Facilitating Women's Success in Software Engineering Through the Exploration of Non-Traditional Educational Environments
Faculty Mentor Name
Ashley Rea
Format Preference
Poster
Abstract
STEM fields face persistent challenges with diversity, equity, and inclusion. For example, while women make up 56% of students enrolled in undergraduate degrees, women account for only 22% of the students in engineering programs. This number drops even further in the workforce, where women comprise only 15.9% of the engineering industry (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2024). Consequently, the industry of equity-focused coding education has grown rapidly, leading to the rise of coding boot camps, workshops, and community-based coding education specifically designed to increase the participation of women and underrepresented programmers in tech (Rea, 2022; Jabbari, 2023). While the impacts of these sites of coding education are many and varied, they have much to offer software engineering educators invested in exploring inclusive pedagogy (Byrd, 2020; Damian et al., 2024; Vakil, 2018). As such, legislation that hinders the reach of these organizations or even outright bans them is of major concern to both the industry and the women within it. These organizations provide a vital service and to be without them is to see a software engineering field sliding backwards in time, preventing major groups of people from having their voices heard and their perspectives considered. As faculty and students working within technical communication and engineering, our research team seeks ways to foster more equitable learning environments and help underrepresented students thrive in software engineering. To that end, this presentation offers pedagogical insights derived from an IRB-approved, multi-year qualitative study of sites of coding education created to increase representation, access, and equity in the tech industry. Ultimately, this presentation offers attendees a framework to critically evaluate pedagogical practices for software engineering education as well as specific strategies for cultivating a more inclusive learning environment and improving the learning experiences of underrepresented students in engineering.
Facilitating Women's Success in Software Engineering Through the Exploration of Non-Traditional Educational Environments
STEM fields face persistent challenges with diversity, equity, and inclusion. For example, while women make up 56% of students enrolled in undergraduate degrees, women account for only 22% of the students in engineering programs. This number drops even further in the workforce, where women comprise only 15.9% of the engineering industry (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2024). Consequently, the industry of equity-focused coding education has grown rapidly, leading to the rise of coding boot camps, workshops, and community-based coding education specifically designed to increase the participation of women and underrepresented programmers in tech (Rea, 2022; Jabbari, 2023). While the impacts of these sites of coding education are many and varied, they have much to offer software engineering educators invested in exploring inclusive pedagogy (Byrd, 2020; Damian et al., 2024; Vakil, 2018). As such, legislation that hinders the reach of these organizations or even outright bans them is of major concern to both the industry and the women within it. These organizations provide a vital service and to be without them is to see a software engineering field sliding backwards in time, preventing major groups of people from having their voices heard and their perspectives considered. As faculty and students working within technical communication and engineering, our research team seeks ways to foster more equitable learning environments and help underrepresented students thrive in software engineering. To that end, this presentation offers pedagogical insights derived from an IRB-approved, multi-year qualitative study of sites of coding education created to increase representation, access, and equity in the tech industry. Ultimately, this presentation offers attendees a framework to critically evaluate pedagogical practices for software engineering education as well as specific strategies for cultivating a more inclusive learning environment and improving the learning experiences of underrepresented students in engineering.