”And It’s Just That Many Girls Don’t Follow As Good or Aren’t Able to Follow.”: A Single Case Study to Explore Habitual Orientations of Computer Science Teachers

Abstract

The communication of computer science (CS) teachers with their students has an influence on their motivations and interests in CS up to later career choices. Communication occurs in spontaneous classroom situations based on teachers’ habitual orientations. This single case study uses a narrative interview and an analysis with the documentary method to investigate a male (53 years old and with 23 years experience in CS teaching) teacher’s habitual orientations concerning interaction with female students in CS classes. A discrepancy in the teacher’s perception of encouragement and actual interaction was highlighted. Instead of motivating and especially promoting female students as self-reported, the teacher is oriented towards gender-neutral lesson preparation. Furthermore, our results show an orientation towards creating competitive situations between male and female students. Finally, we found three types of stereotypical thinking about female students.