CIT Curriculum in Schools – a (gendered) Co-production

Author(s):

Toni Irene DownesRachel Hutcheson Vianne Tourle

Conference:

ECER 2008

Network:

3. Curriculum Innovation by Schools and Teachers

Format:

Paper

Session Information

03 SES 10B, Gender

Paper Session

Time:

2008-09-12

14:45-16:15

Room:

B2 232

Chair:

Nienke M. Nieveen

Contribution

Currently in Australia there is a skills shortage in the Information Technology (IT) field and a continuing decline of enrolments in Computing and Information Technology (CIT) courses in Universities. As part of the discussions around the context, issues and possible solutions to this shortage, some business leaders and IT researchers place a major part of the responsibility for the problem with either schools or the young people who populate our schools. The last ten years of research into how and why young people choose careers, or choose areas of further study after school or even choose the particular subjects in their senior years of high school indicate that there is a complex interplay among four aspects: the broader social milieu; the nature and perceptions of the field and careers; the curriculum and pedagogies in schools and universities; and the gendered, racial and class identities of secondary school students (Ambrose 1998; Eccles, 2007; Mendick, 2005; McNees, 2003; Siann, 2001; Tam & Bassett, 2006). Furthermore, this literature indicates that in the fields of Mathematics, Science, Engineering and Technology there is a gender differences in overall interest and in the rate of decline, and that the low and declining interest is an enduring issue for which few sustainable and scalable improvements have been achieved (Goode, Estrella & Margolis 2006, Margolis & Fisher 2002, Sanders 2005, Wasburn & Miller 2005). The research reported in this paper is one aspect of a national study funded by the Australian Research Council that is designed to explore the gendered nature of participation in Senior Secondary Computing and Information Technology (CIT) subjects. This paper focuses on the (gendered) coproduction of the CIT curriculum in secondary schools, both prior to and including the senior years. The larger study involved an exploration of the intended curriculum (the formal syllabus prescribed by the various education authorities) and the enacted curriculum (the pedagogies and curriculum enacted by the teachers, students and other key stakeholders in schools). The findings related to the intended curriculum are presented elsewhere (Kleydish and Downes, 2007; Downes, 2008) and clearly indicate that conceptual discontinuities in the intended curriculum framework lead to particular complexities and confusions within the enacted curriculum. The analysis and reporting of findings of the enacted curriculum is ongoing (Harris, 2008). In the early stages of analysis of the enacted curriculum, a particular phenomenon emerged that the research team felt was best foregrounded and labelled as the imagined curriculum – what students and others who have not directly experienced that curriculum, imagine the curriculum to be at the point of selecting or not selecting CIT subjects as part of their senior school program (Downes, 2006, Downes 2008). The concept of imagined curriculum has previously been used by other authors (Agee, 2004; Senior & Dixon, 2005). In these cases, however it was teachers’ and student teachers’ imagined curriculum that was in focus not that of students. This paper reports the students’ imaginings about the senior CIT curriculum.

Method

The project was a multi-staged, mixed method study undertaken between 2005 and 2007 in three Australian states: New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia. It included a content analysis of formal curriculum frameworks and senior secondary CIT syllabuses, interviews with curriculum designers/managers in the three education authorities and teacher and student interviews together with student surveys in 18 secondary schools. These schools differed in participation rates of girls in Senior CIT subjects, SES status of the community and the location of the schools in terms of urban, regional and rural setting. The teachers were identified by their principals as the teachers responsible for teaching the senior CIT subjects. The students were undertaking the latter part of their secondary schooling: those in Year 10 in 2005 about to embark on their post-compulsory secondary school studies (who may or may not have elected to pursue future post-compulsory studies in CIT), and those in years 11 and 12 in 2006 and 2007 respectively who had had varying degrees of opportunity to reflect on their senior secondary subject choices.

Expected Outcomes

Early analysis of the student interviews highlights the role of the social milieu of home computing. The focus on computer literacy in the early and middle years of the intended curriculum framework contributes imaginings that rarely reflect the content of the intended curriculum. Some implications for the enacted curriculum will be presented.

References

Agee, J (2004) Negotiating a Teaching Identity: An African American’s Teacher’s Struggle to Teaching in Test-Driven Contexts. Teachers College Record, 106 (4) pp747-774. Ambrose, S. etal. (1998). No universal constants: Journeys of women in engineering & computer science. Journal of Engineering Education, 87(4), pp363-368. Downes, T (2008) The nature and purpose of Computing and Information Technology subjects in the senior secondary school curriculum in New South Wales. In J. Lynch (Ed) Gender and IT: Challenges for Computing and Information Technology education in Australian secondary schools. Melbourne: Common Ground. In press. Downes, T. (2006) Confusions and complexities. A Panel on perspectives on gender and secondary school computing. The Australian Women in Technology (AUSWIT) Conference, Adelaide, December. Available on request from tdownes@csu.edu.au. Eccles, J. S. (2007). Where are all the women? Gender differences in participation in physical science and engineering. in S.J. Ceci & W.M. Williams (Editors), Why Aren't More Women in Science? Washington: American Psychological Association. pp. 199-210. Fullarton, S., Walker, M., Ainley, J., & Hillman, K. (2003). Patterns of participation in year 12. ACER: LSAY Research Report. (Report No. 33). Goode, J., Estrella, R., & Margolis, J. 2006, ‘Lost in translation: Gender and high school computer science’, in J.M. Cohoon & W. Aspray (eds.), Women and information technology: Research on underrepresentation, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. pp. 89–114. Harris, C. (2008) The social construction of Computing and Information Technology (CIT) subject sub-culture In J. Lynch (Ed) Gender and IT: Challenges for Computing and Information Technology education in Australian secondary schools. Melbourne: Common Ground. In press. Jacobs, J.E. & Simkins S.D. (Eds) (2005) Leaks in the Pipeline to Maths, Science and Technology Careers. New Directions from Child and Adolescent Development. No 110. San Francisco, CA: Wiley Periodicals Inc. Kleydish, A. & Downes, T. (2007) Curriculum, participation and performance of senior secondary Computing and IT subjects in NSW, Victoria and South Australia. A GaIT Working Paper [unpublished report]. Charles Sturt University. Available on request from tdownes@csu.edu.au. Margolis, J. & Fisher, A. 2002, Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. McNees, P. (2003). New Formulas for America's Workforce: Girls in Science and Engineering. Arlington, VA: National Science Foundation, pub. # NSF 03-207. Mendick, H. (2005). A beautiful myth? The gendering of being/doing ‘good at maths’. Gender and Education, 17(2), pp203-219. Sanders, J. 2005, Gender and technology: A research review. Seattle: Center for Gender Equity. Senior, K & Dixon, M. (2005) Assume the position: reconfiguring the spatial in the pre-service education classroom. Paper Presented to the Australian Association for Research in Education Annual Conference, Sydney. Siann, G. &. C. M. (2001). Choices and Barriers: factors influencing women's choice of higher education in science, engineering and technology. Journal for Further and Higher Education, 25(1), pp85-96. Tam, M., & Bassett, G. (2006). The gender gap in information technology. J. Bystdzienski, & S. Bird Removing barriers: Women in academic science, technology, engineering and mathematics Bloomington : Indiana University Press. pp 108-122. Wasburn, M. H & Miller, S. G. 2005, ‘Still a chilly climate for women students in technology: A case study’, in Fox, M.F. & Rosser, S. V. (eds) Women, gender, and technology. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.

Author Information

Toni Irene Downes

Charles Sturt University

Faculty of Education

Bathurst

Rachel Hutcheson

Charles Sturt University, Australia

Vianne Tourle

Charles Sturt University, Australia

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