In "More gender balance in CS, let’s talk about curriculum design first!" Prof. Hermans will propose a research-informed plan to change the curricula of computer science, arguing for the importance of socially aware programmes. Then diversity will follow. This topic is highly relevant for education in all programmes in our faculty.
More gender balance in computer science, let’s talk about curriculum design first!
Initiatives for more gender diversity in computer science students have been tried for decades, with very limited success, in contrast to other studies even in the natural sciences. Maybe it is now time to stop programmes aimed at more female students and faculty until we understand what makes them reluctant to study computers science. Computer science, as it has come to be socially constructed, focuses on a mathematical and engineering culture, in which social aspects of computing are continuously sidelined, while it are precisely these issues which attract women, and other minorities such as students from low-income families. This talk proposes a research-informed plan to change curricula of computer science first, before spending more time and effort to attract more women. Of course, broader computer science programs are important for many different reasons than just for diversity, in a time when the field is influencing the world at large so strongly, there are more than enough reasons to make our programmes more socially aware, and then diversity will follow.
Felienne Hermans is a professor of Computer Science Education at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. She also works as a high school CS teacher one day a week at Open Schoolgemeenschap Bijlmer. Felienne is the creator of the Hedy programming language, a gradual and multilingual programming language designed for teaching and author of the book "The Programmer's Brain" a book that helps programmers understand how their brain works and how to use it more effectively. In 2021, Felienne was awarded the Dutch Prize for ICT research. She writes for Dutch newspaper Volkskrant every month and writes a weekly newsletter on computer science, AI and many other things.
