Becoming Technosocial Change Agents: Intersectionality and Culturally Responsive Pedagogies as Vital Resources for Increasing Girls’ Participation in Computing

Abstract

Drawing from our two-year ethnography, we juxtapose the experiences of two cohorts in one culturally responsive computing program, examining how the program fostered girls' emerging identities as technosocial change agents. In presenting this in-depth and up-close exploration, we simultaneously identify conditions that both facilitated and limited the program's potential. Ultimately, we illustrate how these findings can enhance anthropological research and practice in youth identity, culturally responsive pedagogies, and computing education.

Participation in structured STEM‐focused out‐of‐school time programs in secondary school: Linkage to postsecondary STEM aspiration and major

“…To disentangle whether adolescents of varying sociodemographic backgrounds differ in their aspiration to and choosing a STEM major in college, we posit that the intersections between adolescents' multiple sociodemographic background characteristics have a great potential to help elucidate the sociodemographic gaps in teens' interest in STEM and choice of a STEM major (Ashcraft et al, 2017). In this regard, an intersectionality heuristic also helps frame our thinking about STEM learning.…”

“…Discrepancies in the participation of structured STEM-focused OST programs at eighth grade, selfefficacy beliefs in science and ninth-grade GPA in math, and interest in STEM major between students of different sociodemographic backgrounds were documented in our study. The way that high school girls tended to have a lower science self-efficacy early in high school and interest in STEM major after high school graduation yet a higher ninth-grade GPA in math implies the looming structural and contextual inequity, under which adolescent girls may be less likely to be interested in or aspire to STEM fields (Ashcraft, Eger, & Scott, 2017;Hur, Andrzejewski, & Marghitu, 2017;Xie, Fang, & Shauman, 2015). Prevailing stereotypes regarding the innate math ability, learning experience, and career environment in STEM fields, despite their comparable or even better academic achievement in math early on (Harackiewicz et al, 2014;Sax, 1996) may also play a role.…”

“…It is thus likely that most of our hypothesized paths are actually influenced by students' sociodemographic background (e.g., gender, race/ethnicity, SES). As a result, we advocate for a more empirical and systematical effort to address the self-selection mechanism of OST program participation in future research (Ashcraft et al, 2017;Saw et al, 2018;Sax, 1996;Xie et al, 2015).…”

Computer Science for Equity: Teacher Education, Agency, and Statewide Reform

“…Additionally, educator beliefs and practices, at the school and classroom level, profoundly impacted students' opportunities to learn computer science through student tracking and enacted pedagogy in the classroom. This collision of structural and belief system biases in computing education result in significant and persistent participation gaps in computer science courses by students of color and girls (Ashcraft et al, 2017;Scott et al, 2019).…”

Experiences of (Dis)Unity: Students’ Negotiation of Ethnic and National Identities in Botswana Schools

“…The intersectionality of identity means that ways of enacting one aspect of a social identity may conflict or intersect with another aspect, especially as connected to awareness of membership in a group, the value placed on that membership, and emotional investment in that membership (Ashcraft et al ; Han ; Paniagua ; Tajfel ). For example, individuals who face discrimination because of their minority background may choose not to speak their home language if it signals their minority group membership to others (Shin ).…”