming Masculine , 2010 .

[61]  A. Sfard,et al.  Telling Identities: In Search of an Analytic Tool for Investigating Learning as a Culturally Shaped Activity , 2005 .

[62]  N. Brickhouse,et al.  Young women's scientific identity formation in an urban context , 2001 .