Drawing a computer scientist: stereotypical representations or lack of awareness?

Early Childhood Preservice Teachers’ Perceptions of Computer Science, Gender Stereotypes, and Coding in Early Childhood Education

“…For example, among the participants who completed the draw a computer scientist test (n = 22), 11 pictured a female computer scientist. Overall, this finding does not align with research findings indicating gender stereotypes in CS (e.g., Martin, 2004 ; Pantic et al, 2018 ). However, it should be noted that participants in these studies also included male participants and in the current study all of the participants were female.…”

“…The reliability coefficients for all subscales were good: perceptions of coding (α = 0.85), integration of coding into teaching (α = 0.85), and gender stereotypes (α = 0.92). Lastly, the qualitative data were collected through open-ended questions and an adapted version of the Draw a Computer Scientist Test by Pantic et al ( 2018 ). The test asked participants to draw a computer scientist and explain what their computer scientist is doing, identify their gender and ethnicity, and describe the typical day of the computer scientist.…”

“…These two factors lead to a field that lacks gender and racial diversity. In fact, females are critically underrepresented in CS (Graham & Latulipe, 2003 ; Pantic et al, 2018 ). Data shows that approximately 25% of professionals in the computing industry were female in 2020 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, 2021 ).…”

“…One of the main factors leading to female underrepresentation in CS is stereotypes and misconceptions about the field, and about who can succeed (Pantic et al, 2018 ). Over the course of their lives, females are continuously exposed to stereotypical representations of a computer scientist as a White male who is highly intelligent, socially inept, works long hours, and chooses to spend time on gadgets and technology (e.g., programming) rather than around people (Cheryan et al, 2015 ; Vitores & Gil-Juárez, 2016 ).…”

High-School Computer Science – Its Effect on the Choice of Higher Education

“…K-12 curriculum designers strive to introduce the students to the various facets of this scientific discipline, emphasizing that it constitutes much more than just programming or applications (Vogel et al, 2017;Weilder-Lewis et al, 2017;Webb et al, 2017). It is known that many students tend to hold negative attitudes towards CS, perceiving it, for example, as boring, asocial, fit for nerds, or not suitable for girls (Moorman and Johnson, 2003;Yardi and Bruckman, 2007;Leonard et al, 2021;deWit et al, 2021;Pantic et al, 2018;Gurer et al , 2019). Thus, a second goal is to positively affect students' attitudes towards CS, in particular, make them perceive CS as interesting and challenging.…”