Permanent link: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/71146
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- Title
- The next wave of gender projects in IT curriculum and teaching at universities
- Author(s)
- Lewis, Sue; McKay, Judy; Lang, Catherine
- Abstract
- This paper investigates the 'new' crisis in the low numbers of women choosing to study Information and Communication Technology (ICT) courses at universities in Australia and indeed around the western industrialised world. In Australian universities, the spectre of all male ICT classes is becoming more commonplace, particularly in the more technically focused courses. We are hypothesizing that this is not 'new' crisis at all but simply a further consolidation of a pattern that has been evident for 20 years. The range of 'gender' interventions at universities in the 1990s was primarily directed at the 'numbers problem' and was largely focused on women rather than reviewing and reforming curriculum, teaching and assessment practices as well. Past interventions have failed to impact significantly on the sex stereotype that has emerged in ICT education in most universities. Projects are now being developed that redirect intervention efforts into curriculum and teaching strategies inside ICT faculties. This paper reports on such a 'gender project' in Australia. The Australian context for this issue is explored: there has been very little research in ICT faculties on the impact of curriculum and teaching practices on the recruitment and retention of women in these faculties. We profile the Australian Course Experience (CEQ) data and local survey results from our own technological University which report student views of teaching and learning. Nationally, the ICT teaching area achieved the lowest ratings from graduate students in 2003. At our University, we found a gender gap in the first-year classroom experiences of women and men. Our broad findings suggest the need for a professional review of the very definitions of success in ICT education and support for the proliferation and evaluation of innovative and context driven curricula.
- Publication Type
- Conference paper
- Research Centre
- Swinburne University of Technology. Faculty of Information and Communication Technologies
- Research Centre
- Swinburne University of Technology. Faculty of Life and Social Sciences. Institute for Social Research
- Source
- ACM international conference proceeding series, vol. 165: Proceedings of the 8th Australasian Computing Education Conference (ACE 2006), Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, 16-19 January 2006 / Denise Tolhurst and Samuel Mann (eds.), Vol. 52, pp. 135-142
- Publication Year
- 2006
- Keyword(s)
- Computer science studies; Curriculum reform; Female students; Gender; Information systems; Information technology studies
- Publisher
- Australian Computer Society
- Publisher URL
- http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1151869.1151887
- Copyright
- Copyright © 2006 Australian Computer Society. This paper appeared at the Eighth Australasian Computing Education Conference (ACE2006), Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, January 2006. Conferences in Research in Practice in Information Technology, Vol. 52. Denise Tolhurst and Samuel Mann Eds. Reproduction for academic, not-for profit purposes permitted provided this text is included.
- ISBN
- 1920682341
- ISSN
- 1445-1336 (series ISSN)
- Full Text
- Peer Reviewed
