How Adolescent Boys and Girls View Today's Computer Culture.

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How Adolescent Boys and Girls View Today’s Computer Culture

This paper summarizes a yearlong qualitative study of uses and mental concepts of

computers and computer culture in seventh and eighth grade boys and girls. A social-

constructivist stance formed the theoretical framework for this study. I used interpretive

methods in an open-ended environment to study and explain gender diversity in

technology-rich, middle school classrooms. My goal was to gain insight into how

adolescent boys and girls conceptualized and used computers in the current computer

culture. By focusing particularly though not exclusively on girls, I hoped to shed light on

how girls view their experiences with technology. The focus of this study was not to

further investigate the perceived gender gap regarding technology, but rather to address

the meanings that adolescents assign to computers as they interact with them. Adolescent

boys and girls view and use computers differently. Each gender seems to accept this as a

natural part of their culture, and, in general, is accepting of each other’s visions and uses.

Introduction

The focus of this yearlong qualitative study of seventh and eighth grade boys and girls

was not to further investigate the perceived gender gap regarding technology, but rather

to address the meanings that adolescents assign to computers and the ways they interact

with computers. By focusing particularly though not exclusively on girls, who

historically are either left out or are underrepresented in studies of technology, I hoped to

shed light on how girls and boys view their experiences with technology. In my role as

teacher/researcher, I used interpretive methods in an open-ended environment to study

and explain gender diversity in technology-rich, middle school classrooms.

One of the major challenges of such as study is that it focuses on three moving targets:

students developing from their formative years to adolescence, a culture with evolving

and changing gender roles, and, as Volman and van Eck (2001) indicate, an evolving and

changing computer culture within educational settings.

Literature Review

I view both gender and computers as social constructions that exist in particular contexts.

Gender is assumed to be constructed within a culture and not genetically inherent in an

individual. West and Fenstermaker (1993) believe that gender is “a mechanism whereby

situated social action contributes to the reproduction of social structure in which people

do gender; and men and women do it differently” (p. 158). In a similar vein, objects, such

as computers, take on meanings constructed by individuals as they interact with these

objects. Technologies do not exist in a vacuum – with no history and no social

implications or connections. Technologies exist only in social contexts. People negotiate

and renegotiate meaning as they personally interact with objects, thereby constructing a

social order as well as a personal meaning. Within this perspective, gender and computers

are social constructions that vary from person to person. This research delves into these

personal meanings.

A review of empirical studies on gender and computers conducted between 1984 and the

present paints an overall picture of male dominance. Males used computers more than

females, especially for programming and game playing. This tendency began in

elementary classrooms where boys tended to dominate computer use and often crowded

girls out (Elkjaer, 1992; Inkpen, Booth, & Klawe, 1992). In addition, three times as many

boys as girls participated in summer computer camps, and parents were more likely to

purchase computers, computer software and peripherals for boys than for girls. By high

school, the gender gap in computer use was even more pronounced. Boys were more

likely to own a computer, understand the electronic operations of computers and be part

of extracurricular computer classes. Lack of female role models, gender-stereotyped

computer course materials, and male-oriented names of computer science courses also

contributed to students’ existing connotation of computers as male domains (Schofield,

1995). The trend continued at the university level where, in an introductory computer

course, more than half the males used the computer lab after hours while almost none of

the females took advantage of this opportunity.

At all levels, boys were more likely to be chosen to assist the teacher with technology

than were girls (Sanders, 1990). Christie (1995) observed that girls generally enjoyed

computing less than boys because most available software appealed to boys rather than to

girls; the software used gaming formats that were competitive and often violent and

which pitted two players against each other or one player against the computer. Girls

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preferred to explore feelings, solve problems, and work cooperatively and interactively at

the computer. They also preferred adventure, friendship or creativity as the focus of

software (AAUW, 2000; Fiore, 1999). And finally, male teachers used computers more

than female teachers at the elementary, secondary, and university levels (Hattie &

Fitzgerald, 1987). Therefore students lacked female role models in this domain.

Gender stereotyping attitudes are very prevalent. When surveying 1,600 kindergarten

through grade 12 students, Wilder, Mackie, and Cooper (1985) found that both boys and

girls considered computers as more appropriate for males than females. When asked to

draw a computer user, both ...

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