Who I Am Becoming, Now: Toward a Computer Science Professional Identity Instrument

This paper presents preliminary findings from the pilot run of a survey instrument exploring professional identity formation in computer science. Students in computer science (CS) majors negotiate their concept of professional identity (PI) through coursework and engagement in legitimate practices of the computing profession, such as assignments, projects, and internships. Successful PI formation may occur without conscious effort for many CS students, while others struggle to form an authentic sense of identifying with the profession. Poor identity formation may contribute to withdrawal from the major or from the field. Assessing the impact of curricular and extracurricular offerings on students’ PI formation may be difficult for educators. This paper presents development of a survey instrument for measuring PI and findings from its administration with 176 undergraduate CS majors. The survey development was informed by semi-structured interviews with 19 students. For the survey, participants identify job titles they would consider applying to in the future. They then respond to how well one of their possible future job titles describes them in their current role in academia, from their own perspective and from the perspectives of peers and a supervisor. Students who were more advanced in their major, had completed an internship, or participated in a capstone course, responded that the future job title described them more strongly than students earlier in their studies. The pilot data indicates no statistically significant difference in PI strength across gender, but PI was measurably different between Bachelors of Science and Bachelors of Arts CS students at our institution.