Jane Abbiss
Canterbury University, New Zealand
Experts, aspirants and users: Students' computing identities and gender relations
Reception will follow. All are welcome!
BIOGRAPHY
Jane Abbiss is a senior lecturer at Canterbury University, New Zealand. She teaches courses in social sciences curriculum studies, professional studies and research methodology. Her research interests include gender and ICT, curriculum issues, qualitative methodologies and classroom-based research.
ABSTRACT
This presentation explores how students in specialist computer courses in a New Zealand secondary school, Kahikatea High School, negotiate their roles as computer users and the nature of the identities and power relationships that are established. It is argued that these relationships have a gendered character that derives from the attribution of the status of controllers to (some) males and the exclusion of females from this group. However, the situation is complex and individual males and females aspire to and are attributed characteristics and status commensurate with a range of user roles. The decisions made by students to participate in different courses and their experiences of learning and engagement with computers signify regulation by and resistance to gendered power relations. This work raises questions about students’ experiences with computers and computer education and also about how we think about gender and participation in computer courses.
