"I Don't Code All Day"

Abstract

Stereotypes of computer scientists are relevant to students' performance and feelings of belonging. While e↵orts exist to change these stereotypes, we argue that it may be possible to challenge a student's belief that stereotypes of computer scientists are relevant to whether they can become a computer scientist. In our previous work, we presented a model of five factors that influence students' decisions to major in computer science (CS). Data were collected from interviews with 31 students enrolled in introductory CS courses at two public universities in the United States. Here we elaborate on our grounded theory of one of these factors: how students assess their fit with CS. We describe how students measure their fit with CS in terms of the amount they see themselves as expressing the traits of singular focus, asocialness, competition, and maleness and how students make interpretations and decisions based upon these measurements. We found that students' interpretations were influenced by their attitudes toward the nature of stereotypes.

Do Computer Science Students Understand Their Programming Task?—A Case Study of Solving the Josephus Variant Problem

“…As women, Anne and LStew struggled with the CS stereotype, and a sense of not belonging, especially prior to their senior year. This phenomenon aligns with various reports on women in computer science (Falkner, Szabo, Michell, Szorenyi, & Thyer, 2015;Graham & Latulipe, 2003;Irani, 2004;Lewis, Anderson, & Yasuhara, 2016;Outlay, Platt, & Conroy, 2017;Wang, Hejazi Moghadam, & Tiffany-Morales, 2017). Lewis, Anderson, and Yasuhara (2016) describes this stereotype as "singularly focused on CS, asocial, competitive, and male" (p.30).…”

Barriers Faced by Coding Bootcamp Students

“…is could partially explain how coding bootcamps have achieved near gender parity [19] and may provide insights on how other computing programs can increase diverse engagement. Stereotypes of "nerdiness" and "intelligence" also formed informal boundaries for bootcamp students, as found elsewhere [2,5,10]. e class divide, largely a ributed to previous experience, also matched other contexts [12,13,21].…”

“…Stuck in the Shallow End: Education, Race and Computing by Margolis, Estrella, et al [12] examined the racial gap in high school CS, nding barriers that included lack of access to classes (formal boundary), cultural expectations on who the classes were for, feelings of isolation in classes, divisions within classes between those who "have it or don't have it" (informal boundaries), and lack of social support (personal obstacle). Additional studies found participation and success in computing programs depended on background experience [2,27], comfort level [27], sense of belonging and stereotypes (disproportionately negatively a ecting women) [2,5,10,16], view of self as an "insider" [21], and believed role of luck [27].…”

“…pressures cause divisions in who is encouraged to use computers and who is made to feel welcome in computing classes, in particular excluding female, black and latino/a students [2,5,12,13]. In computing classes, students face stereotypes of what it takes to be a "real" programmer [5,10,12,13] and those who feel belonging, comfort and con dence are be er able to succeed [21,27]. Similarly, people changing careers face barriers of con dence, gender, age, and educational level [4,15,20] while also facing pressures due to lost income and the e ect of lost income on family [15,20].…”

Growth Mindset in Computational Thinking Teaching and Teacher Training

“…Moreover, stereotypes lead to consider computer scientists as singularly focused, asocial, competitive, male gures [9].…”