The Co-Design of An Outreach Initiative to Attract Females into Higher Education Computer Science

Abstract

Interventions have been setup globally with the aim of increasing female participation in Computer Science. It is difficult to measure the long-term success of such interventions, however it is clear to see that despite existing efforts, female enrolments in Higher Education Computer Science remains to be low. Research has shown that the kinds of outreach initiatives needed are those which are socially and culturally located. Using a research-interventionist approach, this study will explore how the experiences and insights of a diverse group of participants can be leveraged to design an intervention appropriate to the problem identified locally. Participants will include faculty, students and management from a university's computing department, and teachers from a secondary school. Through the employment of the Change Laboratory methodology, the researcher will design and facilitate six workshops and work collaboratively with participants in the design of the initiative, working through any tensions and contradictions that emerge.