Students Speak: Accounts of Gender, Equity and Educational Technology From an

Action Research Project

by

Elspeth Anjos

B.Sc. Hons., Queen's University, 1983

A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF

MASTER OF ARTS

in the

Faculty of Education

Q Elspeth Anjos 1999

SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY

April 1999

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ABSTRACT

Although significant scholarly attention has been paid, particularly in recent

years, to the persistent problem of inequity and under-representation of girls

and women in technological subjects and fields. far less attention has been

given to practical interventions aimed at changing this situation. Studies

which have attem pted interventions have overlooked en tirely the perceptions.

interpretations and suggestions of students themselves about both definitions

of the problern of gender inequity, and practical proposais for its solution.

This thesis documents one teacher's action research that attempted first to

identify students' perceptions and interpretations concerning gender, equity

and educational technology, second, to gather the students' ideas for altering

inequities and third. to implement these suggestions and reflect on their

effects with the students. By utilizing educational technologies for teaching

and learning at three different schools and with three grade levels (grade 4 6 ,

grade 8, grade 1 1 ), it was hoped that a wide variety of students' perceptions,

practices and suggestions for change regarding educational technologies

would be uncovered. The students' uses of cornputers or video equipment to

produce assignments for different courses were observed and recorded in the

form of field notes. and interviews were conducted to reveal the students'

points of view.

Notwithstanding differences in age and grade level, st udents' accounts

presented more comrnonalities than differences. Raised in these accounts

i v are a range of issues of inequity: access to resources. gender role identity.

purposes for use, student interactions and achievement involving educational

technologies. 01 particular interest in this thesis are students' implied and

stated suggestions for addressing gender inequities, which are analyzed and

categorized into three groups: suggestions which require girls to change.

those which require a change in pedagogy and curriculum. and those which

propose that teachers, the school and society should change.

The findings of this project suggest that localized intewentions do little to

provide an impetus for long reaching change to inequities involving

educational technologies. It seems that more is required to produce change

than individual teachers working with students in a class by class manner.

However, through an emphasis developed by on-going discussions reflect ing

on the irnplementation of suggestions to change technological inequities in

schools, students' awareness and recognition of these inequities was

increased.

v

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to Say a few brief words of thanks to the many people who have

contributed to this project. Of primary importance are al1 the students I worked

with who shared their thoughts and ideas so freely. They continually

surprised and amazed me with their insights and observations. and it was a

challenge to keep up with their thinking. I am also grateful to the teachers who

allowed me into their classes to conduct this study. Their generosity and

patience went above and beyond the friendship that I shared with them.

I would never have started this project or considered attempting this degree

without the encouragement and support of my friends Cindi Seddon and

Maureen Dockendorf. They preceded me in this venture and showed me that

in spite of adverse conditions and a full tirne teaching position, it is possible to

finish.

I need to thank my supervisor Suzanne de Castell, who along with her

partner, Mary Bryson. has challenged me, with diff icult questions, to think hard

about issues when I was happy to "coast'. They have guided, supported and

goaded me at various points through this project. Their own work served as a

model of the research process and their sharing of their own difficulties in this

process helped to put my problems into perspective. These two women are

amazing teachers. who teach by example, serious questioning and loads of

laughs.

I would not have suwived this ordeal without fellow apprentices in Suzanne's

and Mary's research team. Lynda Brown and Jennifer Jenson have become

v i close friends. I can not begin to do justice to the support these two have given

to me over the process of this project. t will just say that I will always be in debt

and leave it at that.

There are numerous other friends, and my family, of course, who have put up

with endless conversations and arguments about gender equity over the last

few years. My need to talk to make sense of issues has been sated by al1

these discussions and cumulatively they have helped me to corne to the

conclusions which are described here.

I could not have completed this work without the child care assistance of

Jenny and Jim Russell, Aurora and Luciano Anjos and Alda Anjis. Liam and I

are both appreciative of your tirne, energy and love.

The two people who have given up the most to allow me the opportunity to

complete this work, are my partner in Me, Luciano, and my son, Liam. To them

I offer my most heartfelt thanks.

vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS . . APPROVAL .................................................................................................................. II ... AB STRACT .......................... ,,., ...................................................................................... i I I

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................ v . . TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................... VI I LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................................... x CHAPTER 1 : AN INTRODUCTION ............................................................................ 1

Prologue to the Project .................................................................................... 1 My Action ........................................................................................................ 3 Methodology ...................................................................................................... 5 Criticisms of Action Research and Rationale for Using this Methodology ............. .. .................................................................................... 9 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 11 A Brief Preview of What is to Corne ............................................................... 11

CHAPTER 2: A REVIEW OF 1 980s AND 1 990s LITERATURE ................... ., ..... 13 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 13 Access To Cornputers .................. .. ............................................................... 13 Attitude Towards Cornputers ......................................................................... 16

............................................ Societal Attitudes Towards Corn puters 17 Interest in Corn puters ..................... .... ......................................... 21 Gender Role ldentity in Relation to Computers ............................ ... 22

.......................................... Role Models in Cornputer Environments 24 Classroom Processes ...................................................................................... 25

Computer Use ....................................................................................... 25 Teachers' Attitudes About Equity ....................................................... 27 Curriculum Content .............................................................................. 29 Student ln teractions ............................................................................. 31

Student Achievement ....................................................................................... 34 Implications ........................................................................................................ 36

CHAPTER 3: CONTEXT, RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ..................................... 37 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 37

M yself ...................................................................................................... 37 The Project ............................................................................................. 38

Using HyperCard in an Elementary Classroom .......................................... 40 The Site ............................................................................................... 40 The Participants .................................................................................... 41 Technology Use .................................................................................... 41 The Data ................................................................................................. 44

Access To Cornputers .............................................................. 44 Attitude Towards Cornputers .................................................. 48

Societal attitudes towards corn puters ....................... 48 lnterest in cornputers .................................................... 50 Gender role identity in relation to cornputers ........... 51 Role models in cornputer environments ................... 53

Classroom Processes .............................................................. 5 Difference in cornputer use ......................................... 55

viii ....................................................... Teachers' attitudes 56 ....................................................... Curriculum content 58

Interactions among students ....................................... 61 ............................................................. Student Achievernent.. 63

Students' Suggestions for Change ....................................... 65 Summary ................................................................................................ 69

Using HyperCard in a Middle School Gifted Class .................................... 69 The Site .................................................................................................. 69 The Participants ................................................................................ 71

................................................................................. Technology Use 72 The Data ................................................................................................. 73

Access To Computers .............................................................. 73 .................................................. Attitude Towards Corn puters 77

Societal attitudes towards corn puters ....................... 77 lnterest in cornputers .................................................... 79 Gender role identity in relation to computers ........... 80

................... Role models in corn puter environments 81 Classroom Processes .............................................................. 83

Difference in computer use ......................................... 83 ...................................................... Teacher's attitudes -84

Interactions among students ...................................... -86 ............................................................... Student Achievement 87

Students' Suggestions for Change ....................................... 90 Summary ........................................................................................... 92

Facilitating sec-ondary Students' Video Documentary Production ....................................................................................................... 93

The Site .................................................................................................. 93 The Participants ................................................................................... 94 Technology Use .................................................................................... 94 The Data ..................... ,. .......................................................................... 95

................................................................ Access to Equipment 96 ................................................ Attitudes Towards Corn puters 99

Societal attitudes towards com puters ....................... 99 Gender role identity in relation to cornputers ........... 100

................... Role models in cornputer environrnents 102 Classroom Processes ............................................................. 1 0 3

Difference in cornputer use ......................................... 103 Teachers' attitudes .................................................... O 4 Interactions among students ...................................... 0 7

Student Achievement .............................................................. 108 ....................................... Students' Suggestions for Change 111

Summary ................................................................................................ 113 CHAPTER 4: AN ANALYSIS OF 1 HE STUDENTS' IMPLIED SOLUTIONS, FINAL REFLECTIONS AND CONCLUSIONS .............................. 116

An Analysis of Students' lrnplied Solutions .................................... .... ....... 116 Introduction ..................... ... ................................................................ 116 Girls Should Be Boys Accounts ....................................................... 120 Vive la Difference Accounts ........................ ........ ....... . . 2 4 Socio-Political Acmunts ................................................... 1 29

i x Summary ................................................................................................ 135

............................................................. Measuring the Project's Success 7 37 ................................................................................ Reflections on the Project 4 1

Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 144 ............................................................................................................ BlBLlOGRAPHY 150

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 Software Programs Available on Corn puters .......... ........ .... .. ...... ......................... ... 58 Table 2 Numbers of the Different Types of Student Accounts of Inequity ......................... 135

CHAPTER 1: AN INTRODUCTION

Prologue to the Project

I certainly did not begin by looking at gender, equity and technology. But

while gathering information from my grade seven students' about their

perceptions of their learning during a social studies computer project, I was

astounded by the absence of girls on the computer equipment during class

time, and the differences in the stories told about the computer experience by

the girls and the boys. Like a moth to the flame I was compelled to explore

this issue further.

I had been teaching for six years when I began the master's program in

education at Simon Fraser University. I wanted to join a serious discourse

about teaching, I wanted to be "challenged." I had been part of an action

research group funded by the Ministry of Education for four years and the

funding had disappeared. I missed the discussions and the reflective process

this membership had demanded. I wanted to fiIl this gap in my professional

life and so I applied to begin work on a master's degree.

In a previous career, t had worked in video and film production and so I was

interested in the intersection of the fields of technology and education. I

began my master's program by taking courses which explored aspects of

these fields. As a project for one of my courses I produced a HyperCard stack

with Jennifer Jenson; we purposefully used a topic which I could use in my

social studies class later that year. Then, as part of an assignment for a

2 course in research methodology, I exam ined the students' perceptions of their

own leaming, while they used this HyperCard stack.

For a social studies unit on Ancient Egypt, the students were asked to add

researched information on a chosen topic to the HyperCard stack. Due to

restrictions with the computer network only two computers could be used to

add information at any one time. With the addition of the scanner and the CD

ROM, there were four pieces of equipment to be shared among twenty seven

students. Some students worked in groups, reducing the numbers somewhat,

however there was constant competition, and consequently restricted access,

to al1 the equipment. Rather than join the competition, the girls seerned to

become "invisible.' In fact, after some time they asked if they could use class

time to work elsewhere. 01 course some boys became invisible too, and

joined the girls in the class room rather than staying in the computer lab. This

left the lab to a few very dominant boys who jockeyed for access to the

equipment during class time.

When I interviewed the students (their names have been changed) about this

experience I was shocked by their responses. Gary, one of the dominant

boys, recognized that the girls were absent from the cornputer lab and

wondered how any of thern got their work done. Michael, who spent some

time outside the lab but still completed the assignment in class time, observed

that the girls did not take part in the computer activity but expressed his belief

that everyone is equal even if the boys got the equipment more. Caroline, a

self proclairned computer expert who never accessed the computer

equipment during this project, thought that the computer use was equally

balanced between boys and girls. And tara. one of the few girls who

3 occasionally accessed the computer during class time, also thought the

computer use was equally balanced between girls and boys. Despite the

obvious absence of girls from the cornputer lab, the girls reported their

contentment with the situation. and their perceptions of equal com puter use by

each sex.

Of course we have all heard the strong, pro-technology arguments that

cornputers are essential to Our future. We are told we need cornputer skills to

gain access to the "information age;" and that students need to be familiar

with cornputers and software for al1 future jobs. A lack of computer skill, it has

been said, will lead to unemployment and restricted access to information.

It was the completely different perceptions of the boys and the girls and the

rather bizarre perception of the girls, so clearly at variance with what occurred,

which drove me to further explorations. What could cause such a split. along

gender-lines, in perception about using cornputers? How could the girls

ignore the fact that, for the rnost part, they were absent from the computer lab?

Why did the girls and some boys become "invisible?' Were these invisible

students opting out of cornputer-use altogethet? Why did other boys become

so corn petit ive in accessing the equipmen t? What were st udents' perceptions

of gender, equity, and technology within school? With questions like these

coaxing me to action, I began planning my own next steps. which were to

become the project at hand.

My Action

Problems with gender equity related to technology in schools have been

4 widely documented for at least ten years (Apple, 1992; Beynon, 1993; Bryson

and de Castell, 1993; Hacker, 1989; Sanders and Stone, 1986; Schubert,

1986; Sutton, 1991 ; Whyte, 1986; Willinsky, 1996), and yet there does not

seem to be any marked change in this time span. Although it is t~idely

believed that societal attitudes towards females and technology have

changed to be more equitable, this does not seem to be the reality (Bryson

and de Castell, 1995, 1998; Schofield, 1995). This leads to an increased

stress on women because of the 'contrast of the image of what their lives are

supposed to be like, and what they are like in reality' (Rinehart, 1997, p. Al ) .

Many researchers (Culley, 1993; Sanders and Stone, 1986; Whyte. 1986;

Willinsky, 1996) have made suggestions which might in theory "solve' the

problem but precious few have actually tried to implement these ideas to see if

they have any effect. This project atternpts to undentand and change

st udents' practices, and perceptions concern ing gender, equ ity and

technology within small, localized environrnents, by first. atternpting to

implement a variety of suggestions made by other researchers and second. by

gathering ideas from the students themselves, another neglected line of

inquiry. The hope is that ideas for greater change can be developed or at

least identified through this adm ittedly unsystematic, but nevertheless

informed, "rnessing" with the problem, since more formal techniques of

description and theoretical analysis have done little to lead to tangible

solutions. But how do we go about this in a rneaningful way? What kind of

research is best suited for these aims?

The goals of the research being discussed here are, first, to discover what

practices and perceptions students have about gender, equity and technology

in schools and, second, to attempt to alter teaching methods to change these

5 perceptions and practices. Given these goals, the next question is what

research method will best serve these purposes?

Methodology

The project was conducted under the umbrella of an action research

framework. and utilized methods from a variety of forms of research to gather

and analyze information.

Action research is a broad term which can encompass a range of research

methods. Action research is described by Noffke (1997) as having three main

emphases: the professional, the personal and the political. The professional

component refers to a process of knowledge acquisition which allows carry

over from theory to practice and from knowledge to action. The personal

component involves attempting to gain a greater self-knowledge and

fulfillment, a deeper understanding of one's practice and a means to enhance

and enrich pedagogical relationships. And the political component seeks to

create social change toward greater social justice mrough the active use of

research in one's own classroom.

Most action research projects fit well under one or two of these frames;

however, this particular project embraces al1 three. This project involved

gathering information about students' perceptions about gender and equity in

technological arenas and then altering teaching methods to modify these

perceptions. Th us the professional frame of knowledge to action is involved.

As well, the personal frame - deeper self-knowledge through the improvement

and analysis of teaching methods - is engaged. And attempting to find an

equitable "place' for

the political frame of

The particular action

6 girls in school situations involving technology engaged

social change.

research framework used in this project was developed

from Field-Baeed -ch: A WorkinQGuide written for British Columbia's

Ministry of Education, Skills and Training by Jeroski, Booth and Dockendoif

(1992). Since teachers work, for the most part, in isolation from their

colleagues in classrooms, this guide recommends that action research groups

of up to ten teachers meet on a monthly basis. These meetings enable

discussion of individual findings and provide time for participants to determine

their specific course of action for the next rnonth. Group members provide

supportive personal relationships, collaborative feedback about projects and

the accountability necessary, in an already busy schedule, to focus on

research questions while working with students. This group format advances

the 'personal' goal of action research by building in personal reflection time

as well as enriching one's relationships with colleagues.

As a teacher involved since 1991 in action research groups, I followed this

format by participating in an action research group of ten teachers and a

facilitator which met monthly from October 1996 to June 1997. Each member

of the group developed their own research question based on an aspect of

their teaching practice they wanted to improve or develop. Partnerships were

formed within the group to enable on-going and deeper discussions between

meetings about the research questions and findings. The meetings took place

during school time since there was funding available from the school district to

encourage action research as a staff development initiative. At the end of the

year each researcher reported to the group and the school district in a

7 'showcaseu format with posters and written summaries of their findings.

According to w - B a s e d R e s e m there are two central questions which

guide the inquiry in action research: 'what's going on here? and how can we

change what's happening - improve our practice?" (Jeroski, Booth,

Dockendorf, 1992, p. 5). These questions focus on the professional emphasis - gathering the knowledge to put into action. In the current project the first

question was engaged through ethnographic research methods of observing

and interviewing. Taft (1988) describes ethnographic research as a

specialized form of descriptive research focusing on social behaviours within

nat ural sett ings. Data are collected t hrough observation and interviews either

by a privileged observer or by a participant in the group being studied. The

researcher atternpts to collect information on as many aspects of the group

and their practices as possible, striving to produce as holistic a view of the

study site as they can. Ideally, such research provides a fully contextualized,

richly detailed description of educational situations, which can be helpful in

revealing ways to improve one's own praxis.

In this project the researcher was teaching the students being observed, and

so was an active participant in the classroom setting. Some observations

were gathered during the class, but most observations were collected in the

form of field notes, which were written directly following each lesson.

Interviews with the students were also used extensively to gather information.

After each lesson. small groups of students were invited to share feedback on

the lesson, present ideas for improvement, and provide reflection on problems

and issues identified. These were all transcribed for later analysis. These

different ethnographic and descriptive research approaches provided a richly

detailed context of the research as it progressed.

The framework described in a e l d - R ~ e d Research provides autonomy for the

teacher to choose to participate, choose a research focus, choose methods to

conduct that research, and choose ways to analyze the results. Although this

is laudable, it is primarily the view point, analyses and conclusions of the

teacher which drive the research process forward. Students are made

cognizant of the research questions and goals and are invited to become

researchers along with the teacher to improve their own learning situation by

providing their view points, analyses and conclusions, but they only constitute,

at best. a secondary source for the action research process. This continuous

reflection on the teacher's and students' part contributes to the second

question, "how can we change what's happening - improve our practice?"

(Jeroski, Booth, Dockendorf,l992. p. 5). producing the forward momentum of

the project as well as addressing the personal and political aspects of action

research. Rie teacher chooses an action to take, collects data on that action,

reflects with the students on the action and then chooses another action. And

so in a spiral of description, analysis, and suggestion the research moves

forward, evolving as it goes.

The students in this project, however. were encouraged to be more active as

participants in the research than is typically the case in action research

projects. Student interviews were conducted on a weekly basis and all the

interventions to be attempted in the research were gathered from these

interviews. For example, the students suggested I develop a rotating seating

plan for the computers to ensure equitable access to al1 cornputen. It was

hoped this approach would empower the students in their future interactions

9 with technology. It was also hoped this process would make any changes that

deveioped longer lasting since the students themselves were an integral part

of attempting to solve the gender equity problems in their class when working

with technology. There has been a long history of regarding research

su bjects as participants and CO-researchers in action research, although in

large academic studies this practice is sometimes difficult due to funding

accountability and outcome expectations (Noffke, 1997). In this project, as

there was no outside funding, the pressure for specific progress was not a

problem and since the goal was to improve the learning situation for students,

what better way to do this than to include the students in the process?

Criticisrns of Action Research and Rationale for Using this Methodology

Action research, as an educational research rnethodology, is not without its

critics. Along with ethnographic and descriptive research, action research has

been condemned as heavily biased, imprecise, and the conclusions not

applicable to other groups and settings (Walker and Evers, 1988). The bias

results from only one person making subjective conclusions, the irnprecision

from a lack of control over variables within the research setting, and the

inability to generalize conclusions from the emphasis on a specific locality and

the small numbers of subjects involved. These criticisms have been

countered by Keller (1 98S), Harding (1 986). Lather (1 991) and Wajcman

(1991) who point out the inescapable problems with any daims to scientific

neutrality, that knowledge can never be free from social construction and thus

'bias.' These authors point out. moreover. that critics themselves must

assume the existence of valid truths which can be uncovered by other forms of

1 O research. This assumption, however, is problematized with the counter-claim

that there are no absolutes, since, it is argued, absolutes have proven

inadequate for describing human corn plexity (Lather, 1 991 ).

In the project at hand, the benefits of action research seemed to outweigh its

limitations. What was most important to this project was to gather as much rich

detail as possible on the students' attitudes about gender and equity when

working with technology in order to plan different teaching interventions to

alter these perceptions. Without this information and the students'

suggestions for change, the project would not have been student driven. It

was also important to continue the observations and interviews during the

interventions in order to assess their effectiveness and have the students do

the same. Admittedly here, inconsistency and bias is certainly possible, since

there was only a single observer; however, the students also contributed their

views, thus increasing the observers in the classroorn. Furthermore. the

flexibility of action research was such an asset, allowing the trial of a number

of different interventions, that the liabilities were outweighed.

Action research is well suited to the purposes of this project: it atternpts to

resolve an immediate problem, has the potential for improving teaching and

learning, and c m make classroom experiences more enjoyable for teachers

and students (Cohen and Manion, 1994). Action research can be carried out

on a small scale, with just one teacher and a class of students. There is no

need for specialized observers, or sophisticated collection equipment.

Previous research has shown both that there is a problem with gender equity

in school situations involving technology and that there has not been much

previous work on solutions to this probiem. Action research provides an

11 appropriate framework to implement and to assess solutions. Through trying

to solve problems, this method of research can help to improve both teaching

and leaming practices. The strengths of action research. then, make it a

defensible choice for this particular project, even though the criticisms of this

methodology are important to keep in mind.

Conclusion

The main "action" portion of this research involved, as already noted,

changing students' perceptions and practices regarding gender, equity and

technology in schools. Through a process of attempting to recognize

students' points of view and by exposing some of the complex foundations of

these perceptions, it was hoped that useful directions for action to alter current

perceptions and practices would become clear to the teacher and the

students. Lather (1 991) States that in order to facilitate social change through

"praxis-oriented inquiryu (p. 54) it is necessary to uncover the contradictions

which maintain the status quo and only then are possibilities for emancipatory

social change made visible. She goes on to Say that the danger with this is

that the researcher might only see what sfhe wants or is predisposed to see.

Thus, it becomes the researcher's task to provide reasons for trusting the data

and the analysis. It is with this warning in mind, alongside other criticisms of

action research noted earlier, that t his research has proceeded.

A Brief Preview of What is to Corne

The next chapter, a Iiterature review, looks back at what academics and other

researchers have done in the fields of gender equity and educational

12 technology, what has been claimed as effective in reducing equity problems

with technology in schools, and what has been implemented but has failed to

have an effect. I was particularly interested in pursuing two questions: what

approaches had academics proposed to reduce equity problems with

educational technology? And what had students to say about gender equity

and educational technology in other classrooms/cities/countries? This

literature exploration was done as the project was beginning, and the bulk of

the sources are. accordingly between five and ten years old. However. as will

be demonstrated, there is little disparity between these older sources and

current work. This indicates that surprisingly little has changed regarding

gender in/equity and educational technology over the last decade.

The third chapter adds to the discussion of methodology in chapter one, by

giving a more detailed description of what occurred a! each site. As well, a

biographical context is offered to make explicit the kinds of biases which might

be present. The data from each site are presented using the organizational

frame developed in the literature review to facilitate the making of

corn parisons.

The fourth chapter presents a conceptual framework which seeks to identify

patterns within the students' accounts of gender, equity and educational

technology. The framework was developed from irnplied solutions in the

students' accounts. A description and discussion of visits made to al1 three

sites a year after the project offers an opportunity to measure the success of

the project's goals. Finally, reflections are made on the project as an entirety,

general conclusions are drawn, and implications for future action are

cansidered.

13

CHAPTER 2: A REVIEW OF 1980s AND 1990s LITERATURE

Introduction

Specif ic CU rricular areas in education have t raditionally been linked to

stereotypical gender roies. This is well known and one indicator of this

phenornenon is the number of male or female teachers in these fields.

Technology, on the whole, is predominantly taught by male teachers as are

maths, physics and chemistry. This similarity rnakes it possible to compare

associated "gender effectsu on students of these different subjects. Although

technology, as taught in school, encompasses courses as varied as auto

mechanics and media production, most research has been done about

computer courses, especially about gender-equity relating to computer

technology in schools. This work spans many different aspects of corn puters

in schools, such as access to computers, attitudes towards computers,

classroom processes which influence equity, and achievement in corn puter

related courses. Most of this work is descriptive in nature, identifying the

problem of inequity (race, class and gender), with very few researchers

atternpting interventions to alter these problems. Each of these areas is

addressed below.

Access To Cornputers

Access to computers and other technologies has long been seen as a serious

equity issue, involving gender, class and race. Personal computers were

14 initially expensive and thus were more readily available to affluent schools

than others (Persell and Cookson, 1987). Soon after computers began to be

purchased by schools, the issue of inequality of access became a focus of

research, since computers were widely seen as necessary to prepare al1

children for the impending "information society.' More than this. computers

were thought to offer solutions, such as individualizing instruction and

rnodernizing curricula. to problems in education (U.S. Department of

Education, 1983) and to promote logical and critical thought (Papert, 1980). In

the late 1 970s and early 1 980s most critics, both educational and within

popular culture, felt entirely optimistic about the suggested potential for

computers in education. Long after such ideas came to be considered

simplistic, the issue of access remained a concern since many careers.

especially those in growth industries, require at least a minimal level of

technological cornpetence.

Access to computers has been looked at in a number of ways (Sutton. 1991).

One approach uses the ratio of computers to students as a measure of school

resources (Becker and Sterling, 1987). While important, this ratio does not

indicate which students within schools are accessing the equipment and thus

gives little indication of inequalities of access in relation to sex, race or class.

A different approach is to ask students whether they use computers or to ask

teachers to estimate cornputer use by specific groups: fernales, low-achieving

students, ethnic groups. etcetera (Martinet and Mead, 1988). A problem with

this approach is that most students currently have some form of scheduled

access to computers in elementary schools, yet theie still remain inequalities

in access during free time and even within class time. Another approach is for

the tesearcher to observe groups of students using computers in order to

15 determine which students gain access to computers (Schofield, 1995). This

approach, because of its tirne consurning nature, results in smaller numbers

being studied.

Using a national survey to ask three thousand Canadian secondary students

about computer access in the late 1980's, Collis, Kass and Keiren (1 989)

measured computer access at home and school. The results clearly

demonstrated males used computers significantly more than females both at

home and at school.

In Britain, Culley (1993) used a combination of survey and observations in

1986. She found a significant gender difference in access to computers: 56%

of boys and 22% of girls had computers at home and girls accounted for 1 Ooh

of the students using computers in free time at school. She also found that the

boys monopolized the computer resources during class time since "in the

practical part of lessons boys would typically acquire the newest computers,

those with disk-drives and colour monitors' (Culley, 1993, p. 152).

While a very small nurnber of American studies indicated no significant sex

differences in access to cornputers at school (Anderson, Welch and Harris,

1984; Chen, 1986), most studies showed at least some sex differences in

access (Becker and Sterling, 1987; Linn, 1985; Martinet and Mead, 1988),

especially in home access (Johnson, 1987; Martinez and Mead, 1988;

Swadener and Jarrett, 1986). Where sex-related differences in access were

found, they showed boys having greater access; according to Sutton (1 991)

there were no studies during the 1980's in Canada. Britain or the U.S.A.

indicating girls have greater access to computers than boys.

Much has changed since the 1980's which might have effected a change in

access to computers in schools. In a recent study, Schofield (1995) made

observations in an American high school examining computer use and found

that girls had ample access during class time but were very unlikely to have

access to computers during free tirne (Schofield. 1995). Bryson and de

Castell conducted a survey, based on Collis, Kass and Kieren's survey, of

over five hundred Canadian secondary students in the mid 1990's (Bryson

and de Castell, 1999). They report that a higher percentage of boys have their

own computer at home (60.4%) than girls (46.2%); that a higher percentage of

boys used school computers daily (1 9.3%) than girls (8.6%); and that a higher

percentage of boys felt confident about using computers (44.7%) than girls

(27.7%). More current empirical evidence seems to suggest that although

there is some change in the degree of the inequitable access, boys still enjoy

greater access to computers than girls.

Attitude Towards Computers

Attitudes about computers are seen to derive from various sources: the

prevailing societal attitude of the masculine culture of computers, as well as

experiences with computers both at home and at school. Students arrive at

school with preconceived notions about computers. It is believed that

attitudes significantly influence students' choices to en roll in elective computer

courses and how they view their own cornpetence with respect to computers.

Since students' experiences with computers at school affect their attitudes and

influence cornputer use and confidence, it is difficult to differentiate the effects

of previous attitudes f rom the effects of school influenced attitudes.

des Towards Corrlpyters

The domination by males of computers and, indeed, technology in general, is

well documented (Cockburn, 1985; Franklin, 1990; Hacker, 1989; Noble,

1 995). In Canada, Willinsky describes fernale st udents participating in

computer classes as "cross dress[ing] in their performance with (the

masculinities of) technology, while drawing the sort of attention one does

when working in drag" (Willinsky, 1996, p. 2). Again, he emphasizes that this

"male domination" is a societal construction, and one which schools must

make every attempt to dismantle.

Culley links the masculine culture of computers to the heavy marketing of

computers and software as 'toys for boys" (1 993). She also States that the

career aspirations of children, which are heavily influenced by attitudes, will

affect the subject choices students make. Culley's research demonstrated a

marked sex division in the career aspirations of her subjects. Few girls

considered computing, while this was a popular choice for boys. Girls hoped

to work with childnn or as secretaries. Even for the girls taking optional

computer studies courses, work with computers ranked fourth after secretarial

work, work with children and work in a bank.

Examples of social attitudes towards computers are found in the images in

software packages and other computer related materials. A number of studies

from the 1980's examined the images in computer magazines and textbooks

and have found that a majority demonstrate sex differentiation. Sanders and

Stone (1986, p. 36) report that females are depicted as 36% of the passively

involved computer usen but only 17% of the actively involved computer users.

18 They also found that only 12% of the articles in the computer magazines they

studied were written by women. A study of advertising images in computer

magazines by Demetrulias and Rosenthal (1 985) found that the most cornmon

image was that of a lone Caucasian male (59% of dl advertisements). In yet

another study Schubert (1986) reports that in computer magazines men

appeared twice as frequently as women. women were over represented in

traditional jobs such as cierical workers, men were over represented as

managers and computer experts and women were usually depicted as

passive computer users. Little has changed in ten years, as a more ment

analysis of advertising in corn puter magazines shows. Weinstein (1 998)

found that in advertisements for computer related products only men were

portrayed as actively engaged with the technology while women were

portrayed as passive objects. It would seem that sex differentiation is still

prevalent in computer magazine advertising. While these images may not

directly affect many elementary and middle-school students since they are not

the direct audience for such magazines, these representations will more

directly affect high school students, parents and teachers.

Other studies have looked at computer software and the images portrayed.

Violence in software is often seen as appealing to boys, and far less

appealing to girls. Since there is a great deal of violent software available,

this has been labeled as a major cause foi girls' avoidance of computers.

Sanders and Stone (1986) made an inconclusive study about children's

attitudes towards violence in software. They found that boys were more likely

to & these games but girls them. They determined that the violent

games contain problematic educational content for either sex. Ten years later,

Chappell (1 996) found violence and cornpetition increased along with the age

of the target users in top-selling software programs designed for math

education. She also found a 'gender imbalance, favouring males'

(Chappell, 1996, p. 34) pervading the software programs she analyzed. She

did not draw a causal relationship between this increase in violence and

competition and girls' decreased interest and attitudes towards cornputers as

they age, but felt that relationship merited further study.

Some software developers have been creating games directed at girls'

interests since the 1980's since it was feH by many researchers that most

games were directed at boys' interests. Sanders and Stone (1986) describe

these girls' games as 'fluffware" maintaining gender stereotypes in the attempt

to lure the lucrative female market. Ten years later, Willinsky (1996) similarly

describes one category of "girl" software as adventures in fashion, shopping

and make-up experimentation. Another type of girl software takes advantage

of girls' apparent inclination for word processing. graphics and music

(Sanders and Stone, 1986). While finding nothing wrong with these programs

they caution that girls must also be encouraged to l e m to use spreadsheets,

data bases and learn to program as well. More recently, Bryson and de

Castell (1 998) view the substantive increase in software created specifically

for girls and the subsequent demand for girls' software to have been

encouraged by a shift in cultural expectations, namely that 'technology use [is]

necessary for a successful future - for ... daughters as much (well almost as

much!) as for ... sonsn (Bryson and de Castell, 1998, p. 3).

Yet another genre of girl software focuses on strong story lines, fantasy and

reduced violence to appeal to girls. Willinsky (1 996) describes the

Braderbund garne, Myst. as an example of this. The Electronic Games for

20 Education in Math and Science (E-GEMS) group in Canada has conducted

research about girls' choices in computer games to aid in their own design of

educational games to appeal to both sexes (Inkpen, et al., 1995). They found

that girls enjoyed playing some electronic games. especially when given

opportunities to socialize, and that girls are more interested in computer

games than video games. The ratio of boys to girls in video arcades was

found to be 8 to 1 and this was taken to demonstrate girls' disinterest in video

games. The E-GEMS group also found that girls identify with characters in

games, that girls play games for shorter periods of time than boys. They found

that if there were more boys in the game playing atea, girls became more

hesitant about joining in. When girls played together they were more social

than boys. talking with each other between tums on the machine. Koch

(1995) interviewed boys and girls in a Canadian grade 7 class to determine

what types of software they preferred. Boys described software they had

used, mostly violent games. Girls described attributes of games they m ight

like since there was no existing body of software which appealed ta them.

The E-GEMS group, dedicated to increasing girls' participation in

mathematics and technology, used their research findings to m a t e a

computer game to appeal to girls, taking advantage of girls' desire for

connectedness, social interaction, and fantasy fiction. The product is called

ho-. Based on classroom assessrnent of this game the E-GEMS

group found that both boys and girls enjoyed the game but that girls spent

most of their time in dialogue with the main character, a fourteen year old girl

called Julie, while the boys spent their time playing with the mathematics

puzzles (Klawe, Westrom, Davidson, and Super, 1996). Bryson and de

Castell find this situation to be sadly typical since 'the girls are captivated by

their 'caring and sharing' activities writing notes back and forth to Julie, [and]

21 the boys are scooping up the educational goodsu (Bryson and de Castell,

Another trend in educational software, to avoid over representation of male

characters in games, is to have nonsexed or neutral characters. Interestingly,

however Bradshaw, Clegg and Trayhurn (1995) in a study in British schools

found that children usually identified neutral characters as male, but girls were

more willing than boys to see neutral characters as female.

lnterest in Com~uters

Studies through the 1990's which explored student interest in computers.

liking of cornputers, views of the utility or necessity of computers and

confidence in using computers, reported significantly more positive male

attitudes, but some also found no significant difference in these attitudes

between females and males (Colley, Gale, Harris, 1994; Huber and Schofield,

1998; Shashaani, 1994, 1997; Sutton, 1991 ; Woodrow, 1994). There do not

seern to be any reports indicating females have more positive attitudes than

males towards corn puters. Çtudies which exam ined student anxiety towards

computers reported males being less anxious than females, although not al1

diff erences reported proved significant (Colley, Gale, Harris, 1994; Hu ber and

Schofield, 1 998; Sutton, 1991 ; Woodrow, 1994). Experience has a strong

effect on attitudes, (Colley, Gale, Harris, 1994; Shashaani, 1994; Woodrow,

1994), so strong that when this effect and the effects of gender-role identity

were eliminated, no sex differences in attitudes remained (Colley et al., 1994).

These studies seern to indicate difficulties in resolving the inequities of

experience since girls are IeSS likely to enroll in cornputer courses because

22 they have less positive attitudes towards computers. However, Shashaani

(1 994) found the association between experience and attitude to be stronger

for males than females.

Culley's research in Britain (1993), Bryson and de Castell's in Canada (1999)

and Sanders and Stone's in the U.S.A. (1986) revealed that "home computers

were much more likely to have been bought for boys than girls and were used

more by boys and fathers than girls and mothers' (Culley, 1993, p. 150).

There are conflicting reports on the importance of home computer experience,

on the one hand Colley et al. (1 994) found this factor associated with lower

computer anxiety for both males and fernales, rise in confidence in males and

rise in computer liking in fernales while Shashaani (1994) found home

corn puter experience unrelated to corn puter interest, confidence or perception

of utility.

Gender Role ldentitv in Relation to Com~uter~

Elkjaer conducted an observational study of 14 -1 5 year olds in Danish

computer classes over three months (1 992). She describes how the girls

become "'guests' in a sphere of content that is dominated by symbolic

masculinity, " (p. 38) while, 'boys are regarded as 'hosts' in the sense that they

feel compelled to try to maintain their dominating position in a sphere defined

by masculinitya (Elkjaer, 1992, p. 38). She reported that girls performed

quietly and cornpetently in these classes although the public sphere of the

computer class was dominated by the boys. The boys, on the other hand, felt

driven to secure their dominant position. thus creating an uncornfortable

pressure for those male students who were not competent in computer skills.

23 Schofield (1995) in another observational study of high school students in the

U.S.A. reported that

Although students' attitudes toward cornputen and their reactions to using them are generally positive, traditional gender roles shape their experiences in very marked ways. Girls are more likely than boys to be socially isolated from their pers if they pursue an interest in developing their computer skills, and factors ranging frorn the gender composition of the pool of computer science teachers to the kinds of examples used in class reinforce this linkage between masculinity and cornputers to the point that students, as we found at Whitmore, laugh at the idea that one could create a program relating to sewing, a traditionally ferninine domain. (p. 227-228)

Attitudes towards computers are important and have been shown to affect

aspects as diverse as career choices and computer skill devalopment.

Positive attitudes better ensure students will leam new skills as needed by

future developments in computer hardware and software. Many researchers

have explored students' perception of computers as a male domain. This

work followed research looking at students' attitudes in science and

mathematics. The Girls in Science and Technology (GIST) project found a

pervasive attitude of science as a masculine subject, especially for males

(Whyte, 1 986). In Sutton's (1 991 ) review of 1 980's corn puter research, she

found only one out of twelve projects reporting no difference between boys

and girls in ternis of their view of computers as a specifically gendered

domain, and this project had a small number of subjects (N=32). In al1 the

other studies in her review, boys had a much more strongly stereotyped view

of computers than girls; this was also found by later studies (Woodrow, 1994;

Shashaani, 1994). Girls strongly expressed the view that there is no sex

difference in computer aptitudes but when asked for their individual aptitude

they claimed they were not very capable. Their attitude was described as 'we

24 can but I can't' (Collis. 1985, p. 53). Colley, Gale and Harris (1994) found that

students' own gender role identities strongly affected their attitude towards

com put ers. They found, too, that females with higher scores on the

Masculinity Scale of the Bern Sex Role lnventory had more positive attitudes

towards computers.

Role rnodels have been discussed as an important factor in reducing

inequities with cornputers (Culley, 1993, Sanders and Stone, 1986). The

GlST group found. in participating schools which female scientists visited, the

attitude towards science as a male domain was reduced for al1 students

(Whyte, 1986). Contradicting these accounts, Huber and Schofield (1 998)

found in Costa Rica that having female teachers display expertise in

computers had little affect on students' attitude towards computers as a male

domain. Colley et al (1994) found that if brothers used cornputers at home

andor work, both fernales and males had more positive attitudes. If fathers

used computers only male attitudes became more positive and if mothers

used corn puters only fernale attitudes became more positive.

The significance of students' attitudes to the choices they make and the way

pupils view themselves in relation to computers is difficult to assess. but it

seems clear there is some impact. Experience at school and home seem to

affect students' attitudes towards computers. These experiences seem to add

to the already prevalent view that computers are a male domain, while the

effect of female rote rnodels seems less clear.

Classroom Processes

Specific equity concerns arise from practices within the school, concerns

which develop from the everyday behaviours of teachers and students. The

areas to be examined next, then, concem the types of computer use in

schools, teachers' attitudes towards equality and equity, curriculum content

and interactions among students.

omputer Use

There are a range of types of computer use in schools. First enrollment

statistics for different computer courses and then recreational computer use

will be discussed. The first type of computer course is a computer awareness

or literacy course. These courses are often cornpulsory in Canada and the

U.S.A. and so frequently have equal numbers of boys and girls (Sanders and

Stone, 1986). According to Campbell (1 984), also in the United States (U.S.),

two out of three computer students are boys but this statistic is deceptive since

the girls are clustered in the introductory courses and are virtually nonexistent

in advanced level courses (Campbell, 1984; Culley, 1993). Currently, in most

schools in British Columbia, students are required to take computer courses

up to and including grade eight.

The second type of computer course teaches computer applications, and such

courses are often electives. ln the U.S.A. Olson (1988) found differentiation in

the choice for these courses between the heavily girl selected commerce and

business streams and the heavily boy selected acadernic streams. The latter

are more likely to learn high status technological skills and the former, general

26 application skills. U.S. researchers, Becker and Sterling (1987) found the

only computer courses where girls were over represented to be word

processing electives. Since these reports are at least ten years old. it seems

reasonable to believe that enrollment numbers for computer application

courses might have been made more equitable; however, this does not seem

to be the case. More recently, 1996197. enrollment numbers for high schools

in British Columbia show that boys continue to predominate in al1 computer

courses (Bryson and de Castell, 1999).

Cornputer programrning is the third type of use and these courses

demonstrate an enormous gender gap according to Sanders and Stone's

ratio of 15 boys to O girls (1 986). Becker and Sterling (1987) in the U.S.A.

found girls to be under represented in these courses. Collis, Kass and Kieren

(1989) in Canada found 38% of boys and 47.30h of girls had never

programmed (p. 81). More contemporarily. Schofield (1 995) found that while

girls were equally represented in introductory programming courses they did

not continue to upper level programming courses in very large numbers. This

pattern of computer course enrollment was also noted by Bryson and de

Castell (1 999) in provincial high school enrollment.

The fourth and final type of computer use is dropin or recreational use. This

usually occurs before or after school and at lunch time when students can play

games or work on school projects of their own choosing. In the U.S.A.,

Sanders and Stone (1 986) and Becker and Sterling (1987) both found boys

taking greater advantage of this option than girls. In Canada Collis, Kass and

Kieren (1 989, p. 81 ) found 29.1 % of boys and 31.1 % of girls never used

computers for tecreation while 22.9% of boys and 10.6% of girls claimed

frequent recreational cornputer use. Recently in Canada as part of the

GenTech project, Jenson (1997) observed very few girls choosing to use the

computers recreationally when the computer access was 'first corne first

served." More girls began to join in the recreational use in the computer lab

when encouraged by a pass system based on 50% boys and 50% girls. In a

different Canadian study of computer use in the 19901s, Koch (1995),

observed grade seven students using computers in their classrooms during

"freetime," when they had finished their assigned work. She found the girls

tended to choose software "that was consistent with what is generally (and

perhaps stereotypically) perceived as 'girls' interests" (p. 1 3). She also

reported that the girls required a teacher invitation to use the computers since

they rarely initiated computer use on their own.

Teachers' Attitudes About €qui&

Teachers' attitudes towards sex equality have not been studied by a great

number of researchers. Yet these attitudes are recognized as greatly

influencing students' attitudes and subject choices (Beynon, 1993; Schofield,

1995). One study directly focused on teachen' attitudes towards students'

abilities with cornputers was done in Britain by Culley (1993) who reported

from her observations, attitude survey and interviews that teachers felt boys

(even those failing the course) were more interested in computers and more

rewarding to teach. Girls, on the other hand, even those performing well in

class, were perceived as having less flair and as simply going through the

motions to perfom tasks. These findings were corroborated more recently by

Huber and Schofield (1 998) in Costa Rica in a study of Me differences in the

way boys and girls think about and use computers.

Also in Britain, Pratt (1985, p. 25) found from his attitude survey about equal

opportunity initiatives that just under 60% of the 850 teachers surveyed were

generally sympathetic with these initiatives. Males were more likely to be

opposed and 27% of the male teachers were strongly opposed. Teachers of

English and Social Studies, regardless of sex, were more supportive of equal

opportunity initiatives, while teachers of mathematics, physical sciences,

technical crafts and languages were least supportive. Teachers were more

likely to agree with the principals of equal opportunity, but to voice uncertainty

about implementation initiatives. The Girls lnto Science and Technology

(GIST) study in Britain presented sim ilar findings (Whyte, 1986). There

seemed to be a strong belief in biological deteminism in girls' and boys'

abilities (thus seeing them as unchangeable) among teachers in physical

sciences, technology, home economics, typing and among older teachers. As

a rule, female teachers seerned more likely to believe that sex differentiated

çubjects such as crafts, physical sciences, maths, home economics and typing

could be made less differentiated through changes such as role modeling.

And both male and female teachers of English, social studies and drama also

agreed that change was possible.

Teacher-student interactions are important to examine, especially in

cornparison to teachers' attitudes, since there is not always consistency, as

Pratt's (1 985) survey found. Conclusions from Kelly's (1 986) review of

American research, were surnrned up by Acker (1994) as indicating that in

general boys get more teacher attention. Kelly reported that girls were as

likely as boys to volunteer to answer questions but were not chosen as much

of the time. Girls received less criticism and less instruction while boys

29 received more academ ic and behavioural criticism. More currently, Huber

and Schofield (1998) arrived at similar findings, that teachers in Costa Rica

gave more assistance and guidance to boys in the computer lab than to girls.

Schofield (1 995) reported from her observations in an American high school

that teachers interacted with female students in different ways than with male

students. "Several male faculty members used terms of endearment such as

honey or sweetheart in addressing female students. Neither they nor fernale

teachers were observed addressing male students in this wayN (p. 136).

Schofield also found from interviews that students were encouraged by their

teachers to enroll in courses which led to careers typical for their sex.

Teachers' attitudes about equity do not seem much changed since the 1980's

when Stanley (1 986) concluded f rom her case study of a coeducational class

that while a 'hidden curriculum" in school treats "males and fernales as much

more different than the outside world does" (p. 45), this "quiet role which most

4T girls adopt when in school happens to chime in well with conventional

expectations of the woman's role in a patriarchyn (Stanley, 1986, p. 47). The

GlST study in Britain, also in the mid 1 9801s, echoed these findings,

concluding that

the sexes constantly divide and are divided at school; boys dominate classroom discussion; boys insist on more of the teacher's attention; boys and teachers 'masculinize' the lesson content in science and crafts; boys 'hog' resources; girls 'fetch and carry' for the boys. (Whyte, 1986, p. 25)

Curriculum Content

Educational software selection is yet another area in which issues of gender-

equity are at stake. Schubert (1986) identifies a number of considerations

30 when selecting educational software, including exam ination for inc tusive

language usage, gender and ethnic proportional representation, appealing

subject matter, appealing style of action (not al1 corn petitive violence),

appealing symbols (not al1 trucks and rackets), a variety of reinforcements,

and a variety of role representations. In most school districts, however,

software evaluation forrns do not even recognize bias as a criterion for review

and if they do then they are only looking for the presence or absence of

stereotypes (Schubert, 1986). Using a more rigorous set of criteria to select

software was viewed as critical in combating inequities in gender, race and

class relating to computers in schools in a review of research from 1983 to

1993 (Mangione, 1995).

Culley (1993) in looking at the curriculum implications of her study in Britain,

drew up a list of factors to be considered in promoting gender equity. She

agrees with Schubert (1986) that software selection is critical, and she

concurs also with the view that the traditional link between computers and

math and science should be broken. She furthemore echoes Sanders and

Stone's (1986) view that a wide range of computer applications should be

presented, that experiences and achievements of women and men related to

computers be included, that management strategies which include girls

should be more centrally used, and that more collaborative work should be

included in computer courses as well as independent woik. Some of these

strategies were used by the GIST group in Britain (Whyte, 1986). A number of

visiting female scientists were brought into science classes as a way of

presenting students with female role models as well as to emphasize the

experiences and achievements of women in this male dominated field. This

program was generally well received by both teachers and students.

31 However even though the program was designed with girls in mind the boys

continued to dominate the classes. Teachers were hesitant to draw attention

to the fact that these were fm scientists visiting as opposed to generic

scientists, expecting the students to make this connection on their own. Along

the same lines, in their Costa Rica study, Huber and Schofield (1998) found

that having female computer teachers did not affect students' perceptions that

computers were a male domain. Another initiative in the GIST study was

science and technology teachers were asked to examine their own curriculum

materials for sex bias. Female teachers found more examples of sex bias in

course texts and other course materials than male teachers and female

teachers were more motivated by this evidence of bias to seek less biased

alternatives (Whyte, 1986). The teachers worked to promote greater gender

equity by redesigning curriculum materials to build on girls' interests as much

as boys', stressing the social and human applications of science in everyday

life, involving girls as well as boys in first hand experience to develop concrete

scientific understanding and encouraging and supporting girls' and boys'

choices to participate in physical sciences and technology. The GIST group

found some teachers more resistant than others to cooperate with these

objectives. As a result the researchers were somewhat disappointed with the

outcomes of students' course selections and attitudes after the three years of

the project.

Research on student interactions in computer classes has yielded results

demonstrating gender inequities in drop-in computer use, cornputer class

interactions, and group work interactions. Sanders and Stone (1986), from a

32 survey of junior high girls, report that it was not the overwhelming presence of

boys in the computer lab that persuaded girls not to participate in drop-in time

but rather the absence of their friends. The girls wanted social interactions

with other girls while using the corn put ers recreationally. Wh ile more recently

Jenson (1997) found that when 50°h of the computers were reserved for girls

to participate in drop-in time their involvement increased. Again, supporting

the notion that if social interactions between girls are encouraged then more

girls participate in recreational computer use. Boys tend to dominate

recreational computer time and so there are alteady opportunities for the boys

to socialire with each other.

The E-GEMS group, observing in a Canadian science museum. found that

girls tended to observe other people using computers, and that girls waited

until they were invited to participate, while boys tended to use the computers

rather than observe others' use and did not need any invitation to participate

(Inkpen, et al., 1994). The girls seemed more hesitant to approach groups

with a majority of males and when they did approach, they often simply

watched for a few minutes and then left. Koch (1995), obsewing in a grade 7

classroom, noticed that girls only selected cornputers in theit snare time when

the teacher invited them to do so. When asked to explain this, the girls

complained about specific boys "hogging' the computers. Elkjaer (1992), from

her observations of Danish computer classes, reported that the boys publicly

competed with each other, ignoring the girls; while the girls quietly cooperated

together, staying out of the public display. However, she found no reason to

believe the girls felt inferior in terms of computer skills even if the boys

dominated the public sphere of the class. In fact, she felt that the boys were at

a disadvantage since they were under pressure to perform well in this area

while the girls were free to perfom at their own ability level.

Beynon (1993), in his observations of a British cornputer class working in

small groups, found the girls frequently complained about computer "bullies,"

specific boys aggressively monopolizing the computers. He noticed the girls

spent most of their time (80%) as scribes carrying out the boys' orders while

the boys operated the keyboards (7Q0/0 of the time) and occupied the space

directly in front of the computers (p. 177). He found many dominant males and

very few dominant females. In a few instances, with peer support or teacher

support, these dominant females controlled the computer and the boys were

forced into a back seat roll. When this occurred the boys withdrew their

participation and often left the group altogether. When the girls were

operating the keyboard (30°h of the lime) the boys ridiculed and insulted them

if any rnistakes were made, this was not reciprocated when the boys were on

the keyboards (p. 177). In another study of British computer classes, Culley

(1 993) observed boys sitting at the front of the class or in front of a cornputer

while girls sat at the back of the class or on the periphery. When students

chose groups to work with they chose single-sex groups. Females shared the

computer and worked cooperatively in groups while boys argued about turn

taking and were more cornpetitive. Only if there was no other choice, students

would work in mixed-sex groups in which the boys dominated the keyboard

while the girls looked on. The boys sometimes responded to the girls with

ridicule or hostile comments or they acted as though the girls did not exist.

Other studies (Underwood and Jindal, 1994; and Lee, 1993) have looked at

student interactions within small groups of students doing task work on

cornputers. These studies varied group composition and looked at the

resulting interactions for gender diff erentiation. It was found that m ixed-sex

34 groups were at a general disadvantage, in t e n s of achievement and student

interactions, to same-sex groups (Underwood and Jindal, 1994). Boys were

found to be more verbally active in mixed-sex groups while girls became

quieter in these groups (Lee, 1993). Single-sex girls' groups tended to be

more cooperative, while boys' groups were more corn petitive (Underwood

and Jindal, 1994). Girls made more positive comments in al1 groups while

boys' comments were more negative (Lee, 1993).

Student Achievernent

Achievement has the potential to affect student attitudes and encourage

enrollment in further courses or further skill development. There have been

few studies looking at the differences of student achievement in computer-

related courses in schools. However, there has been more work on gender

differences in achievement in science, which, given the commonalities

between these areas, might help to shed some light on the issue. Haggerty

(1 991), looking at science achievement, found that girls achieved better on

class tests than boys but worse on standardized tests. This study reported that

girls succeed in science by learning 'right" answers while boys succeed by

attempting to understand and that although girls were more motivated to

succeed than boys, they had more negative attitudes towards this subject.

In a study specifically concerned with the relationship between prior

computing experience and gender on achievement, Taylor and Mounfield

(1 994) reported that males and females performed equally well and prior

experience correlated well with success for all. Only certain prior erperiences

with cornputers correlated with success for males: having a computer at home

35 and having taken a course in computer programming. All prior experiences

correlated wit h success for females. This study concludes "that females with

prior computing experience can compete equally with males in college

cornputer science courses' (Taylor and Mounfield, 1994, p. 304).

Sutton's (1 991 ) review of 1 980's research notes three studies, (Lockheed,

Thorpe, Brooks-Gunn. Casserly and McAloon, 1985; Martinet and Mead,

1988; Fetler, 1985) concerned with computer literacy which found significant

gender differences. These st udies found achievement was heavily reliant on

previous experience. Two more recent studies also indicate gender

differences in student achievement in computer courses. Girls were found to

be less knowledgeable about computer use than boys in one study (Reinen,

Plomp, 1994); in the other (Brummelhuis, 1994) gender was significantly

correlated with student achievement in cornputer literacy courses. Sutton

(1 991 ) reports no gender differences in achievement in corn puter

programming with BASIC (Linn, 1985; Linn and Dalbey, 1985; Webb, 1985;

McCormick and ROSS, 1990). Only one study (Hawkins, 1987) found boys

outperforming girls in programming with LOGO while three others found no

difference (Webb, 1985; Schaefer and Sprigle, 1988; Campbell, Fein,

Scholnick, Schwartz and Fran k, 1986).

Turkle (1984) discusses two different types of programming with LOGO: hard

mastery, more typical of boys; and soft mastery, more typical of girls. She

makes it clear that both styles are equally competent and result in creative

programs.

Implications

It is quite clear from the foregoing suwey of research that there are gender-

inequities of a range of kinds in relation to the educationai uses of computers.

Furthetmore, a cornparison of the literature from the 1980s and 1990s

demonstrates very little changed over the last decade. What is not made clear

in the research reviewed is how to address this problem. Gender equity

issues are highly complex and many factors have been identified as having

an impact. Compounding this is the varied use of corn puters in schools; there

does not seem to be a common method for using computers or for teaching

about or with computers. "The future task should be to understand the

cornplexities of the problerns better and, therefore, to be able ta devise better

intervention strategies' (Sutton, 1 991, p. 494). There have been few projects

focusing on interventions, notable exceptions being the Girls in Science and

Technology (GIST) study in Britain, and the Electronic Games for Education in

Math and Science (E-GEMS) group in British Columbia. There seems to be a

clear need to establish intervention strategies which produce positive, long-

terni changes in the gender, racial and class inequities in technology use in

schools. The path to take to pet there seems twisted. complex and anything

but clear: one attempt at discovering such a path will be the subject of the next

chapter.

CHAPTER 3: CONTEXT, RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Introduction uiw

To address the liability of qualitative research to subjective bias, it is heipful to

provide explicit background about the researcher and the context of the research.

Currently a teacher in a suburban school district in the Greater Vancouver

Regional District, I have been teaching for nine years and my experience ranges

from early primary to upper intermediate grades in elernentary and middle

schools. Previous to teaching, I received a Bachelor of Science degree in

biology and worked as a laboratory technician in a zoology research lab.

Following that I returned to school to earn a Diploma of Technology in film and

television production and then worked as a production assistant and technician in

the video and film industry. Having worked in scientific and technological fields

myself, I have developed a deep interest in what girls have to Say about, and do

in, science and technology, and I have worked on several projects with the

Society of Canadian Women in Science and Technology (SCWIST) encouraging

the involvement of girls in scientific pursuits.

In my teaching practice I have been involved for seven years as a member of

an action research group. During this time, 1 have explored children's

perceptions of various educational issues such as: choice in the classroom;

problem solving instruction; continuous progress; and learning with and

without cornputers.

38 It was this last project, described in chapter 1, that led me to my current work. In

the course of asking the students questions about the differences they

experienced in leaming with and without cornputers, it became very clear that

students' relationships to that technology were completely different for boys and

for girls. Many of the boys eagerly competed for the few resources available in

the computer lab, while the girls quietly retired to the classroom. I decided to

examine this difference in more detail. While actively engaged with this project I

was on educational leave, allowing much greater flexibility in the scope of the

project than would have been possible while teaching.

The Pro~ect

The goals of the project were to determine students' practices towards and

perceptions of gender and equity regarding technology in schools and then to

use these findings to modify my own teaching practices so as to promote

greater equity in my classroom uses of technology. After receiving clearance

from Simon Fraser University's Ethics Cornmittee, my plan was to approach

friends and colleagues who would be amenable to the idea of my engaging

their students in working with technology in sorne capacity over a number of

months. I proposed for example, to organize the integration of a computer

project into a unit of study already in progress in the class. I would then use

this experience with technology to observe the students' practices and probe

the students for their perceptions of the experience. I selected my research

sites based more on the amenability of the teacher to such a project, more

than any other criterion. Since the teachers I worked with were in different

schools and teaching at different grade levels, this resulted in a project having

three quite distinct parts. The obvious drawback to this is the small numbers

39 of students in each part of the project and the non-cornparability of the projects

themselves. The benefits are that information can be sought from three

different locations, three different age groups and three different uses of

technology, thereby increasing the divenity of the data.

In each site rny observations were recorded as field notes directly after each

session with the students, which were once or twice each week. Parents were

requested to give their permission to allow their children to be interviewed

regu larly du ring each of the projects. The semi-structured interviews were

tape recorded on a weekly basis. The purpose of the interviews was to

gather students' perceptions as well as their input on improvements to the

process we were following in the computer lab. These interviews followed the

session and were done in the students' class the, lunch time, or after school

in small single-sex groups. I decided to interview in single-sex groups

because of my interest in the differences between the girls' and the boys'

accounts of their experiences with cornputers.

The elementary site was selected first and I began my weekly work with the

grade 415 class on October 25, 1996. 1 visited this site each week until May

16, 1997. These students worked as a class and were taught computer skills

to produce assignments for other subjects. The middle school site was the

next to be selected and I visited weekly from Novem ber 1 3, 1 996 until

February 25, 1997. These students were a select group from a number of

classes and they worked on using the computer to produce an assignment for

their science course. The secondary site was selected last and I visited once

or Nice each week from February 5, 1997 until June 6, 1997. Three students

from a media skills class were directly part of the project at this site. They

40 were using video technology to produce an assignment for their course. Each

part of the project will be described separately, since each site was unique in

duration, location, participants, manner in which participants were selected,

and the particular use made of the technology. These descriptions will

include information about the site, the participants, what technology use

occurred, a sumrnary of the data coiiected there, a brief discussion and a

surnmative analysis of the research completed at each site.

Using HyperCard in an Elernentaiy Classroom

I h G I h

The elementary school in this project was situated in Port Moody. a suburban

municipality in the Greater Vancouver area. The school population was made

up of working class or income assistance families who were primarily

Caucasian. More than haif the school's population was living below the

poverty line. The school had a computer lab with twenty-nine Macintosh

corn puten of various types (Mac Classics, Mac Pluses, Colour Classics.

Performa 6200s) which were networked together using an Ethernet. Each

class had one forty minute session each week with the school computer

teacher. Any other computer time was at the discretion of individual

classroom teachers.

The class involved in the project had one teacher from Monday to Thursday

and a different teacher on Fridays. Because of this arrangement the class'

schedule on Fridays was very different from the rest of the week. I visited the

class on Friday mornings between 9 a.m. and 12 p.m. from October 25, 1996

until May 16, 1997. During the first paR of Friday mornings the class went to

41 the computer laboratory until 10:25 a.m., then after the recess break they

would work in the class room. (This class also went to the computer lab for a

forty minute class with the school computer specialist on Tuesday afternoons.)

The Participants

The class was made up of twenty-six grade 4 and 5 students, ranging in age

from nine to eleven years old. The class had only nine fernale students, 4 of

12 in grade four and 5 of 14 in grade five. This limited the selection of female

interview subjects as did the few returned parental permission forms for grade

four (only two grade 4 girls had parental permission).

The interview subjects were chosen in order to get a range of abilities,

attitudes and ages. I frequently interviewed students in pairs or threes, in

same sex and same grade level groupings. Occasionally I interviewed

students singly. Students willing and able to talk freely about the project were

interviewed more frequently. Each student was asked each time if slhe would

like to be interviewed. The interviews were conducted after the recess break

from 10:40 - 12:W. At this time the students were usually engaged in social

studies work in the class room, and the interview subjects were excused from

this work for 15 - 20 minutes in order to participate. The students seemed to

appreciate this break from their routine and willingly agreed to be interviewed,

sometirnes asking me if it was their turn to be interviewed.

I began with this class by teaching them how to create simple animated

sequences with HyperCard. This assignment was determined by the

42 classroom teacher and rnyself as a fun way to begin to learn to use the

computers. Previous to this the students had primarily used the computers to

play games. As an introduction to the assignment the students looked at

some flip book animations and then they discussed possible animation

subjects before starting their work on the cornputers. Creating these animated

sequences on the corn puters familiarized the students with some basic

programming skills using HyperCard.

The specific application I chose for this project, HyperCard, is a flexible,

m ultidirnensional software program. It can be used for programm ing,

managing and accessing information sequentially or non sequentially, and as

a multimedia tool. This diverse program is readily available for Macintosh

computers, which were the computers available in the schools of this project.

Students of all ages are able to grasp aspects of HyperCard easily and are

able to ma te rn ultimedia presentations of their work.

The students used the skills from this animation assignment in their next

assignment which involved creating HyperCard stacks displaying information

they had learned about European immigration to Canada in the nineteenth

century. These stacks included animation sequences, imported graphics,

researched information, and connections between al1 parts of the stack. This

assignment was also detenined by the classroom teacher and rnyself as a

way to have the students integrate computer use with their classroom work

and to further see the computer as a tool. The students gathered the

information for the stack in the classroom and then used index cards to

produce a draft of their stack. Then the students entered the material into the

computers and programmed the various connections within the stack. Many

43 of the students became quite sophisticated with HyperCard programming, and

some even added sound and visual effects to their stacks. During this

assignment students took tums using the better cornputers in the lab, since I

had observed that many students. both male and fernale, never got a turn to

use the better equipment when the access to the cornputers was first corne,

first sewed. (This solution was suggested by many of the interviewed

students.)

After the second assignment I divided the class into three groups. which

rotated each week through free time for 20-30 minutes, story writing using

HyperCard or other software for 20-30 minutes and research using CD ROMs

for 20-30 minutes. The research was for their new unit of study in social

studies: First Nations in British Columbia. This format was determined by the

students and myself through class discussion and suggestions ;bey made

during our interviews. Students wanted some unstructured cornputer time to

play games or explore other software, and they wanteâ to continue to use

HyperCard and other software to produce work for their class. But their

teacher and I also wanted to teach them how to use the computers for

research as a continuation of their learning to use the computers as a tool. By

dividing the class into groups and rotating through the different activities each

week we were able to accommodate everyone's needs. Another reason for

dividing the class was to create segregated groups. This also carne from

student suggestions in the interviews as a way to ensure al1 students' access

to the better computers.

The interviews al1 followed a loose structure determined before the session

began. Depending on responses to questions, further clarification, details and

questioning were al1 necessary at times to more fully understand the students'

points of view. The initial interview attempted to determine students' general

attitudes about gender, technology and equity. Questions such as, 'what do

you think about cornputers?', 'why do you likehate them?', "who is good at

computers?', and "who uses computers?', helped to gain sorne insight into

the students' general perceptions. The subsequent interviews focused more

on students' specific activities in the cornputer lab and how things could be

improved. Questions like, 'how is your HyperCard stack coming along?',

"what is easy/difficult about working with HyperCard?', 'what might help with

the difficult things?', 'how are the changes we have already made working?"

(e.g., seating plan, instruction format) helped students to reflect on our work

and discuss solutions to their perceived problems in the computer lab.

In order to create some order from the interviews I began searching for

comrnon thernes and found some obvious categories similar to the categories

wh ich emerged from m y literature review: access to corn put en, societal

attitudes, interest in computers, gender-role identity, role models, difference in

cornputer use, teachers' attitudes. curriculum content, interactions among

students, achievement, and student suggestions for change.

I documented the seating arrangements in the computer lab for the first five

45 weeks while the seating was first corne-first sewed. The colour computers in

the lab were highly desirable and as the students entered the lab at the

beginning of the class there was usually some com petition to access them.

Once established on a cornputer. a student only switched or shared a

cornputer if there was a technical problem. Most students (17 of 25) in the

class accessed the colour computers at least once during these five weeks. I

was interested to see if there was a pattern to the access of the desirable

computers. All four of the grade four girls but only three of the seven grade

four boys accessed these computers at least once. Three of the five grade five

girls and seven of the nine grade five boys accessed the colour cornputers at

least once. More interesting than this was who accessed these computers

more than once. Five out of the nine grade five boys accessed the colour

computers more than once during these five weeks. The only other person in

the class to access these computers more than once was a grade four girl.

Some of the grade 5 boys were accessing the colour computers more readily

than the other groups even taking into account their greater numbers. Of the

students who never accessed the colour cornputers there were four of the

seven grade four boys, two of the five grade five girls and two of the nine

grade five boys. In terrns of access. then, the younger boys and the older girls

were at a disadvantage in accessing desirable computers.

I had noted a similar picture of privilege and restriction in observations I had

conducted previously of a grade seven class in an earlier project on leaming

about Ancient Egypt with a HyperCard stack described in chapter 1. In that

project the boys dominated the equipment in the cornputer lab. Thineen out of

fifteen boys used the computers during class time at least once while only five

out of ten girls used the computers at least once.

In the grade 4/5 study when I asked students who uses computers most, girls

named an even mixture of males and fernales while boys named only males.

Once it was pointed out that the grade five boys were using the colour

computers more, the girls seemed somewhat puuled by this fact. When

pressed for their thoughts on this. the girls had explanations for the

preponderance of men in the computer world:

I'd Say there might be a few more men that might be better at it cos they seem to take ... more computer classes than women cos women seem to like to play them [computers] but don? like setting them al1 up cos usually women tend to like, 'frustrate' a little more easily than men do (grade 5 girl)

I think men like to set things up, I think they like to feel like they're in control and set things up and feel like they did that, so that's like ... they're proud of it, they just like to set things up and be known as the person who did that (grade 5 girl)

The boys also had explanations for their dominance in computers:

boys are probably a little better at putting things together maybe ...y eah mechanical things, computers ... [girls are better at] baking, cooking, figure skating, gyrnnastics (grade 4 boy)

The students of both sexes noticed that there were other male dominated

areas in the world and in school, the most frequently mentioned of these was

the gym or sports. Boys explained the reasons for men's apparent prevalence

in sports:

grade 4 boy 1 : Yhere's one girl who's just as good ... as a boy in hockey.. .'

interviewer: 'why only one girl? If girls were the same..' grade 4 boy 1: '... cos girls don? want to sign up, only she and she's a

goalie for Tampa Bay ...' grade 4 boy 2: '[girls] might think the boys will tease them cos they'll

47 push them and they might Say boys are better ... they'll get huit'

The students seemed to differentiate activities as gendered. It would seem

that males were better suited to computer use and sports, but females could

be as skilled if they simply 'sign up" or 'frustrate' a little less.

At mess time I allowed students to stay in the cornputer lab for free time and

documented who stayed. what software they used, and which computers they

accessed. Some of the computers had coloured monitors. some were black

and white, and different computer models had different games available on

them. These differences encouraged the cornpetition for access to the more

desirable computers. Based on in-class and r e m s use of th8 computers

while the com puter access was first come-first served. the grade five boys had

the best chance of winning access to the desirable computers. Many students

had explanations for this:

Grade 5 girl: 'the boys are the fastest, and they always try to get in the front of the line to get the computers ...'

Grade 4 girl: 'they're not the fastest they're just closer to the line, and when the girls are turned around they run in front of them'

well if a girl has a colour computer and ... there's a whole bunch of other boys and then the one boy he wants to be by his friends and the girl's the only girl there and she wants to she might let him have it cos she wants to be by her friends instead of by al1 the boys and she iust will give it to him. (grade 5 girl)

cos they're faster than me and like they'll cut me off so how can I? They just cut me off and then they get there first cos l've never been on it ... some of the grade 5's are tougher so they think that ... they could beat us up ... sometimes they beat me up so I don? want to mess with them cos T [a grade 5 boy] keeps on kicking me so I'm not going to mess with him cos he'll just kick me again and kick me and kick me so (grade 4 boy)

Although these results only represent one class, they are corroborated by a

number of other studies with much larger numbers indicating that males

gained access to the computer resources at home and at school significantly

more than females (Becker and Sterling, 1987; Collis, Kass, Keiren, 1987;

Culley. 1993; Linn. 1985: Martinez and Mead, 1988). In Culley's study she

found that 'in the practical part of lessons boys would typically acquire the

newest computers, those with disk-drives and colour monitors" (Culley, 1993.

p. 152).

In this study, the presence of two grades adds an interesting dimension to the

problems of computer access since the younger boys were often less

successful than many of the girls at accessing the desirable computers.

Attitude Towards Cornputers

Societal w s towards computers,

The grade 4/5 students had difficulty generalizing any of their observations

and opinions. They were more comfortable discussing tangible concrete

observations about specific people. They did not seem comfortable

attempting to explain their observations in general social terms and they

certainly could not discuss how the differences in attitude and action between

boys and girls might have come about. And yet it was apparent mat the

st udents clearly understood the pervading societal attitudes towards corn puter

use, they simply had difficulty talking about them.

interviewer: '... is the corn puter not girl stuff?' grade 5 girl 1: 'sometimes it is, most of the time, well I guess it has to

49 depend on the person ... if the person likes the computers or if ...'

grade 5 girl 2: "their idea of girl stuff" interviewer: 'so each person, so each girl could have a different idea of

girl stuff?' grade 5 girl 2: 'yeah like I have a different idea of girl stuff, S [grade 5

girl] does. K [grade 4 girl] does, and you probably do.'

interviewer: 'so most girls are good at using things but they are not good at making things, is that sort of what you are saying?"

grade 4 boy 1: "they are good at making dinners and that ..." interviewer: "oh they are good at making dinners and stuff like that" grade 4 boy 2: 'baking like my grandma"

The students seemed hampered in their ability to reason in a broad societal

sense by the myth that boys and girls are equal in al1 ways.

grade 4 boy a: "Some girls are experts [on computers] and some boys are experts''

intewiewer: 'so you think it's about even? you think it's perfectly fair?" grade 4 boy a: 'yeah' interviewer: "Do you think there's just as many computer experts

making computers and designing software ... that are girls as there are people doing that who are boys?"

grade 4 boy b: "1 don? think sou interviewer: "what do you think?' grade 4 boy c: 'the girls are as good as boysu

interviewer: "Do you think in the computer lab that girls are about the same as boys?'

girls: 'yeah' interviewer: 'There's no difference? It doesn't matter if you're a girl ...' grade 4 girl: "If you're saying that boys are bette? than girls it's not true" grade 5 girl: 'or if you Say girls are better than boys ..." grade 4 girl: 'it's not true"

Despite the impression that girls and boys are equal in al1 ways, these

students understood the traditional stereotype of computers as a male domain

and thus the girls described their alternate recreational activities as 'girl stuff."

All the interviewed students (male and female) 'liked' computers. Girls stated

that they liked to use computers to gel information, and play adventure games

that used their imagination, boys said they liked to learn different programs

and play corn petitive games, while both boys and girls liked to make things

such as cards and posters. Girls claimed they were frustrated by not knowing

what to do, boys said they were frustrated by 'computer viruses' and not

having enough free time, while both found waiting for the machine to start up.

and losing work, annoying.

The girls were very clear that, although they were interested in computers.

there were other activities they also enjoyed.

interviewer: "Out of you and your brother, who uses [the computer] most?"

grade 5 girl: "my brother ... yeah cos I do other things instead ... I like to dance and sing and do, you know regular girl stuW

interviewer: "so is the computer not regular girl stuff?' grade 5 girl: 'sometimes it is, rnost of the time, well I guess it has to

depend on the person'

Other studies found either that male attitudes towards cornputers were more

"positiveu or they found no significant difference between female and male

attitudes (Colley, Gale, Harris, 1 994; Shashaani, 1 994; Woodrow, 1 994).

These same studies, as mentioned eailier, also found that experience strongly

affected students' attitudes. Based on this it would follow that since rnost of

the students in the current study had similar amounts of experience with

computers there should be little difference in attitude between the male and

female students. This was not found to be the case. The girls certainly

51 expressed an interest in computers but they also discussed their enjoyrnent in

participating in 'regular girl stuff" activities. The boys. when discussing

computers, rarely mentioned any other activities in which they enjoyed

participating .

The boys may have felt compelled to express this undivided interest in

computers because of the cultural pressure to conceive of the computer as a

male domain, while the girls felt more free - - or, perhaps, more obliged - - to

discuss ail their interests.

Gender role identitv in relation to com~uters.

Though the students claimed there was no gender difference in computer use

this was in direct conflict with their depictions of computer experts. During the

course of the first interview, students were asked to draw a quick sketch of a

cornputet expert and a computer non-expert. This was used by Bryson and de

Castell in their survey of secondary students. This is an unconventional

question chosen to elicit conceptions students may have but which they rnay

feel they 'shouldnYm express. The vast majority (1 6 of 19) of the grade four's

and five's depicted "experts' were males and more than haH of these (9 of 19)

were represented as computer "nerds." The vast majority (15 of 19) of the

non-experts were also male and were either 'drug fiends' (5 of 19) or "jocks"

(7 of 19). There was a small group of non-experts which were represented as

female secretaries (3 of 19). The male students only drew males, and most of

the female students followed suit but a few drew experts (3 of 10) or non-

experts (4 of 10) as a female. These representations are consistent with

findings that students viewed computers as a specifically male domain

(Shashaani, 1 994; Sutton, 1 991 ; Woodrow. 1994).

Girls described computer experts as being people other than themselves,

antisocial, and not athletic.

there's one boy that is my brother's friend and he's always on the computer and he doesnY have time for friends and stuff he's always on his computer (grade 5 girl)

Boys described computer experts as themselves or their friends.

I don? know how to run a Macintosh that well I'm more an expert at IBM's (grade 5 boy)

I'm not bad at computers I think (grade 5 boy)

In most other studies boys were found to have more strongly stereotyped

views of computers than girls (Shashaani. 1994; Sutton, 1991 ; Woodrow,

1 994).

Boys were seen by girls as having to maintain a reputation of being "expert'

on computers, boys protected that reputation by not asking their peers

questions, and instead only asked the teacher for h8lp.

well if [the question] is something simple then they [boys] might get embarrassed and that would wreck their reputat ion or something so they're very protective of their reputation. (grade 5 girl)

Elkjaer (1992) in Denmark found that boys felt driven to maintain their

dominant position in the computer class and uncornfortable pressure was

created for those males who were not competent in computer skills.

Girls, on the other hand. had a more complicated relationship with cornputers

which both boys and girls found difficult to identify. Boys were clearly the

'experts' but girls also used computers and liked to use them.

interviewer: 'is the cornputer 'girl stuff' for you?' grade 4 girl: 'well I don? use it a lot 'cos I think it's good to do other

things but still I like to use the computer ... I still use it so I think it's good"

interviewer: 'do you think that the girls are as good on the cornputers as the boys are?"

grade 4 boy 1 : '1 don? think al1 the boys are as goodu grade 4 boy 2: 'some girls are experts and some boys are experts"

These boys went onto state that fewer girls were experts than boys.

The g ih ' attitudes about their cornputer abilities were interesting since they

were adamant that girls in general were equally skilled as boys at computers

but when asked about their individual skills they consistently felt they were not

competent. This is consistent with Collis' (1 985) 'we can-l can't" paradox.

These students had a very strong impression that the gender role identity of

computers was male. This was displayed in their drawings of the cornputer

experts as well as in their descriptions of computer experts at school.

ole models in cornDyter environrnenk

During the interviews when girls talked about who used the computer at

home, the majority mentioned people other than themselves and most of

54 those were male: brothers and fathers. When boys talked about home

computer use they often claimed themselves as the main user, then dad and

sometirnes mom. For both boys and girls the person who set up the home

computer was usually a male friend of the family who was seen as a computer

expert, with fathers as the next most likely individual to have set up the

computer. At school the students recognized that the computer experts or the

teacher in charge of the computers was always male.

grade 5 boy 1: "my rnom's work friend, he's the brains of the farnily on corn puters"

grade 5 boy 2: "yeah my dad's girlfriend's like uh brother was the one who even brought [the cornputer] over, it's the reason they brought it over to our place was I think they got a pentium, a new one at their place'

interviewer: "who do you think set up the computers here [at school]?' grade 4 boy 1: "Mr. Ma grade 4 boy 2: "the janitor?' grade 4 boy 3: 'MI. M came, um, we were using the computers before

he came, I think Mrs. P [principal] got a guy to come in and set them, a couple guys come in and set them up'

grade 4 boy 1: 'oh it wasnY Mr. M or anyone else it was Mr. Mcu interviewer: 'these are al1 guys aren't they? They are al1 men. So are

men the only ones who are experts on computers?' grade 4 boys: 'no" grade 4 boy 3: 'my mom's an expert, well my morn is very good at some

games that we haveu

Again. the students' very strong opinion of the computer as a male domain is

evidenced here by the students' recognition that the role models of computer

excellence at home and school are usually male.

Ditference in cornDuter use.

These elementary students did not select their courses, taking computers was

not a choice, so it is difficult to judge in which types of computer courses the

students rnight have shown an interest. However, there was a perceived

difference in how the cornputer was used by girls and by boys:

boys like to fix stuff and everything and work on stuff and girls like to do more interesting things like write stories on it and do their homework on the computer and everything (grade 5 girl)

interviewer: 'so there are sorne thing's that girls are good at and sorne things that boys are good at ... are computers one of the things that boys are good at?"

grade 4 boy 1: 'Uh hmm" grade 4 boy 2: 'putting it together' interviewer: 'so boys are good at putting computers together and what

would girls be good at doing with cornputers?' grade 4 boy 2: Vinding things in it'

Other studies, exam ining differences in corn puter use, used en rollment

numbers from different types of computer electives, and found that boys

dominated corn puter courses which involved programm ing and learning

applications other than word processing (Becker and Sterling, 1987; Olson,

1988; Schofield, 1995). Since the students in the current study did not select

their computer course, the only type of computer use from other studies which

can be directly compared to this study is recreational use. Even this

cornparison is a littte weak since 1 did not offer a true drop-in session but

rather students' free-time use was a continuation of their computer time into

the recess break, with free choice of activity. As noted, in their 1989 study,

56 Collis, Kass and Kieren (1 989, p. 81 ) found 29.1 % of boys and 31.1 % of girls

never chose to use computers for recreation. On the other hand, they found

22.9% of boys and 10.6% of girls were frequent recreational computer users. I

found 18.8% of boys and 1 1.1 % of girls never chose to stay for free time,

compared to 37.5% of boys and 22.2% of girls who frequently chose to stay in

at recess. It seemed that more students were using computers for recreation

but that there were still fewer girls who were frequent recreational users. The

girls' discussions about enjo ying using corn puters but also enjoy ing doing

other activities seems to sum this up well.

The students seemed to have an impression that girls used the computer as a

tool to complet0 tasks. while boys wanted to understand and fix the computer

or becorne tool designers. Girls used computers less frequently than boys for

recreation but more boys completely abstained from recreational cornputer

use than girls.

Teacheis' attitudes.

The other teachers working with these students recognized cornpetition for

access to desirable items like the colour computers and tried to implement

strategies for making access more equitable.

Mr. M picks, like Say if theie's five colour cornputers right? He picks five Mers out of the alphabet, starts at the StaR of the line and goes A,B,C,D, etcetera, and then who ever gets those letters goes on the colour computers ... Mr. M's only just started this cos he noticed that there was lots of fighting going on to gel those computers (grade 5 boy)

Then there's also the other one and you get a class list and you go down it ... that's what Mrs. O did for computer passes at lunch (grade 5 boy)

I never observed. or heard about teachers discussing this problem of access

or any solutions to this problem with the students. In fact, from the students'

perspective, the teachers rarely noticed the problem of access to desirable

items until the competition was fierce among the boys. Frequently the solution

was avoidance, as is explained by a grade 5 girl describing her gym teacher's

solution to the competition over a highly prized piece of equipment:

well Mrs. D says sometimes that we just not use the scooters (grade 5 g i r l)

Teachers were quicker to notice when the boys' needs were not being met

and solutions were quickly irnplemented. The girls' needs were not as

obvious. likely because they rarely made a fuss.

After half an hour of the movie the older, tougher boys were getting restless. They called out, talked amongst themselves and began roughhousing with each other. Half way through the movie a stretch break waç called by the teachers and the option to go and play games in the gym was announced. It was clear this option had just been arranged. The older boys raced to the gym along with some girls. Another 10-15 minutes and the girls had returned to the movie. They said it was 'no fun' in the gym. (field notes February 14, 1997)

Although many students, both boys and girls, were not enjoying the movie and

wanted alternative options, as indicated by the mass exodus to the gym, the

only option offered was clearly an effort to pacify the noisy boys and stop their

uroughhousing.' The teachers. yet again, indicated to the girls that their needs

were not as important as the boys, since there was no attempt to find an

alternative that would satisfy them. In fact, the teachers probably did not even

notice that the girls were not satisfied with the movie.

58 Teachers did not discuss problems of access with the students. The students

felt their teachers only recognized access problems when the cornpetit ion was

fierce among the boys and then developed solutions directed at the boys.

Curriculum content.

The students were used to having free time in the cornputer iab during which

they could choose any software they wanted. The selection of software

available for their choice is detailed in Table 1.

Table 1

Software Pr~prams Available on Com~ute r~

Programs Descriptions

Available on al1 computercr: multi-use program with word

ClarisWorks processor, database, communications. diawing, painting and spreadsheet capabilit ies

Wet Paint Kids Pix

Print Shop

Monster

All The Right Type

Number Munchers Number Maze Math Blaster Math Mystery Math Kids Algebra Blaster Plus

Carmen San Diego Oregon Trail

Mind Maze

programmable index cards

paint programs

card and poster creation

story writing and illustrating

keyboarding program

multilevel math games

adventure, simulation games

maze game

59

Wheel of Fortune word guessing game

AvaIIaMe on colour cornputers only:

Storybook Weaver story writing and illustrating

Yukon Trail adventure, simulation game

Spectre shoot-or-be-shot game (only on one corn puter)

Some of the software available for the students seemed to be designed to

appeal equally to girls and boys, especially the software used to create

products for instance: Claris Works, HyperCard. Wet Paint, Kids Pix, Print

Shop, Monster, All the Right Type. The games, however. tended to be aimed

at boys' interests. The math games were the worst offenders as they used

weapon syrnbols as rewards, shooting gallery skills. explosive effects.

etcetera. Wheel of Fortune had dancing 'can-cann girls as a reward for a

correct answer. The adventure. simulation games al1 had shooting gallery

components or violent implications. Spectre was the most biased game in it's

obvious appeal for boys with its military overtones. I never saw a girl play this

game.

The Electronic Games for Education in Math and Science (E-GEMS) group

found that girls liked to socialire while they played games, that they identified

with characters in the game more than boys, that most of the existing software

did not appeal to them directly, and that the girls were not likely to join in

games if there were a num ber of boys playing. Many of these results were

also seen in the cornputer lab, especially the last point. At m e s s time. while

the boys competed to play Spectre, the girls played other games and

socialized.

The students noticed that the girls and boys used the cornputers to play

different games during free time.

the boys al1 rush to play the only one computer that has Spectre loaded onto it and lots of boys like it cos it's a shoot up game, boys like shoot up games and it has tanks and everything. (grade 5 boy)

[girls play] stuff like Kids Pix, Storybook, I saw S (a grade five girl) playing Storybook Weaver they like playing games where you create stuff like Say Storybook Weaver, you're able to create your own page like picture. That's mostly what I see. (grade 5 boy)

These observations correlate with formal research studies of corn puter

software. Boys were found to love games with violence while girls were less

committed (Sanders and Stone, 1986). Research on girls4 choices in

computer games found that girls enjoy strong story lines, fantasy and reduced

violence (Inkpen, et al.. 1995).

My observations of the recess time game choices the students made validate

the students' perceptions and are consistent with the results from other

research studies. I kept records of software use for each student who stayed

in the computer lab during recess time. The software was categorized as

previously described in the table of available software. The frequency with

which each category was chosen by girls or boys during al1 the recess

sessions, was calculated as a percentage of the total software selections for

each sex. The most popular software for the boys, in order of demand, was

adventure, simulation games (47.5%); math games (1 8.6%) and Spectre

(1 5.3% even though it was only available on one computer out of thirty-two).

6 1 The most popular software for the girls. in order of demand, was story writing

programs (39.1%); adventure. simulation games (34.8%); and math games

(13%). Story writing programs were one of the last choices for the boys and

the girls never chose Spectre.

There was a differentiation in the types of computer activities in which girls

and boys chose to participate. This may have been caused by the fact that the

games available on the com put ers seemed to be overwhelmingly oriented

towards boys' interests.

Interactions amona students.

The girls had much to Say about the interactions between and among students

in the cornputer lab. The girls noticed that they worked well together as a

group and they did not appreciate being split up from their friends.

grade 5 girl 1: "1 think we [girls] sort of work together better than the boys we sort of work a little bit better than the boys and not complaining al1 that muchu

grade 5 girl 2: 'and if a boy was your partner he might not let you have that much time if you were like sharing with themu

grade 5 girl: "[a girl] wants to be by her friends instead of by al1 the boys and she just will give it [colour cornputer] ?O him I guess"

interviewer: '...if it was al1 girls on the colour cornputers do you think the boys would feel the same way?"

grade 5 girl: 'hmrnrn no ... cos they have a colour computer and they ...' interviewer: "so it's more important for them to have a colour computer

than it is to be with their friends?" grade 5 girl: 'yeah"

From a survey of junior high girls, Sanders and Stone (1986) found that girls

did not object to the overwhelming presence of boys in the computer lab

62 during drop-in time but rather the absence of their friends. The grade 4 and 5

girls certainly indicated a similar desire to be with friends in the interviews.

But their actions told a sornewhat different story. In one observed interaction,

for example, a grade 5 girl gave away a colour cornputer that was beside her

friend when a grade 5 boy indicated he wanted that particular computer.

K (grade 4 girl) headed for her usual spot with S (grade 5 girl). N (grade 5 boy) grabbed one [colour computer], K grabbed one but S and T (grade 5 boy) both held the chair beside K. S let go of the chair and moved quickly to the computer beside that. So the final order was S (girl), T (boy), K (girl) and N (boy) (field notes, January 10. 1997)

During their Tuesday computer time with the school computer teacher, the

students learned a new game. n i e game, Yukon Trail, was only available on

the colour computers so the students were paired to share the eleven

available computers. Girls fe l strongly about sharing with boys.

T (grade 5 girl): "and when a girl is with Ti (grade 5 boy) he always controls the computer he wont ... '

S (grade 5 girl): ''1 was his partner for Yukon Trail" T: 'he wont he hardly wont let S touch the mouse' S: "yeah ... and me and C (grade 5 girl) were partners and l'II play for

about 10 minutes and then she'll get it and we'll just trade back and forth"

In a study of a British computer class, Beynon (1993) also found the girls

cornplained about computer "bullies', and girls spent most of their time on the

cornputers as 'scribes', carrying out the boys' orders while the boys actually

operated the computers and sat directly in front of the machines.

In the cunent study, the boys had much less to Say about interactions in the

cornputer lab. But, when coaxed, they discussed the drive to get the colour

63 computers, including interactions in the line-up, and how boys take over the

corn put ers.

There's like some grade 5 boys who are really good friends and if one of them gets in the front [of the line] they let each other get behind them and in front of them and everything so then they're first (grade 5 boy)

grade 5 boy: "they [the grade 5 boys] run and get it to gel the computer" interviewer: 'so they are more ready to take a risk?" grade 5 boy: '1 don? know maybe it's not the risk maybe it's just

because they want the colour computer" interviewer: 'and the girls don??" grade 5 boy: "well they do but it's just that ... I dont know"

interviewer: "maybe why the boys are rushing for the computers cos they think they know how to use them right"

grade 5 boy: 'maybe ... I donY think they really do that on purpose cos I donY think they rush because they Say 'you don7 know anything so I'm going on' ... I think they do that maybe subconsciously or something'

The boys dominated the computer lab with their displays of prowess, leaving

the girls to quietly cooperate together to complete the tasks assigned. The

girls also gave computers up to boys who demanded them.

The students did not have anything to Say about specific computer skill

achievement, although they discussed in general tenns who they thought

were cornputer experts. Their perceptions were not based on particular

products, skills or criteria as forms of assessment; but rather a general sense

of that person's computer prowess. The field notes, however, do give some

insight into differences in achievement in the class. Ouring the HyperCard

animation assignment, for instance, it seemed there were different stages that

64 the girls and boys went through to gain comfort and confidence in a new skill.

November 29, 1996: 'The girls listened to instructions and seerned to enjoy the outcorne, the older boys didn't listen but through trial and error and asking the teacher for help succeeded and enjoyed the session. The younger boys were not interested in the project, especially since it took too long to progress from each step. So they refused to participate willingly, forming an unsubtle resistance to the project, the older boys and me.'

December 6, 1996: 'The girls were more confident. M (teacher) watched the girls run for the colour computers. The young boys also seerned more confident about attempting the project"

December 13, 1996: "Young boys seemed much more demanding today. Girls worked quietly until they needed to add buttons then their hands shot up. Kids who didn't ask for help at al1 were al1 Asian grade 4 boys ... At the end of the session a check was made on who had not completed a stack: 6 out of 7 were boys!"

The grade 5 boys just seemed to immerse themselves in the project from the

start and, mostly through trial and error, worked hard on the assignment; the

girls, always eager to please and do well, listened carefully to instructions and

quietly did what was necessary to complete the assignrnent. The grade 4

boys were not cornfortable at first and so resisted the project, then as they

became more cornfortable began dernanding more teacher assistance to get

caught up. Because the boys were loud about their computer prowess and

exuberant in their enjoyment of computer time the final products were quite a

surprise.

But when looking at the products, the girls' overall are much better - more stories, more details, more substance. Girls are just as "invisible' as are minority boys. (field notes, December 13, 1996)

The cornparison with minority boys refers to the Asian boys, especially grade

fours, who, like the girls, just quietly got to work and did not participate in the

65 demonstrations of computer prowess in which the other boys engaged.

Elkjaer (1992), in a study of a Danish computer class, also found that the boys

publicly competed with each other, ignoring the girls. The girls, meanwhile,

quietly cooperated together out of the public display. She found no reason to

believe the girls had inferior computer skills even though the boys were much

more evident in the public sphere.

On a different assignment, when the students were using the CD ROMs to

research cultural aspects of different native nations, another difference in

achievement was noticed.

Girls gel started on CD ROMs - they are finding material and are excited. Boys explore more and are less on task - I keep reminding thern about the task - they find sound clips on CD ROMs the girls didn't. Girls are more cornpliant - they work within their given groups on the machines identified for them while boys are out of their seats, cruising, checking out others' machines and discoveries. (field notes, April 4, 1997)

The girls were task oriented and found much more material for their research

than the boys did, however, the boys became much more adept at using the

CD ROMs and were able to access different components on the various CD

ROMs quicker and with more ease.

ts' SuQOBStions for Change

The students had suggestions for creating more equal participation in the

computer lab, at the same time better meeting the leaming needs of al1

students. At the beginning of each class session, a discussion was held to

remind students what we had done last week, review skills we had learned

66 and to air suggestions for irnprovements to our process. Students were also

encouraged to present suggestions during the intewiews. The ideas evolved

as th8 project progressed as they were tried and incorporated or rejected.

lnitiaily the only suggestions for irnprovement were for the teacher to "teach

better:' speak more clearly, slower, louder, repeat instructions. These ideas

were implemented to the best of my ability and I indicated my attempts at their

irnplementation to the students. Next it was felt that by allowing students to

consult with each other and observe each other they would receive help more

efficiently. This was introduced during an interview and then discussed by the

class and agreed to. First the positive aspects of the idea:

on the cornputer instead of like asking the teacher, maybe someone beside you, like today I was asking S (grade 5 girl) how to get into those objects that are already drawn and she said 'okay' and she did it and she clicked back and she couldn't get back and I helped her cos you're supposed to use the hand, the pointing hand, and so instead of like bothering the teacher, like '1 need help', we could just ask someone beside you or around you (grade 4 girl)

And then the negative aspects:

you don? get as much time for yoursetf when you're helping other people all the time you've gotta know, you've got to know when to set limits on things like that (grade 5 girl)

The students noticed that girls consulted each other more. while boys

obsewed each other more.

grade 5 girl 1: 'boys don? seem to ask [other students] as many questions I guess'

grade 5 girl 2: 'they seem to know that you're a teacher and that you wouldn't start laughing at or something so they think that it's

67 alright to ask teachers but not other students cos other students might laughu

Then students were given the empirical data about the access to the colour

computers when the results of the seating arrangements in the first few weeks

had been tabulated. As a solution to this problem it was suggested that the

teacher mate a rotating seating arrangement for the whole class. This was

quickly rnodified the next week to a rotating seating arrangement for the colour

computers only and the rest of the computers would continue to be first corne

first sewed.

interviewer: 'What do you think about the seating plans. me putting you guys into a cornputer?'

grade 5 girl: '1 don't really like it ... cos I want to be by my friends and stuff ... not like I fool around with my friends or anything but just ..."

interviewer: '... should it only be for the coloured computers that I have the seating plan?'

grade 5 girl: 'yeah interviewer: "and then the rest of it people can choose where they want

to sit?" grade 5 girl: 'yupM

This solution allowed students to sit with their friends and choose their seating

arrangement but also allowed equitable access to the desirable colour

computers. Next instructional posters were requested to be hung around the

cornputer lab as well as having examples of finished products on display. The

final idea to be tried was separating the girls and boys into single-sexed

groups.

One of the students' ideas to specifically encourage girls was to provide girls

only instruction. This idea was attempted by creating three groups of students,

one of the groups being girls only. 60th boys and girls appreciated this

68 strategy but for different reasons. The girls appreciated working in a girls

group since they felt that they worked more cooperatively and efficiently

without boys. The boys had a different story:

sometimes boys just don? really like working with girls like sometimes boys like working with boys and boys like playing soccer with boys ... the genders like staying together in their own like little group like boys stay with boys and girls stay with girls (grade 5 boy)

Overall the interventions did seem to have a positive effect. The girls'

confidence and enjoyrnent in using the computers seemed to rise. The girls

became less hesitant about trying new skills on the computers as time

progressed and they sought more help from the teacher and each other. The

girls increasingly tended to work in friendship groups, laughing and talking

while working on the computers. All the students becarne much more able to

discuss equity issues and they noticed discrepancies more readily as time

went on. The students also became more adept at suggesting solutions to

problems they were having in the computer lab, evaluating those solutions

and modifying them.

lnitially the students felt that there was no difference between boys and girls in

dealing with computers but through the course of the project and discussing

their seating and software choices and other aspects of computer use the lack

of fernale participation in technological pursuits was generally seen as a

problem.

At one point M (teacher) asks why there is a group of girls I Say there is a good reason. She was sitting by A (grade 5 boy) at the time so I ask A to explain, he looks at me and I Say 'rernember our interview about the problems we used to have? Who hogged the colour computers?' He says 'oh yeah' and proceeds to explain to M that the grade 5 boys

69 take over on the computers so since we are sharing the CD ROMs the girls work together to share so they get a fair chance. (field notes, May 2, 1997)

The grade fours and fives tended to be very concret0 in their solution

suggestions which also relied heavily on the classroom teacher for support

and implementation. In fact al1 the suggestions depended on teacher

implementation except the idea about asking peers for help and support

instead of always asking the teacher.

There is little in these results which is at variance with other research reports

although the focus here was on the students' perceptions and ptactices.

Sorne highlights included: girls preferred to access computers at home than at

school, older boys had greater access than girls and younger boys; computers

were viewed as a male domain; individuals identified as role models in

computer expertise were al1 male; girls were seen as tool users while boys

were the tool designers; the available computer games seemed to be oriented

to boys' interests; girls enjoyed social camaraderie while boys jockeyed to

publicly display their prowess; girls focused on task completion while boys

focused on their public displays.

Using HyperCard in a Middle School Gifted Class

The middle school project took place in Port Coquitlam, a suburban

neighbourhood in the Greater Vancouver area. The school population was

70 made up of a rnixed population of rniddle class, working class and income

assistance families, with some Asian and Eastern European students. The

majority of the students were Caucasian. The students had access to

Macintosh cornputers in their classrooms, the library, two labs, and the student

services room. This school was only three years old and was supplied with

more technological resources than older schools. The school offered a ten

week computer course in a computer laboratory to al1 students at some point

during the year. The course was offered on a daily basis for forty minutes.

Each classroom had a networked computer, most of which were used by the

teachers, but some were available for student use. The library had six

cornputers with internat access for student use. The student services room

adjoining each group of four classes also had at least two cornputers

available to the students. There was a second cornputer laboratory available

for booking by classroom teachers, separate from the facility where the

students took their computer course. Many of the classes used the internet

access in the library for research, as well as the cornputer lab for project work,

but this use was at the discretion of the classroom teachers. As well as

cornputers, each student took a ten week course in technology education

involving wood working equipment. Each group of four classes had a

television, VCR, video camera and portable stereo system available.

The class involved in the project was the grade eight 'piftedm class, being

taught by the grade eight resource teacher. The students were selected for

this class by their teachers and they also needed to achieve 95% or more on

the Canadian Test of Basic Skills. The class met with the resource teacher in

the grade eight student services room twice each week on Tuesdays and

Thursdays, for forty minutes each tirne. During my work with this group, from

71 November 13, 1996 until February 25, 1997, 1 visited on Tuesday mornings

from 10:40 a.m. until 12 p.m. At the same time the resource teacher often had

other students in the room working on other activities, and her time was taken

up with these other students. This room was a very busy place with many

different students coming and going, some according to schedule, some

according to need. There were often teacher aides working with special

needs students as well.

The Participants

The class had a total of eight grade eight students ranging in age from

thirteen to fourteen years old. Six of these students returned parent consent

forrns allowing me to interview them. The class had four female members and

four males.

Since the numbers were so small with this group, I interviewed al1 the

participants who returned consent form S. I interviewed the students singly or

in same sex pairs. The students were asked each time if they would like to

participate in the interviews. The interviews were conducted during the

students' lunch time or during our session. I usually scheduled the interviews

a week ahead of time so the students would know they might miss some of

their lunch break. The students seemed to enjoy the interview process

especially once they realized their feedback and their comments were

completely confidential and that their teachers would not have access to their

responses.

Since these students were in different classes I began by holding a group

meeting in which we discussed upcoming assignments which were shared by

al1 the classes. I then discussed my needs for the project: that they complete

one of these assignments using technology. I let them know that I would

ensure the acceptability of the assignment format with their teachers. The

students then selected an ongoing science assignment which was due some

months later. The students were expected to choose a controversial

environmental issue and find newspaper articles with different points of view

on this topic to review and critique. We then discussed different formats the

students could use to complete this assignment with the technology available:

creating a web page. a HyperCard stack, or a HyperStudio presentation. The

students decided to m a t e a stack using HyperCard. Some of the students

were familiar with HyperCard, and those who were not felt less intimidated by

learning this software since they did not need to leave the resource room. The

computers in the resource room alteady had HyperCard available, while the

other options required computers with more mernory and so would have

necessitated a move to a different location. I gave instruction on HyperCard,

facilitated equipment use and helped to solve programming problems during

our class time. The students were required to gather their information, collect

their newspaper articles and work on the assignment on their own tirne. The

teachers were more than amenable to the idea that the students would hand

in computer files on disk as opposed to written work. The teachers each had a

networked computer in their classes allowing them to view the students' work

if it was submitted on disk.

This project was much smaller in scope than the elementary project previously

described. Each middle school student who had parental permission was

interviewed once at some point during their project. The teacher was also

interviewed towards the end of the project. The interviews were scheduled

with individual students when they had the time to participate. They followed

a similar format to those of the elementary students, loosely structured

interviews with similar questions. At times the students' responses required

further questioning to clarify or detail their responses. The interview was

designed to determine general attitudes about gender, equity and technology,

specifically computers. Questions such as 'what do you IiWdislike about

computers?,' "who uses computers?,' 'how do you use computers for

recreation?,' and 'how do you use computers at school?' helped to gain some

insight into the students' general perspectives on cornputers.

Again, to create sorne order from the interviews I used the same categories as

the previous project to begin to examine the ideas the students were

presen t ing.

Even though there were small numbers involved in this project, access to the

cornputers continued to be a problem. There were eight students working in

five groups, there were three computers available in the student services

roorn, and I brought in my laptop, rnaking a total of four available computers

during each session. The students who had previous exposure to HyperCard

74 dominated the computers at first. They were two Caucasian boys working

together and an Asian girl working individually. The other students needed

teacher assistance and invitation to access the computers at the beginning.

As the project progressed the reticent girls became more confident. Two

Caucasian girls, working together, and another Asian girl, working

individually, began to access the computers regularly at the beginning of the

class without my intervention. The two other boys, both Asian, quietly gained

access in different ways. One joined the group of two Caucasian boys and

became a very silent partner, while the other. working individually. frequently

used computers in the library or other rooms. Finally, I was compelled to

enforce a rotation to allow equal access for everyone.

The student services teacher felt that the access to the computers was quite

equitable in her room.

I would Say the nurnbers are even of people accessing my computers. honestly, and considering I have more of a male population in this team that's interesting okay? (teacher)

However, observations while I was in this room gave a different picture. There

were many girls using the computers but when a boy expressed a desire to be

on the computer the girls invariably acquiesced.

0 (grade 8 girl) was working well and finished her stack and was eager to start a new stack. At this point she got kicked off the computer by W (grade 8 boy), who basically came in and took over (1 missed the short interaction). But W (grade 8 boy) was not supposed to be on the computers and was told to get off by the teacher. So B (grade 8 girl) returned to create a stack. (field notes, November 13, 1996)

As the students discussed access to computers in the rest of the school, it

75 became clear that boys dominated the computer lab during free time. Only

one of the students interviewed claimed to use the computers at the school

during free time. He only occasionally went to the computer lab during lunch

time to complete work projects or play games. All the other students were

adamant about never using the cornputen at school during free time. The

student services teacher comrnented about the situation in the computer lab

during free tirne.

I took a couple of walk by's Mr. P's room in the mornings, as I said that I was going to do. and there was only, now this is four walk by's and I think that the computer lab has 30 computers. Two days it was totally 100% boys in there and the other two days, there was one day that we had two girls in there and one day three girls ... there's line-ups in the morning and there's an aggressive factor of getting in there cos I've seen fights in the line-up to get in there but it's usually with the boys and I think people see that and are just not into fighting it out, duking it out. (teacher)

As part of the interview to determine general attitudes, I asked the students

about access to computers at home if they had a computer at home. The girls

identified their fathers and brothers as the main computer users at home,

while the boys identified themselves as the main users.

interviewer: "... at home who would you say uses the cornputer the most?"

grade 8 girl: 'probably my dadn interviewer: 'and whab he using it for? 1s it for work or...?' grade 8 girl: "yeah he studiesa interviewer: '... is that why you got the computer do you think?" grade 8 girl: 'yeah sort of mainly but we still get to use it for our

homework and that too"

The teacher discussed a family episode in which her brother received a

cornputer as a present instead of her, regardless of the fact that she perceived

herself as a stronger candidate for the computer.

well I went to university and college for seven years and I have a business admin degree and an education degree and on top of everything my brother only took a two year business program. I'm the one that got, you know, money to pay my car insurance one year for Christmas and my brother got a computer and considering I went to university for so long you would think that they would have given it to me but he was the one. Computers just seem to go along with the whole mathematics thing and I was on the honours math team at schoo! not my brother. It was just perceived that he was stronger (teacher)

The students had some thoughts on the preponderance of males in the

computer world in general.

grade 8 girl a: "there's girls who are like really good at computers. .." grade 8 girl b: 'but maybe a bit more on the guys' side ..." grade 8 girl a: "1 think more like at home and outside that I think a lot of

men more have jobs where they need to use the computer more than women ..."

grade 8 girl b: "if you go into a computer store and ask someone for help it's usually a man"

grade 8 girl a: "well it was a guy who invented the cornputer wasn't it?"

grade 8 boy: 'well a lot of girls do [use computers to talk to their friends]. I've been going on the chat lines and stuff there's a lot of girls on there ... there's a bit more guys"

interviewer: 'what is causing the numbers to become more even?" grade 8 boy: 'people are buying computersn interviewer: "why were more boys interested in buying computers

befo re?" grade 8 boy: "cos guys are more interested in technology"

Students were asked if there were other places in school where there seemed

to be a prominence of either girls or boys. As with the elementary project

students, the gym was mentioned by al1 the interviewed students as being a

male dominated area. The girls also mentioned technology education, while

some boys mentioned construction, logging and factories as career areas

77 dominated by men. These arenas of male domination are similar to Connell's

(1985) findings in British schools in which computing was viewed as a

masculine subject and physical education teachers had 'an unchallengeable

claim to masculinity' (p. 156). Girls were said to dorninate in home

economics, shopping and make-up.

interviewer: "so boys are more interested in computers and girls don't seem to have an interest, are there other things in school or in life?'

grade 8 boy: '1 was going to Say sports but a lot of girls do ... like NBA, NHL, there's a lot of time spent on guys' sports'

interviewer: "think about what happens in gym periodu grade 8 boy: 'oh yeah al1 the girls just walk around and talk to their

friends, cos they like talking interviewer: "they prefer talking to taking part in the gyrn?' grade 8 boy: 'probably ... interviewer: 'why do you think that is?" grade 8 boy: '1 don't know that's the way God made them"

interviewer: "are there other things in school where the boys really seem to dominate?"

grade 8 girl: '1 guess gym would be one ... any kind of like games or something like where you need a little more energy than just walking around ... I guess tech ed, boys like to explore the machinery like further one step further and they figure out new ways to like use it"

Clearly, these results have similarities to the elementary school project

discussed previously and many other studies. Males gain access to

computers at home and at school significantly more than females (Becker and

Sterling, 1987; Collis, Kass, Keiren. 1987; Culley, 1 993; Linn, 1 985; Martinez

and Mead, 1988).

The grade eight students were much more able to generalize their thinking

78 about educational technology in social terms than the grade fourIfive students.

They had developed some clear explanations for how women become

socialized to avoid technological pursuits.

I guess some of it is like parents, where they like the girls more ladylike and do needlework and art and things like that ... and it kind of rubs off on friends later on and it's like, so if they see like, if one's been raised up doing art and needlework and they see just like a friend of theirs like sort of like jumping through tech ed and computers and such they're going to like make her feel maybe unusual and maybe ... she'll try to do like art and needlework and things like that too. Whereas boys ... are encouraged to do more mechanical work and things like that (grade 8 girl)

interviewer: 'Do you think girls are not interested in technology because they're not good at it or do you think they're not interested in it because the world tells them that that's not something for girls?"

grade 8 boy: "1 think it's kind of both' interviewer: "how does the world decide what is okay for girls to do and

what is okay for boys to do?' grade 8 boy: 'well what most people think" interviewer: 'how does that corne about? like how does that filter down

to you?" grade 8 boy: 'cos a long time ago that was how they thought and then

now it's worked its way' interviewer: 'doesn't it change a little with time? ... why do some things

gel carried on by history and other things" grade 8 boy: "maybe cos computers keep changing maybe and the

things around it go differently or something?' interviewer: 'who's making the changes with the computers?' grade 8 boy: 'the programmersa interviewer: 'who are they?' grade 8 boy: 'the men"

These students al1 initially expressed the view that girls and boys were equally

proficient with computers or at least had equal opportunity to become

proficient, but were much more ready to dismiss this idea when faced with

discrepant observations.

79 interviewer: 'if a girl really wanted to become a computer expert she

could?' grade 8 girl: 'yeah she could' interviewer: 'l still wonder if it's that simple? What do you think?" grade 8 girl: (laughing) '1 don? think it is'

interviewer: "Are there any girl computer monitors?' grade 8 boy: '1 dont think there is any, there might be Itm not sure" interviewer: "does that make a difference?" grade 8 boy: 'no. it does not make a difference at allu interviewer: 'then why are most of them guys?' grade 8 boy: '1 don7 know I think. I'rn not sure, maybe girls don't, aren't

as into cornputers as guys are I'm not sure

It seemed as though these students were struggling with the difference

between the culturally accepted myth of equality and the inequality of their

own "lived actuality' (Smith, 1987) and so they often contradicted themselves.

Interest in CQmpUtaLS,

AI1 the students expressed a "liking' for cornputers but there seemed to be a

difference in what was liked. The girls liked the ease and efficiency that

corn puter applications introduced (i.e. electronic mail as a more efficient

communication tool) and the preparation for the future which they felt would

be more computer based, while boys liked playing games, using the internet,

gathering information and the ease in learning new programs. Girls were

frustrated when the computer failed to perform as they wished (i.e. when work

did not print properly), while boys were frustrated by time wastage, 'bombs'

when the computer 'froze,' 'viruses' and the cost to repair computer damage

caused by 'viruses.' (There was a tendency, as in the elementary students, to

try to utilize computer 'lingo'.)

80 Other studies on computer interest found either no significant difference

between female and male attitudes or that male attitudes towards computers

were more 'positive' (Colley, Gale, Harris, 1994; Shashaani, 1994; Woodrow,

1994). These studies, however, did not explore YYhat it was that students liked

or did not like about computers.

Gender role identitv in relation to computers.

The grade eight students also were asked, during their interviews, to draw a

quick sketch of a computer expert and a cornputer non-expert, an

unconventional question chosen to get beyond answers students feel they

should express. The results are very similar to the elementary students'

drawings. Most of the 'expertsM were depicted as males (5 of 6), and 4 of 6

wore glasses and represented computer 'nerds'. Most of the "non-experts'

were also male (5 of 6), two represented athletes, one represented a

homeless person, one represented a substance abuser. and one represented

a female writer. The male students only drew males. one of the female

students drew a female 'expertu and another female student drew a female

'non-expert.' Other st udies (Shashaani, 1 994; Sutton, 1 991 ; Woodrow, 1 994)

also report that students viewed computers as a strictly male domain.

The students had different impressions of the people who use corn put ers

frequently. The girls described these people in negative terrns as cornputer

"nerds' and definitely distanced themselves from this population, wh ile the

boys described these people in a more positive manner, often including

themselves as part of this group.

and most of them arent really athletic, they usually just sit at the

81 cornputer and just poke around ... don? hang around with friends a lot ... their best friend's the computer (grade 8 girl)

interviewer: 'So what kind of people are they?' grade 8 boy: "people like me' interviewer: 'So describe yourself.' grade 8 boy: 'computer nerd ... they're very helpful, they like helping

people when they are in trouble and fixing the programs and they have lots of friends frorn being helpful ..."

Other studies found boys to have more strongly stereotyped views of

cornputers than girls (Shashaani, 1994; Sutton, 1991 ; Woodrow, 1994). This

did not seem to be the case with the grade 8 students interviewed: both boys

and girls had very strongly stereotyped views about cornputer use.

interviewer: 7 want you to describe people who are really good at corn puters . . .'

grade 8 boy: 'S (grade 8 boy), I'm pretty good ... my friend T (grade 8 boy 1'

interviewer: 'okay al1 guys I wonder why that is?' grade 8 boy: 'l don't know, girls spend al1 their tirne putting on make-up'

well I guess girls don't really understand the computer, it's like, and they4d rather go to the maIl and shop or put on make-up and go out with boys or something ... I guess to thern the computer is just a piece of machine and the boys look at it like scmething that has a memory and things like that can really, it's almost like human like it can do things on it's own and to the girls it's just one big box that, it's not even just a machine (grade 8 girl)

Turkle (1984) also reports a differentiation between the ways boys and girls

view the corn puter, boys thinking of the computer as a 'friend' opposed to

girls' view of the computer as a 'tool.'

ole models in CO

Only three of the students had cornputen at home, one of the boys and two of

82 the girls. These students were asked who set up their home computer and

who used it. All of these computers had been set up by the students' fathers

and the fathers were al1 described as frequent computer users at home. None

of these students talked about their mothers using the home computer. The

girls described their fathers as being the main computer user at home, while

the boy described himself as the main computer user at home.

interviewer: 'so you and your dad use your computer. when you first got your computer ... who set it up?'

grade 8 girl: 'my dad'

At school the students al1 identified a male teacher as the school computer

specialist, but there were other teachers who taught computers (one of these

was a female teacher). Some of the classroom teachers integrated computers

into classroom projects such as research projects, al1 of those discussed by

the students were male. The Girls into Science and Technology (GIST) study

(Whyte, 1986) found that female role models made an impact on students'

attitudes towards gender role identity in science. However, they felt the impact

of their visiting female scientists might have been greater if the classes had

discussed stereotyped gender role identity before and after the visits. In the

school in this study the only fernale computer teacher was a very new teacher

and was not recognized by the staff or the students as a computer 'expert."

But she did teach some students computers and so could be considered a

role model. As noted previously, Huber and Schofield (1998) found female

computer teachers to have very little impact on students' concepts of gender

role identity for cornputers.

I didn't have Mr. P, I had Ms H she was a student teacher last year and she's a teacher now and it worked pretty good cos she would just kind

83 of do the lessons like tell us how to get into the program and that and then we could kinda see what was in there. (grade 8 girl)

There was a difference perceived by students and their teacher in how the

computer was used by each of th8 sexes:

I guess girls can learn to use the computer too, like ... they would know just the basic stuff like how to work it and things like that, but I guess it's the boys who would like really understand the computer, how it works and what this chip does (grade 8 girl)

grade 8 boy: "just boys are usually people that I hear that like talk about [cornputers] at school ... cos they like playing the games ... cos they'are more competitive [than girls] ... and they like the action and the violence and stuff like that ... [girls are interested in] more like strategy kind of things"

interviewer: "if there were more strategy games around then there would be more girls interested in computer games?"

grade 8 boy: 'maybe'

[the boys] would gladly spend two or three hours ... in playing around with [the computer], while the girls will use it as a process to do well because it's not been seen as a pastime that is enjoyable ... by ... the girl population. (teacher)

In general, the girls were seen as tool users while the boys were tool

designers. However, this does not match with my observations of the students

working in the project. Certainly, the two Caucasian boys familiar with

HyperCard were more than just tool users, they attempted to understand the

programming language to enable the design of fairly complicated animation

sequences. But the two Caucasian girls also went beyond simple tool use in

trying to incorporate sound and animation into their stack. The three Asian

84 students, two boys and one girl, never really got beyond using HyperCard as

a tool to accomplish the task.

Y (grade 8 girl) quietly proceeded with what she already knew on HyperCard, not asking questions, not risking, not experimenting - interesting! B and R (grade 8 girls) began at the same place - beginners on HyperCard but together they have discovered sound, animation, graphics, etc. (field notes, January 21, 1997)

Since I only worked with this group of students during school hours I was not

able to interview or talk to any teachers in the school other than the student

services teacher responsible for these students. The other teachers were

busy teaching during the times I visited the school. The student services

teacher was a member of the school district's gender equity cornmittee and

generally saw herself as encouraging equity in the classroom.

I already knew that girls wouldn't be as keen ... they feel very intimidated and ... even though it was the gifted group that you worked with those girls, even though they are vey bright, top-notched kids, they still felt very intimidated by the whole cornputer and the whole idea of HyperCard and stuff but once they got into it they felt very safe and very into it. And they are spending a lot of tirne now. extra time, their own time in hem working on the project. So you know that was something that I counted on them being nervous, but them buying into it as much as they did that surprised me too. And I'm not sure whether that was because a female was teaching them how to do it or whether they just discovered something within themselves. And yes they were successful with it and that egged them on (teacher)

As a result of the project this teacher helped the girls arrange and lead mini-

workshops for students who were interested in learning HyperCard. The girls

had begun informal teaching sessions with their friends and so the teacher

asked if they would like to formalize the arrangement.

What I was thinking of doing and I've talked to the girls about this already is actually having a class where the girls are actually teaching the HyperCard lesson. It's just so that they're perceived as the experts, you know. they have enough background knowledge, they might not have the confidence that weld like them to have but they have just as much knowledge as T (grade 8 boy) or S (grade 8 boy) does. (teacher)

The reference to S. one of the boys working in the project who partnered with

the two Caucasian boys and provided very little input to their project, was

interesting. My observations indicated that this boy had veiy little confidence

and knowledge of HyperCard, in fact much less than any of the girls.

However, the teacher's perception was that the boys were al1 more confident

and knowledgeable than the girls. This finding is similar to other studies

(Culley, 1993; Huber and Schofield, 1998) reporting that teachers felt boys,

even those failing the course, were more interested in cornputers and more

rewarding to teach; while girls, even those performing well in the class, were

perceived as having less flair and were simply going through the motions to

com plete tasks.

In discussing initiatives which rnight aid in creating a more even technological

playing field for girls, the teacher found rnost ideas problematic.

interviewer: 'what if you had a pass system [for recreational computer use] where half the passes were for girls and half for boys?"

teacher: 'yeah, but then I'd be worried about that, it would ... becorne too obvious you know doing that; but then again [the male domination] is very obvious right now '

interviewer: 'why is that obvious? All you are doing is making it fair.' teacher: 'yeah well it's almost like reverse discriminationa interviewer: "how is that reverse discrimination if it is fair?" teacher: 'but is it fair? Are the girls really wanting to get onto there? ... I

know from ofFering programs through community rec programs, the gender equity programs, we offer things that were for girls and they were very passive, they didnt, they just chose not to,

86 whereas I know in offering programs to the guys, they're there.'

It seemed as though programs which worked for boys should work for girls

too. even though they clearly did not. All the girls needed to do was be a bit

more like the boys and everything would be 'fair.'

Interactions arnona students.

Most of the student interactions in this project involved help being given or

received. The two Caucasian boys were often consulted by the others,

especially during times when I was not at the school.

I saw R (grade 8 girl) brainstorm a problem that she had with HyperCard that T (grade 8 boy) couldn't even help her and T is considered a HyperCard expert (teacher)

The girls' tendency to give the computers up to boys who asked to use them

actually caused a huge problem for the pair of girls working together. They

had been using the computers during their spare time to complete their

project. One afternoon as they were nearing the end of the project they were

working on a computer, when a boy came in and wanted to show them some

interesting things on HyperCard.

He thought he was helping, and N [teacher] thought so too, but 6 and 6 described it as elbowing in on the computer. He took over and started showing them 'neat stuff". Well they left soon after assuming al1 was well but it wasn't! He had set the protection on the stack so th8y couldn't add things anymore, there were no tools menus etc. (fieid notes, January 28, 1997)

He had offered to help out and the girls said initially no and then I remember them actually moving aside so he could get on and what he

87 did was unfortunate on their HyperCard program but you know it was allowed to happen but he is perceived as an expert (teacher)

This incident caused great anger among the girls and although we were able

to fix the problem to some extent, the realization of how easily their hard work

could be ruined by someone else, right in front of their eyes, because they had

'allowed' him to take over, offended them both. Their teacher felt they had

learned a valuable tesson in confidence.

I've discussed with them, you know, the fact that if you don't feel comfortable, even though someone is perceived as an expert, if you don? feel comfortable with them on your program, then don? allow that to happen. And they could have also got his help without him actually accessing their program ... instead he hit the keyboard and off he went (teacher)

The half dozen interactions I observed, where boys wanted access to

computers that girls were using, ended with the girls acquiescing. The

cornmon practice in the student services room, at any rate, might lead the boys

to feel a right to access computers and the girls to give way to this right. This

interpretation was not considered and instead the victims, in this case the

girls, were partially blamed for offering the boy access to vandalize their

propram. The boy involved in this episode was, in the eyes of the school

administration, severely punished by being suspended from school for two

days.

dent Ach iéivement

The students did not discuss the specific achievernent of any of the students

involved in the project or their HyperCard stacks. However, two of the boys

88 discussed the general achievement of girls compared to boys at school. 60th

boys felt that girls received better marks in school than boys. Comparing

students in different achievement groups, high, average and low achievernent,

the boys claimed that girls received higher marks than boys in each of the

groups.

girls work too hard and are too mature ... the giris who work too hard get better marks ... well most guys fall lower than [girls] (grade 8 boy)

This perception was not corroborated by the student services teacher. She

worked with students of al1 achievement levels and did not feel that girls

achieved better than boys at the different levels. Nor did she feel that girls, in

general, worked harder than boys.

The field notes give some idea of the differences in achievement among the

students. As with the grade four/five students, there seemed to be two

different types of achievement, dernonstrating skill in the use of HyperCard

and completing the assignment by meeting al1 the criteria.

The two Caucasian boys certainly demonstrated their prowess at

programming complex functions with HyperCard, however, I never did see a

completed assignment.

Jan. 7: 'T (grade 8 boy) and S (grade 8 boy) working together on animation and glitz. No sign of newspaper articles yet. I reminded them about the criteria for the project. Helped program an 'if ... then' sequence for quit button. T doing the work, S watching with minimal input.'

Jan. 14: "T and S came late and worked on the powerbook. There is still no sign of their articles!'

Jan. 21: 'T, S and P (grade 8 boy) working together. The stack is impressive, but still no articles.'

The Asian boy, who worked together with these boys, did not access the

computer to the same degree. He spent most of his tirne observing the other

two working and giving minimal input.

S (grade 8 boy) deferred to T (grade 8 boy) and only occasionally took a turn (field notes. January 14, 1997)

The two Caucasian girls completed the assignrnent and met al1 the criteria.

They also continually challenged themselves to gain greater skills in using

HyperCard. They had never used the program before we began the project.

and at the completion they had becorne experts who were teaching their

friends.

interviewer: '1 think that B (grade 8 girl) and R (grade 8 girl) egged each other on because they were working together. They knew they had to do a slightly better ...O

teacher: 'also there's a bit of a cornpetition in that room when it cornes to science projects'

interviewer: 'so that could have been part of it too ... but they really wanted to have sound in [their stackj, they really and I don? think that if they had been working on their own that they would have been.. ."

teacher: "they're perfectionists those kids. they really are'

The Asian girl and boy working individually met al1 the criteria and completed

the assignment but did not explore the HyperCard program in the same way

the Caucasian students did.

Y (grade 8 girl) went from [never using HyperCard] to what she did now, she didn't push herself ... she did sort of a bare minimum job, I mean she went from nothing to what she is able to do now and she was able to do some pretty amazing stuff (teacher)

90 It seerned that groupings of students worked best if the students were at a

comparable skill level. These groupings had more equitabb participation and

input. In fact these groupings worked better than students working alone. in

tenns of the students gaining more cornputer skills. It could also be that the

groupings work best if they are racially hornogenous since the grouping which

did not work well was racially mixed.

ons for Chan~g

During the interviews the students were asked how teaching practices might

be changed to better meet the needs of al1 students, especially those currently

not participating as much. A wide variety of ideas were introduced but not al1

were implemented since the project did not continue at this site beyond the

initial HyperCard project. Nevertheless, the views expressed by the students

involved in the project are instructive in terms of what they may tell us about

how middle school students' account for gender-based inequities and how

they might be addressed.

One of the grade 8 boys thought creating special programs that would appeal

to girls would encourage more participation. He felt that project work was

more appealing to girls and that if the cornputer class was taught with more

projects this might help the girls' motivation to participate. He thought that

girls had different interests than boys, girls liked strategic cornputer games

while boys liked violent, action oriented games. He thought that the

HyperCard project was good for both boys and girls.

I think [the HyperCard project] fits for both girls and boys ... maybe cos it's more work oriented ... like it was woik and not just for fun (grade 8

Another boy felt that making cornputer projects easier, 'dumrnying down" the

activities would help to encourage greater participation in girls.

grade 8 boy: 'For example HyperCard, it rnight be a bit complicated and girls might think maybe I'm doing it wrong. When they're not. If there was an easier, maybe more ...'

interviewer: 'Should everybody have to do the easier thing?" grade 8 boy: 'If it was easier it'd be good for everybody but if, I guess

you wouldn't have to if you didnY want to it'd just be way easier ... I think it's good for the girls to have experience with the HyperCard ... maybe start off with an easy project, a real easy one, and then work your way to more harder and things like that"

The grade 8 girls in the group began teaching their friends how to use

HyperCard. These informal computer workshops between girls continued

after the project ended. These sessions inspired the student services teacher

to coordinate mini-workshops on HyperCard instructed by the girls from the

project. Girls were taught skills in small groups and then encouraged to teach

other girls in order to raise the profile of girls in an area where they were not

considered to be expert.

The girls working as a partnership felt this helped thern to overcome the

problems in learning new computer skills. They recognized, however, that

some partnerships were not as effective as others.

grade 8 girl 6: 'like R is a better typer than me so she does most of the typing and I use the mouse ..."

grade 8 girl R: 'and like if B knows something that I don? that is very helpful cos like I get reaiiy frustrated on the computer when I have done a whole bunch of things and then I corne to something I don? know ... yeah but sometimes [working with someone] can get annoying ... if you're woiking with a partner, I

92 often find this with any project, and you have your own standards and they do something that you don? like and you want to improve it ... and you dont want to hurt them, I find that hard sornetimes."

Another of the girls felt that segregating girls and boys would allow the girls to

develop more confidence in areas which boys dominated.

grade 8 girl: '1 guess the best thing to do is to sort of like have two teams, maybe one for boys and one for girls. And so let the girls feel more confident without the boys dominating everything and then maybe once in a while like putting them together and see how it works out.'

interviewer: 'Do you think you would be more cornfortable in an environment where it was al1 girls just in order to try things out that you, that maybe in a mixed group you wouldn't feel so confident to try?"

grade 8 girl: 'Yeah I guess that I would in a girls' group whereas boys aren't dominating and like putting you down because you can't shoot a bal1 through a hoop or something'

The grade eights had more abstract solution suggestions than the grade

fourlfives. Although many of the suggestions still required im plementation

from a teacher, some of the suggestions could be implemented by the

students thernselves without teacher intervention. For instance the students

could work in partnerships which were mutually beneficial, and an informal

network of students teaching new skills to each other could be developed

without the intervention of teachers. It was clear by these students' actions

that they were ready and able to take responsibility and initiative for

im provements of their own learning.

Many of the results of this study site are similar to both the elementary site and

93 other research studies. Some of the highlights include: while boys had more

access to cornputers at home and school, girls preferred home to school

access. The students were struggling with the discrepancy between the myth

of equality and the inequities of their own experiences. Students held strong

male stereotypes of computer experts, and the perception of girls as tool users

and boys as tool designers. The teacher involved admitted to the problem of

inequity with technology but solution possibilities were deemed 'reverse

discrimination.' Girls gave cornputers to boys when asked. Finally, girls being

task oriented while boys became sophisticated software users but did not

complet8 the task.

Facilitating Secondary Students' Video Documentary Production - The secondary school in this project was situated in Richmond, a suburban

neighbourhood in the Greater Vancouver area. The school population is

made up of middle class, professional families with a very wide ethnic mix.

The particular class in this project included Asians, Middle Eastern, Eastern

European, African as well as Caucasian students. The school had been a

senior secondary school (grades 11 and 12) until just before the project

began but was a secondary school (grades 8 - 12) during the course of the

project. The school was involved in a large research project being conducted

on gender and technology in education, called GenTech, by researchers from

Simon Fraser University and the University of British Columbia. The school

offered corn puter courses and technology education courses in wood working ,

metal working and mechanics as electives. A new elective was offered for the

first time to teach video technology use, called media skills. The library

94 offered cornputers for the students to search for books. But there were few

computer services offered to students who were not enrolled in computer

courses.

The class involved in this project was the new media skills class. This class

met three times each week for an hour. I visited the group twice a week for

about seven weeks and then once a week for another eight weeks, from

February 5 to June 6, 1997.

The Partici~ants

The class was made up of twenty grade 1 1 and 12 students ranging in age

from sixteen to seventeen years old. The class had nine female students and

eleven male students. The teacher had agreed with the GenTech researchers

to participate in a small project on gender and technology.

As an assignrnent for the media skills course the students were required to

produce a documentary video. The teacher and the GenTech researchers

determined this assignrnent to be ideal for the research and a documentary

topic 'Girls and Technology" was identified by the researchers. A num ber of

other documentary topics were selected by the teacher who divided the class

into groups of three or four and matched documentary topics with groups. As

part of the GenTech work I would help the students chosen to prepare the

'Girls and Technology' documentary and so the teacher selected three

female, English as a second language (ESL) students who she felt might

need more help in this project than others in the class. I worked directly with

95 these three students to plan their video, and schedule interviews with a wide

variety of people involved in technology within their school, their school district

and in the computer industry. I also helped thern with planning their editing,

and reflecting on the production process as they progressed.

As this assignment was being introduced to the class, a video technician from

Simon Fraser University came to talk to the class about intewiewing

techniques while using video. Some video recording equipment was loaned

to the class to enhance the Girls and Technology documentary by ensuring

that the students involved in this project would not have to compete for

equipment with the rest of the class.

As the assignrnent progressed the class was introduced, in fomal lectures

and hands-on workshops by the teacher. to different skills, and ideas relating

to their work such as viewing other documentaries, logging tapes, point of

view, using time code, and using editing equipment. The three students

working on the Girls and Technology documentary were involved in these

classes as much as possible but were excused when necessary to go to

locations for interviews, and spend time with me planning their next actions. I

communicated with the students in person, when I was attending their classes,

and by telephone and electronic mail (e-mail) between visits.

The Data

I kept a record of al1 visits in the fom of field notes, written up shortly after

leaving the students. The students were briefly interviewed once on video

tape during the project. Copies of the students' own video interviews also

96 form a record of the project. All the video interviews were logged and

transcribed.

The students decided to look at the subject, Girls and Technology, by focusing

on cornputer practices and policies in schools. the school district and the

computer industry. They developed a series of general questions to ask al1

their interview subjects. Questions such as 'how do you use cornputers?,"

"who do you go to for help with computers?,' and "are there differences

between men and women using computers?" helped the students to

understand the general perspectives of their subjects. Then the students

developed specific questions for each subject depending on their position

with computers in schools to gain a deeper understanding of each person's

perspective. For instance a teacher might be asked "how do you encourage

girls to participate further in an area dominated by men?,' and a student might

be asked 'why did you choose the computer course?"

In this project too, I used the same categories as the previous two projects to

begin to examine and compare the ideas which emerged from the students'

work.

Access to Equiprnent

As has been mentioned. the video equipment was loaned to the class

specifically to avoid any access problems for the three girls involved in this

project. And for the most part there was not an issue with access, however.

these girls seemed to have greater difficulty accessing the edit ing equipment

than others in the class, specifically boys. The girls did not schedule editing

97 time until I asked them to do so and even then there seemed to be problems

with the scheduling process. On occasions, the students booked time but the

room would not be available when they arrived for their editing time: on

others, the students failed to show up for scheduled times. It should be noted

that some of the other girls in the class did not seem to have the same

problem and gained access to the editing equipment with no difficulty.

They have done nothing since the last time I was there. Apparently M (teacher) has stood them up on editing tirne, but they have stood her up too. Others seem to have booked more successfully. They get a time slot, on my insistence to M, for this afternoon after school. (field notes, April 29, 1997)

Bad news. Yesterday, J (student) was editing our video, but when she just started, the machine broke down. Even Miss H (teacher) couldn't fix it. ... we book a time for editing on Monday ... and Tusday ISIE] (e-mail message from ESL student, April 30, 1997)

It is difficult to explain these access problems as simple gender effects since

other girls in the class were able to access the editing equiprnent with fewer

problems. There is a racial dimension to consider here, since al1 three of the

students working on the Girls and Technology documentary were Asian and

the girls who were more successful with equipment access were Caucasian.

None of the boys, regardless of race, who attempted in anyway to access the

equipment had difficulties.

At the beginning of the project, when the girls were exploring Meir

documentary topic of girls and technology, they were asked for their

impressions of the subject. They responded that girls are just as capable as

boys in al1 ways, that there was no difference between girls and boys with

respect to technology. This opinion quickly changed when the three students

98 were asked to compare their own interactions with technology with those of

boys at school. The students then stated that they had seen more boys using

computers at school than girls.

These girls enjoyed using technology in various fons, and felt it was

important for their future careers. They had, after all, selected a course in

media skills as an elective. None of the girls used computers at school and

they had difficulty competing for access to technology in their media skills

class, but the privacy of their homes was a different matter. Two of the girls

had developed their own web pages, used their fathers' e-mail accounts, and,

on their own initiative, asked to take the video equipment home to practice

and gain confidence. The other girl did not use computers at home very often,

nor did she take any initiative to practice with the video equipment even when

it was offered.

I could find no other studies reporting on access to equipment in video

production classes with which to compare these results. Access to computers

at home rather than in public is similar to the situation described by the girls at

the middle school and the elernentary school. Other studies report males

gaining significantly more access than fernales, to com puter resources, both at

school and home (Becker and Sterling, 1987; Collis, Kass, Kieren, 1987;

Culley, 1 993; Linn, 1 985; Martinez and Mead, 1 988). As noted, access was

not as much a problem at this site since equipment was specifically

designated for these students to use. The access problems reappeared as

soon as the students needed to use equipment which was limited in number

and had not been provided for their use.

des towuds comnuters,

The grade eleven girls in this project were able to generalize about

technology in broad social terms more readily than any of the other students.

lnitially their ideas about women and technology were similar to the other

students intewiewed.

"girls are just as capable as boys, there is no difference between girls and boys.' I asked thern to compare their own interactions with computers with their observations of boy's interactions with computers around the school. Their response: 'boys are more interested in computers ... boys are more capable with computers ... girls use computers as a tool, ... boys know how computers work and make computers" ... so we talked about how far they had just corne from "girls are just the same as boys with cornputers.' (field notes, February 5. 1997)

But as the project progressed they did not seem to refine their own

explanations for how women become socialized to avoid technological

pursuits, instead they adopted the views of some of the women that they

interviewed.

A: "before this project I think ... [girls] don't participate in technology and after al1 these interviews I think that as women grow older they don't really care ... how men like how other people, they donnt compare with others'

J: 'before I thought ... [girls] are not the computer people, they are not interested but now I know it's because ... it's a whole social issue, it's not just the difference behnreen men and women, they are different, but they learn differently .. . women are encouraged to do more things for their family and other people ... women don? have time to play and explore on the computer because they have to do other stuff ... it's not that they are not interested, they don't have tirne so it's not their faulr

It was clear at some moments during the project that these girls were

struggling to make sense of their own ideas in relation to al1 the varying

viewpoints and opinions they were hearing from their interview subjects.

[J was struggling with a] paradox because females are not males and yet people should be able to do what they want. She gave an example of high school teachers in Taiwan who get pushed around by their students and so females wouldn't be good [at that job] or want to do that because they couldn't take the cornpetition and threats. She asked why fernales would want jobs in construction or engineering ... she said she wouldn't want to take a course in construction even if it was al1 girls (field notes, March 1 1. 1997)

. . m v in relat on to CO-

As has been previously discussed these students offered an initial impression

that there were no differences between boys and girls relating to technology.

But when questioned they quickly changed this to reflect the notion of

technology as a male domain.

Most of the people that they interviewed readily discussed technology as a

male domain and the problems this caused for women.

I think there are differences between men and women and I think that men tend to enjoy math and science more than women, that's the only explanation ... that I can think of ... I don? think I see people dissuading girls from going into science and computer studies, I've never seen that take place but I think only a girl could tell you if they feel that that takes place (male corn puter teacher)

The main exception to this was the principal of the school, who insisted that

there was no difference between girls and boys with technology and that the

enrollment in computer courses was balanced between boys and girls until

1 O1 she was shown a graph indicating the school's actual computer course

enrollment numbers which were heavily weighted with boys.

now that you've given me the chart that shows me very clearly that not as many girls as boys take the technology courses. ... one of the things that's very important to both boys and girls are the relationships they have with each other and if a girl is focusing on a social relationship she may not want to jeopardize it by being in an academic relationship with him where she may be better than him in something that is traditionally considered to be a male thing so she might downplay her abilities in that environment and not feel as cornfortable because she doesn't want to be better than the guys in her class (female school principal)

Some other interview subjects gave mixed messages. For instance the

technology education teacher in the school began by 'joking" that technology

was a boys' subject and that girls should stay away, but then went on to state

that there was no difference in the way women and men participated with

com puters.

What a terrible subject, we don't want girls in technology, that's a guy's area ... cos we're the bread winners ... girls are supposed to be in the kitchens, doing the ironing at home, mopping the floors ... but if you look at ... any organization in Silicon Valley there are just as many girls and guys, I actually don? think gender fits into this thing at all ... everybody works together (male technology education teacher)

I asked what they thought about that as a joke? M (student) said she thought it might not be a total joke even though everyone laughed (field notes, March 13, 1997)

Throughout the project the students continued to see the problem of

technology being dominated by men and the adverse effect this had on

women.

I thought no one cares LSU;] that there is a problem [with men

102 dominating technology], no one tries to work on it, but after so many interviews and talked to so many important people, they are trying to improve it. And the women know it is a problem and wornen themselves are trying to work it out. They try hard. (female ESL st udent)

The students were very clear that technology was a male domain, but they

also felt this could be changed.

Aole models in cornDuter environments.

The students had many female role models in their media skills course. Their

teacher, the technician from Simon Fraser University, and I were al1 female.

[the students] want to interview M (teacher). 'She's a woman, and teaches a tech course, she's into al1 the latest stuff, she is on the internet too and she's an English teacher - considered by most to be old fashioned.' So they will interview M next week. (field notes, February 19, 1997)

They intewiewed many other females who were involved with technology in

various ways during the course of the project. These included ernployees at

Hewlitt-Packard, the teacher in charge of the GenTech project at the

elementary school, and the principal of their school. They also interviewed

many men involved in technology in their own school and the school district.

The students recognized the importance of female role models in attracting

girls to technology.

we neeà female role models to look up to 'cos now the image is many [SLE] male dominated so [young girls] just need to have fun and have someone to look up to that is also female (female ESL student)

Their exposure to female role rnodels in technology during the project had

1 O3 impressed them greatly and they felt that if younger students had this

experience throughout their schooling that this would help to change the

overwhelming presence of males in technological arenas.

Classroom Processes

Diff~rence in com~uter use,

The grade 11 students involved in the project felt there was a difference in the

way each sex uses computers.

Girls use computers to complete tasks, the computer is a tool, while boys understand the workings of the computer and are fascinated by the machine itself. (field notes, February 5, 1997)

The students interviewed a girl in their school who had dropped a computer

course because she found programming in Pascal too difficult and impractical.

This student voiced the opinion that girls and boys were equal and yet used

the computers in different ways. Her comments go beyond claims about girls

as tool users and boys as tool designers to explain the achievement results

found in al1 three sites that girls focus on the task while boys explore.

you canY Say that guys are better than girls in computers there is girls who are very, very good at computers even better than the guys in my class. There was a girl who got the highest mark in the class ... [guys] like to go and explore in the computer while girls do what they are told to do and expand on that (female ESL student)

The en rollment num bers at this school demonstrated similar findings to other

studies (Becker and Sterling, 1987; Olson, 1988; Schofield, 1995), that more

boys selected computer course offerings (except word processing),

woodworking, metal work, mechanics and so forth. The only technology

1 O4 oriented course which had fairly even numbers was the media skills class in

which the students were enrolled. And since this was the first year the course

was offered students may not have fully understood the course curriculum.

It was a pleasant surprise that so many girls took the course, but because it is brand new it doesn't have a reputation like physics 12 or home ec, there isn't as much gender baggage that cornes along with this as other courses (female media skills teacher)

Near the end of the year after the students handed in course selection forms.

the teachers were given enrollment information for the coming year. And,

indeed, the course had a wider projected enrollment difference between boys

and girls for the following year, with more boys than girls.

As in the other two sites and other research studies, girls are depicted as tool

users while boys are the tool designers. Boys chose computer courses with

an academic or technical focus while girls chose computer courses in the

business Stream, such as word processing.

The students' interviews of teachen in the school provided interesting insights

into teachers' attitudes about gender equity and teacher-student interactions

in technology-based classes. This school district included gender equity as

an initiative in their long term technology plan. The attitude of the district

technology coordinator sheds some light on the context the teachers were

working within .

[the disparity between boys and girls in technology-related courses] is one of many problems that we have, not the least of which is the lack of

1 O5 access, particularly at the secondary level, to the technology that is in place, so gender is one of those issues, not to make light of it, but there is even greater issues of getting just anybody access to the equipment. So if we look at the number of females that are enrolled in anything that has to do with technology, there is no question that the enrollment is much less as the years go up for females in those areas, so we need to level the playing field in that area (male district technology coordinator)

The principal of the school had a very different opinion and her attitude also

helps to build the context within which the teachers were working.

principal: "al1 the people I know that are good at computers are women, 75% of them are my female friends. So my experience isn't that boys are more interested than girls."

student: "So [the disparity between boys and girls in technology-related courses] is not a big problem happening now?"

principal: "It's not a big problem from my experience but what I have to do is ask girls in Our school if their experience has been the same as my experience and what I'm guessing by the questions that you are asking me is that you think that their experience is a iittle bit different than what I've said"

The media skills teacher was asked if she tried specific initiatives to involve

females in her class since she had already mentioned that males tend to

dominate technological pursuits.

I don? think I try on purpose, I hope I give as much oppoRunity to al1 my female students to have as much access as the boys but I find that many of my female students are happy to sit back and let the guys leap up and set up equipment, [boys] are more aggressive in that way. (female media skills teacher)

The male computer teacher was asked a similar question.

interviewer: 'do you think it is a problem that there are far less females in your class?'

computer teacher: 'yes I think it is a problem and whenever computer science teachers get together and talk it invariably cornes up as a problem cos we'd al1 like to see an even distribution of males

1 O6 and females in our classes and we al1 discuss ways that we can encourage girls to take our classes"

interviewer: 'what ways of solving it will you try?' computer teacher: "well to try to stay away from traditional courses that

are number crunching and theoretical and science and math based and try to move towards more creativity with sound, animation, and home pages'

The male technology education (tech ed) teacher was also asked about the

disparity in numbers of boys and girls in his courses.

tech ed teacher: 'l'rn encouraging everybody, and if girls are interested that's fine but I'm not specifically focusing on just girls ..."

interviewer: "So you have no problem if there is al1 boys in the class and no girls?'

tech ed teacher: 'well for the last 16 years I've only had guys in my classes, it's a real change for me to have girls in my classes ... a couple [girls] are more interested in here and the other two ... they don? know why they are here ... I don't find them interesting at al1 it's more like I have to baby-sit them ...'

The teachers did not give the impression that they were eager to try to 'level

the playing field", in fact they did not seem to feel any pressing need to

change much about their courses even though they all admitted that there was

a disparity in numbers of boys and girls and that this was a problem. The

cornputer teacher had mentioned some specific course changes discussed

amongst other computer teachers as ways to help balance enrollment

numbers, but the student who dropped the computer course explained in her

interview that she did so because those changes had not been made.

The teachers in this school and the teacher in the middle school recognized

inequities of access to educational technology but were unwilling to do

anything about it. As the secondary school students termed it: 'teachers

talked the talk but wouldn't walk the walk.'

Interactions amona st udents.

The students did not comment on the interactions between their peers in their

class. Observations recorded in the field notes do give some idea about

various interactions. It seemed that aithough the ciass had fairly even

num bers of girls and boys, it was the boys who controlled the arena of class

discussions with demonstrations, loud interruptions, jockeying for power,

etcetera. In much the same way, Elkjaer, in Denmark, found that the public

sphere of the cornputer class she was observing was controlled by the boys

while the girls performed quietly and competently (Elkjaer, 1992).

One boy in particular caused the teacher a great deal of trouble, so much so

that he interfered with the other students' learning and I felt compelled to

discuss the matter with her.

After the class left I talked to M (teacher) about the power base in the class and my observations of P (grade 12 boy) running the class. We wondered what the class would be like without him. She said she had talked to him previously about "taking over" and k i n g overbearing with her. She felt exhausted with him, 'he takes so much energy to keep him back." (field notes, March 5, 1997)

The next class he arrived late and was not adrnitted into the class. Afterwards

I discussed how the class went without P (grade 12 boy) with the teacher.

M (teacher) said afterwards it was WAY easier without P (grade 12 boy) and she would have to talk to hirn about 'bal1 hogging.' I said I thought it went beyond 'bal1 hogging,' he needed to realize his status in the class and his effect on others and tom hirnself down. (field notes, March 7, 1997)

Sometime later, however, this resolve had worn away.

M (teacher) says she will talk to P (grade 12 boy) since she hasn't had a chance yet - she admires his athleticisrn and wants to go easy on him because of it! I Say I think he needs to understand he holds other's respect and therefore has responsibilities. When I leave M is talking to P's group. (field notes, March 25, 1997)

The girls, on the other hand. were very quiet, almost invisible during class

discussions. This did not affect their competency. In fact the teacher often

relied on the expertise of specific girls, especially R (grade 12 girl).

M (teacher) cornes in to check how we are doing, I tell her about the titling machine and ask about hooking it up. She doesn't know but goes and gets R (grade 12 girl) who tells me that no one has done superimposing before, I Say "great, let's figure it out." J and A (project students) are well in the background. R instructs J but J steps aside to let R do it herself, Fi says J should do it so she'll know how. We try to hook up the machines but J can't find the video out connection on the tape deck ... R and I find ourselves doing it (field notes. May 7, 1997)

This girl was very skilled in using all the equipment and yet was ignored by

the boys. She took obvious pride in the presentation of her documentary to

the class.

This site was similar to the others in that the boys controlled the public space

in the classroom with their displays of prowess, while the girls existed in the

margins quietly getting on with the work at hand.

dent A-ernent

It would be difficult to assess the achievement of the different students in this

1 O 9 class since I was not privy to any of their assignments except the final

presentation of three of the documentaries. The three documentaries I did

view were created by groups of girls with, at most, one or two boys. One of the

boys' groups had not completed a video and the other boys' group was to

show their video during a subsequent class. Once again the girls seemed to

be focused on completing the task while the boys publicly demonstrated their

prowess without finishing the task.

The first video presented was a twenty minute. 'behind-the-scenes" look at the

production of the school play. The class thoroughly enjoyed watching their

friends and peers in this very light-hearted docurnentary. The bulk of the

editing had clearly been completed by the very technologically capable girl in

the class. The product was well done, fast moving, smoothly edited - - it was

very well received.

The next video to be offered for viewing also had many students involved.

This documentary was about students' opinions on Career and Personal

Planning, a new course required for graduation by the Ministry of Education.

The class enjoyed watching their friends and peen pass judgment on a

course they clearly despised. Again the video was, for the most part, light-

hearted with many students 'mugging' for the carnera. The product was much

shorter and not as srnooth and well conceived as the first video but showed

some hard work in the edit suite. It was weli received.

The teacher now decided that the Girls and Technology documentary should

be shown. She realized that there would not be enough time to view the rest

of the videos in the short time left. So mostly, I suspect, because I was there.

she chose this to go next.

The girls were mortified to have their work on view. All three visibly cringed

from the task of introducing their video and inserting the tape. One of them

tried to pass the video cassette to the girl who had just finished presenting.

But this was refused. There was no introductory preamble, as there had been

with each of the others. The video was inserted and the girl quickly sat down.

The volume was too low for the class to hear properly, so finally one of the

previous presenters got up, adjusted the volume, rewound the video and

started it again. The girls in the project seemed paralyzed. The ciass did not

enjoy the video. There were many people they did not know from outside the

school being intewiewed and only one student. All of the interview subjects

were seriously discussing a topic which seemed to be of little or no interest to

them after the fun of the previous two videos. The pace of this video was

much slower than the other videos and the focus was not visual but auditory

and the sound was low and difficult to hear even with the volume adjusted.

The product was technically on par with the second video we had viewed but

also had a substantial addition of subtitled narnes for each of the individuals

interviewed. It was not received well. About half way through the seven

minute viewing, the bel1 sounded, signaling the end of the class. Many

students packed up their belongings and began to leave. The teacher called

out for people to stay until the end, asking the girls how much time was left.

They replied the video was seven minutes long. The students grumbled about

being late for theii next classes and many left. All this commotion ensured the

viewing was disrupted for everyone, making the video impossible to follow

and comprehend.

I l l Their documentary viewing had been completely sabotaged but the girls

showed nothing but relief that the ordeal was over. Their teacher had nothing

but criticism for the product, in fact she wondered if they should redo the entire

thing to fix the audio problems. The girls had already redone the documentary

to include the subtitled names and since they had never been taught how to

properly adjust sound levels in editing I fe l this would be a rather harsh

punishrnent. The project was over, the girls had produced a video which was

as good as at Ieast one of the other videos and yet I wondered if anyone in the

class would recognize this. This final day left a very bitter taste in my rnouth.

I was not privy to the final grades the different students received for this

assignment far less for the course, but I left wondering if the boys who did not

produce a video at al1 would somehow be excused for this and still manage a

decent mark in the course while the girls who worked so hard to meet al1 the

requirements of this assignment would not fare as well. Certainly this attitude

was seen from the middle school teacher and in other research studies

(Culley. 1993; Huber and Schofield, 1998).

Students' Suggestions for Chanae

Following many of the interviews the grade eleven girls continued discussing

what changes needed to occur to alleviate the gender inequities with

educational technologies. They determined that there must be some direction

from provincial or district policies, which would be administered by educators.

They were encouraged by their district's technical coordinator's view that

gender equity in technology was an issue of great concern and that there

were two research projects in their district undeway to address the problern.

They were discouraged by the lack of understanding about the issue at their

112 own school by administration and teachers, who adrnitted to the problem but

had no plan or apparent will to address it.

I ask if they [the students] think there is a problem with girls and technology? They Say yes. I ask who is doing anything about the problem, the principal? They say no. Mr. D? They Say no. Mr. B? They Say no. Hmm I Say maybe people need to know that. M says that [administrator and teachers] Say there is a problem with girls and technology but they don? do anything about it. (field notes, April 18, 1997)

After interviewing the various people for their project I asked the students how

computer programs might be changed to encourage al1 students.

J: "having more graphics and having more interactions with the computers not just basic punching (sic) in numbers ... women and men are different and you can not ignore those differences so we have to ... design programs differently'

M: '1 think that girls know now that it is important to know more about cornputers because now almost every job requires that we know about computers ... even the secretary needs to know to (sic) word process so I think the girls thernselves are improving even though it might be very slowly (sic) progress it is helping ... maybe give them more chance but we don't need to particulariy [do anyth ing]'

A: "1 never think that boys are better than girls because we are ... al1 learning the same thing but we leam it differently"

J: "also like the role models we need female role models to look up to cos now the image is many (sic) male dominated so they just need to have fun and have someone to look up to that is also female."

The grade elevens were more abstract in their solution suggestions than the

elementary and middle schooi students. They were looking to change the

manner in which and by whom cornputer courses were offered and taught.

The students recognized that for change to be successful there needed to be

support from the district coordinators as well as the school principal and of

course from the teachers and students.

The students, at ail three educational levels, had experienced and observed

gender inequities with educational technology. Many of their accounts are

similar to each other as well as to teachersJ and academics' accounts

(Beynon, 1993; Bryson and de Castell, 1998; Huber and Schofield, 1 998). In

al1 three sites female students preferred to access cornputers at home rather

than at school. also at the secondary site two of the girls requested to take the

video camera home to experiment and learn how to use it rather than do this

at school. Boys dominated computer labs in all three sites during recreational

computer time, and boys gained access to more desirable equiprnent during

com puter or media skills class time. All of the students in this study viewed

technology as a male domain and al1 recognized that the technology "experts'

in the schools as role models were. for the rnost part, male. Students at al1

three sites described girls as tool users and boys as tool designers when

explaining the difference in technology use. At ail three sites the boys

dominated the public arma of the classroom with displays of prowess while

the girls helped each other to complete the tasks given to them. Two distinct

types of achievement were noted at al1 sites: that of completing the task and

that of learning and understanding the technology. At al1 three sites girls

seemed more focused on the first type of achievement Mi le boys were more

focused on the second, so much so that they often did not complete the task.

S o m of the accounts of gender inequities with educational technology were

only duplicated at two of the sites. Teachers at the middle and secondary

school freely admitted the problem of gender inequity in technology but were

unwilling to take any action to attempt to solve it. The middle school teacher

114 explained that solutions seemed like 'reverse discrimination." The computer

games available at the elementary school were oriented to boys' interests with

"shooting galleries.' rockets, weapons and 'can-can' girls as rewards, and

rnilitary overtones. Some of the middle school students explained that girls'

lack of interest in cornputers resulted from computer games only appealing to

boys through violence and corn petit ion.

Some of the gender inequity accounts of educational technology were

different at each of the sites. One explanation for this is that these accounts

changed with the developmental level, or age, of the students. The

elernentary students continually returned to the myth that girls and boys are

equal in all ways and in al1 arenas despite the fact this completely

contradicted their own experiences. The middle school students were caught

between this myth of equality and the inequalities of their lived experience,

vacillating between the two in their discussions of experiences with

technology. The secondary students moved quickly from the myth of equality

when questioned and were quite comfortable discussing the disparities

between boys' and girls' experiences with technology. They felt strongly that

thes8 inequities needed to be addressed.

Susan Carey (1985, p. 51) discusses the development of the concept of

gender in young children. Studies have found that children younger than 7

years old believe that gender can be altered, at will, by changes in hairstyle,

clothing and other gender-stereotyped behaviours. These children believe

that any behaviour is fine for anyone. At about 7 years old children reach the

understanding of gender constancy, or that gender can not change by

wearing different clothes or cutting hair in different styles. At this stage

115 children beiieve it is a punishable wrong to behave in a manner not

conforming to gender expectations. Once the concept of gender constancy is

firmly understood, by 9 or 10 years old, children believe that not conforming to

gender expectations would lead to being teased by other children but is not a

punishable matter.

Students at the grade 4/5 level are 9 or 10 years old and thus have reached

an understanding of gender constancy but perhaps have not yet corne to

terms with the validity of cultural expectations such as the equality of genders.

Perhaps the ability to differentiate between expectations and experience

relating to gender is part of the further conceptual development of gender in

individuals.

CHAPTER 4: AN ANALYSIS OF THE STUDENTS' IMPLIED SOLUTIONS, FINAL

REFLECTIONS AND CONCLUSIONS

An Analysis of Students' lmplied Solutions

Academics have theorized about the cultural effects of educational

technologies in schools. In fact many widely different accounts have been

offered to describe, explain. criticize and improve practices involving

technologies in schools (Culley, 1993; Franklin, 1 990; Papert, 1993; Postman,

1992; Sanders and Stone, 1986; Schofield, 1995; etc.). In order to make

sense of the wide variety of these accounts, Bryson and de Castell (1 995)

developed a conceptual framework to classify 'conceptions of gender in terrns

of four distinct theoretical discourses ... in textual accounts of technology and

sexual difference' (Bryson and de Castell, 1995, p. 23). The four theoretical

discourses used to classify conceptions of gender in this framework are listed

approxirnately in the historical order that they emerged in writings on

technology and sexual difference.

First, we consider a positivistic conception of gender as equivalent with biological sex; second, a constructivjst conception of gender as socially produced and sustained; third, a critical conception of gender as the ideological product of a repressively patriarchal hegemony; and fourth, a postmodem conception of gender as a non cohesive, open- textured pastiche of characteristics, aptitudes. and dispositions whose ongoing construction and reconstruction it is a central task of feminist praxis to enable and encourage. (Bryson and De Castell. 1995, emphasis in original, p. 23)

Other academics have chosen to further develop and test their theories by

117 interviewing and questioning teachers in order to gain a 'first hand'

explanation of issues regarding educational technologies. Teachers' attitudes

about and practices with educational technologies, especially in relation to

gender-based inequities, have been reported and discussed by researchers

(Bryson and de Castell, 1998; Culley, 1 993; Huber and SchofMd, 1998;

Schofield, 1995). These accounts about and from teachers are also varied.

although fewer in number than the prolific variation from academics. It is

interesting to note that although this issue directly relates to stakeholders in

schools, teachers' input is not always sought by theorizing academics.

The attitudes of teachers involved in the various sites of this project help to

shed some light on the macro-culture the students were working within.

Through the secondary students' interviews of teachers it was clear that

although the district technology plan and the district technology coordinator

recognized gender inequities as an issue to be resolved, their school

personnel were far from this perspective.

if we look at the number of females that are enrolled in anything that has to do with technology, there is no question that the enrollment is much less as the years go up for females in those areas, so we need to level the playing field in that area (male district technology coordinator)

people don't have the opportunity to take this [technology education] when they are taking al1 the acadernic courses and they have to take CAPP and other courses and to get the opportunity to gel in here, like it's only offered in the moming, for them to fit that into their program is difficult, and that's why we don't get more people in here it's got nothing to do with gender equality I don? think (male technology education teacher)

The district technology coordinator was clearly well vened in enrollment

statistics which show that the older girls are less likely to be in technology

118 courses than younger girls. He implies this is a result of 'gender effects" and

that he would like to develop a plan to address this issue. The technology

education teacher believes that course enrollment statistics are only the result

of graduation requirements and tirne tabling problems, and have nothing to do

with 'gender effects.'

A middle school teacher expressed conflicting opinions, on the one hand

lamenting the inequities of educational technologies, and on the other

supporting the inequities through an unwillingness to alter ciassroom and

school practices.

I already knew that girls wouldn't um be as keen ... they feel very intimidated ... by the whole computer and the whole idea of HyperCard and stuff (female middle school teacher)

yeah well it's [providing 50% of the computers for girls] almost like reverse discrimination. Is it fair? Are the girls really wanting to get onto there? (female middle school teacher)

These findings are generally in agreement with other findings in this area

(Bryson and de Castell, 1998; Culley, 1993; Huber and Schofield, 1998;

Schofield, 1995). It seems that although teachers, in most cases, were willing

to acknowledge that there were differences in terms of enrollment numbers

and confidence in technology courses they were unwilling, on the whole, to

account for these differences as inequitable. They preferred to ciedit the

differences to choices the students made besed on other factors: tirnetable,

graduation requirernents, and interest. It is interesting to note here that these

teachers' accounts closely parallel the students' rationalizations of inequities

regarding educational technology (i.e., boys sit closer to the door, boys run

faster, etc.).

Students' attitudes towards and practices with educational technologies have

not received the same scrutiny as their teachers' in the research literature.

And it is this gap in the literature which the present study can best fill. For the

rnost part, information from students has been gathered through

questionnaires, surveys, and observations; few in-depth interviews to explore

these issues with students have been cornpleted. In order to more fully

understand the social environment of educational technology in schools it

seems necessary to ask the students, in the same way as other members of

the school community, for their 'stories,' "ways of telling," or accounts of their

experiences rather than interpreting their accounts from ernpirical data.

A similar frarnework to the one Bryson and de Castell (1995) used to examine

academics' accounts of gender and equity regarding educational

technologies will be used here to examine the students' accounts of strategies

and practices to rnake technologies more equitable in educational

environments. When examining student responses, certain patterns emerged

that I have chosen to categorize in the following manner: 'girls should be

boys,' 'vive la difference," and socio-political action. In these three types of

accounts the students seem to be implying different solutions to the inequities

they have experienced with educational technology. The 'girls should be

boys" accounts impiy that girls need to change their interests, and behaviours

to solve inequity problems with educational technology. The 'vive la

difference' accounts im ply t hat gender-differentiated curricular, pedagog ical

and material changes are necessary to solve inequity problems with

educational technology. The 'socio-political actionm accounts imply that given

the ways individuals are socialized to view some activities as 'ferninine' and

120 others as 'masculine,' changes in the sociaVpolitical context of schooling

would need to be made and strongly supported by those in power -- teachers

and principals -- in order to solve inequities with educational technology.

Since this process is reviewing the previously described data to atternpt to

view patterns in the students' accounts of gender equity and educational

technology, many of the following accounts have been described earlier. It is

not my intention to subject a reader to a complete repetition of these 'storiesa

and so I will paraphrase more and only include direct quotes when the

accounts have not yet been provided or when they particularly bear repeating.

Girls Should Be Bovs Accounts

In ''girls should be boys' accounts, the computers, other machines and the

software programs as well as the pedagogy of the courses are seen as

unproblematic. Thus, if girls are not participating in technological pursuits in

the same numbers as boys, then it is girls who need to change. These

accounts assume, furthermore, that the possibility for equality exists the way

things are; that, for instance, computers, their software, and the manner in

which computers are taught in schools al1 include girls as much as they

include boys. Girls simply iequire additional motivation to participate and the

current inequities with technology will disappear.

There were numerous accounts within the students' interviews which could be

categorized by the "girls should be boys" point of view. The elementary

students repeatedly implied the 'value-neutral' status of computers with

statements like "There's no difference between boys and girls [in the computer

121 labju (grade 5 boy). These statements clearly implied equal possibilities for

boys and girls in the computer lab. The students listed interest in corn puters,

familiarity, and experience with computers as the critical factors affecting

computer ability. lmplicit in these accounts is that girls only need to show

more interest, gain more familiarity and experience with the machines and

they will inevitably dernonstrate the same expertise as the boys and

presumably, therefore, gain equal access to the better computers.

A particularly interesting 'girls should be boys" account came from a group of

grade four boys explaining that girls were as good as boys with respect to

designing computer hardware, software and web sites. When asked how they

knew this they replied that "girls play softball, boys play softball; girls play

tennis, and boys play tennis' (grade 4 boy). Next they were asked if the

quality of al1 this play was equal, which led to an interesting discussion of the

talents of a female goalie playing in the National Hockey League (NHL). The

fact that there was one female playing in the NHL seerned to indicate to these

boys that al1 fernales were capable of playing hockey at this level if sufficiently

interested. The lack of equal representation of fernales in the NHL was

explained by girls' sensitivity to boys' teasing and girls' avoidance of injury

due to the physical nature of the game. This account makes an interesting

cornparison of the girls' lack of initiative in the computer lab to girls' lack of

initiative in hockey. The implication is: girls need to becorne tougher, more

like boys, and this will create equality in the numbers of female computer

experts and female NHL players.

The elementary students also attempted to explain the grade five boys'

domination of the colour computers using such 'girls should be boysn

122 accounts as "the grade five boys were the fastest runners,' 'their desks were

closest to the door enabling them to be first in line,' "they ran to the front of the

line when the girls' backs were tumed,' 'they ailowed al1 their friends to get

into the line in front and behind them," and "ail the students follow school rules

by walking except the grade five boys." All these explanations indicate that if

the line-up to go to the computer lab were better monitored or the girls and the

grade four boys became more assertive in the line-up, the problern of unequal

access to the colour computers would be solved. At the elementary level

there were more boys than girls using 'girls should be boys' accounts to

describe educational technology inequities and solutions.

Two middle school students also used 'girls should be boysn accounts to

discuss inequality of computer access, however, in contrast to the elernentary

level where both girls and boys used this kind of account, both of these

students were boys. One of these boys was very adamant that girls and boys

are equal in all things, for instance, girls are equally able to be computer

experts; however, he admitted that girls did not seem to be the computer

experts in the school nor did they seem to demonstrate equal skill. He shared

his confusion about this and offered this explanation:

maybe girls don't, aren't as into computers as guys are ... I mean it doesnY make a, it [sex] doesn't matter [with computers] yet I don? know why girls aren't interested as much. Like right now ail the people I know, there are a couple [girls] I know that like computers, but lots of them, I'm not too sure why, they don? like them as much as lots of my other guy friends (grade 8 boy)

The other middle school boy was much more blunt about the problem. When

asked why the people he deemed 'good' at computen were al1 boys, he

replied: "girls spend al1 their time putting on make-up' (grade 8 boy). He felt

123 that girls were just as capable as boys of being good at computers but 'they

just don? like it [computer]' (grade 8 boy). The underlying belief in these

accounts is that if girls could interest themselves in computers then girls would

be equally skilled in computer use and the problem of unequal access would

be solved. This assumes that not only are computers "value-neutraln but that

they are worth being interested in as well.

The secondary students also brought up "girls shouM be boysu accounts on a

few occasions. In my first meeting with these girls I asked them for their

general impressions about girls and technology. They immediateiy

responded that girls and boys were equally capable with al1 technology. I

then began questioning them about their experiences and observations of

various technologies k i n g used at school. They claimed that boys are

interested in computers and girls are not. The evidence offered for this was

the students' impressions that, on the one hand, girls made decisions about

computer course enrollment based on the presence of other girls in the

course, even though cornputer work was a solitary pursuit, while on the other

hand, boys did not seem to care who else was in the course. Some time later,

we were discussing how to increase the numbers of girls enrolling in

computer courses and one of the girls presented an idea. She felt that it was

unnecessary to make any programming changes to the courses, in fact al1 that

was needed was to inforrn girls that al1 future jobs require computer

knowledge and ability, "even the secretary needs to know [how] to word

process* (grade 11, ESL girl), and this information would ensure greater

interest in computers and motivation to enroll in computer courses on the part

of girls. Clearly, the computer courses were viewed by these students as

equally important to boys and girls and the possibility of equal success by

124 both boys and girls was also implied by these accounts. It was the girls who

were lacking so it was the girls who needed motivating and this could be done

simply by infoming them of the essential nature of cornputers for their futures.

There seerned to be a change in the "girls should be boysu accounts as the

students got older. The elementary students' accounts depended on the girls

becoming physically more like the boys, to fun as fast as the boys. to play

hockey like the boys, etcetera. The middle school boys' accounts seem to

suggest that girls becorne behaviourally like boys, should spend less time

putting on make up and becorne more interested in cornputers. The

secondary school girls' accounts involved a social elernent, girls desiring

other girls in computer courses. and girls requiring computer skills for their

future jobs.

Vive la Difference Accounts

In "vive la differenceu accounts, women and girls are described as being

"different" from boys and men. Activities are gendered, and some activities

appeal to 'women's ways of knowing' (Belenky et al., 1986) while others

appeal to boys' and men's ways. Neither way of knowing is viewed as better

or worse than the other. Current technology courses and the technologies

themselves, for example cornputers, software, computer course curricula and

pedagogical methods, are not seen as including and inviting these "women's

ways.' And so new ways of teaching technology courses as well as changes

in the technologies themselves to include both ways of knowing are seen as a

solution to inequities that have resuked from this exclusion.

125 In interviews the students' accounts often implied this type of thinking. The

elementary students had almost as many total 'vive la difference' accounts as

'girls should be boys." These were their favoured ways to explain and solve

educational technology inequities. One girl described different pastimes as

being gendered. the computer was seen as 'boys' stuff' to some extent while

she enjoyed dancing and singing and other "girls' stuff." She was not

precluded from using and enjoying the computer, nor was her brother

precluded from dancing and singing, but the dominant participation in these

activities was seen as gendered. Another girl described the differential use of

computers. Boys enjoyed fixing the computer, and working on the machine

itself while girls enjoyed writing stories and finishing their homework on

computers. Boys were seen as liking the machine for its own sake while girls

used it as a tool to accomplish tasks. One of the grade four boys had a very

similar account of computer use. He described boys as being mechanical and

good at putting the computer together, while girls were good at finding things

in the computer. These accounts imply that boys and girls are socially

different and have different expertise. There did not seem to be value

judgments placed on the different ways of interacting with computers, they

were equally important but different. The accounts seem to indicate that "girls

will be girls" and 'boys will be boys,' thus the solution to inequities in

educational technologies lie in better support ing girls' in terests and "women's

ways" with computers and software as well as boys' interests and men's ways.

The elementary girls also discussed the importance of accommodating

differential ways of socializing within the computer lab. They felt there was a

difference in how girls and boys socialized in the computer lab. The boys

were seen as caring only about the computers, they did not care if they were

126 seated near their friends, since they did not tend to socialize during computer

class. In fact, according to these accounts, the boys rarely asked each other

for help when they were stuck, instead they asked the teacher for assistance.

The girls, on the other hand, found it essential to sit near their friends since

they were constantly interacting with each other by helping and comparing

their progress with the corn puters. These accounts concluded that girls would

happily forgo the use of a colour computer in order to sit beside their friends,

while the boys would happily forgo proximity to their friends for a colour

corn puter. It is inferred in these accounts that girls have one way of socializing

in the computer lab and boys have another but as long as these differences in

social interactions are accommodated both the boys and girls would be

content with the activities in the computer lab.

The middle school students only ventured two "vive la difference" accounts.

This was not the most favoured conceptual category in the framework for

these students. One of the boys explained the dominance of boys in the

computer lab and the boys' greater interest in computers in general with his

theory that 'boys tend to be more competitive than girls so they tend to want to

play more [computer] games than girls" (grade 8 boy). These computer

games were predorninantly violent, competitive, action games. He felt that

girls preferred strategy games but these were not as available on computers.

In other words, he is suggesting that different types of interaction styles

needed to be accommodated in computer software to encourage both boys

and girls to participate.

One of the girls described the difference between boys' and girls' computer

expertise. 'Girls can leam to use the computer too ... they would know just the

127 basic stuff. like how to work it and things like that. but I guess it's the boys who

would really understand the computer, how it works and what this chip does ...'

(Grade 8 girl). She went on to say that girls could barn to program and

become experts if they showed an interest. but that most girls would not be

interested in going beyond simple tool use. This account spans the 'girls

should be boys" and "vive la diff erence" thinking since she certainly believes

that an interest in computers might increase a girl's expertise but she also

seems to believe that there is a basic difference in the ways girls and boys

interact with cornputers. The implication here is that computers need to be

changed in some way to accommodate girls' different interactions and this

would increase girls' interest and their ability.

The secondary students also gave sorne 'vive la difference' accounts of equity

with educational technology. One of the girls described the difference

between girls' and boys' computer use in similar terms to the elementary and

middle school students. She claimed girls used computers to complete tasks

while boys used computers to discover how they worked. There was no

judgment on which type of use was better, they were just different.

Another of the girls gave a very detailed "vive la difference" account during a

video interview. She explained that women

are not the computer people ... because it's a whole social issue, it's not just the [physical] difference between men and women, ... they leam differently ... women are encouraged to do more things for their family and other people ... women don? have time to play and explore on the computer because they have to do other stuff, it's not that they are not interested, they don7 have time so it's not their fault (grade il girl)

128 The implication is that if more of women's requisite tasks were accommodated

in computer environments then more wornen would be likely to participate

within these environments. During the same interview this girl offered some

ideas about how computer courses could better include women's different

"ways of knowingm (Belenky et al., 1986). She felt 'having more interactions

with the cornputers, not just basic punching in numbers' (grade 11. ESL girl)

as well as an increased emphasis on graphic design would help to interest

girls. She was adamant that adding activities beyond the traditional course

curriculum would 'probably [bel a way to interest them [girls], just to change

the programs so they [girls] are still involved in cornputers but differently'

(grade 11 girl). She also felt it was important 'to show [younger] girls that it is

okay that they learn differentlym (grade 11 girl) so that they would not feel they

had ta interact with computers in the same way as boys. It was important to

this student that girls should be encouraged to feel confident and secure in

their difference. The implications in these accounts are that corn put ers,

software and computer courses need to be altered to better include wornen's

different styles, and requirements. It seems to follow that once women's ways

are accommodated al1 problems with inequity will disappear.

On reflection, the elementary st udents' and the m iddle school students' 'vive

la difference" accounts basically identif ied differences between boys and girls

in relation to the computers, what skills they each excelled at, what corn puter

activities they each enjoyed. The secondary students, having more maturity

and experience, were able to explain more clearly why there might be

differences between boys and girls and how computer courses need to be

changed to sohre current inequity problems.

In socio-political accounts, men and boys are seen to be privileged in many

arenas, technology being one, while women and girls are considered

subordinate. Society is believed to pressure different sexes. races and

classes to act and think in different ways. These social pressures, and the

social and political structures which maintain and encourage the resulting

differences would need to be changed in order to solve inequities of

educational technology.

The elementary students had very few accounts which implied a socio-

political analysis of inequality. One girl found that in school the boys seemed

to get away with more rule infringements than girls did, especially in the

computer lab and the gyrn. She found that M e n boys ran to get the

computers they were never reprimanded yet she felt if she tried that she would

"get in trouble." The implication is of a 'hidden curriculum.' in which students

are being socialized to perform differently, resulting in inequitable access to

equipment in the gym and the computer lab. The "hidden curriculum" is an

often unacknowledged set of subtle influences created by social structures.

For instance if running is not permitted in school yet the boys are never

reprimanded for breaking this rule and girls are then it might be presumed that

boys are allowed to break rules while girls can not. One of the boys had a

different account of the boys' rush for the colour cornputen. He believed the

boys 'subconsciously' felt they had a superior ability with computers and so

should have increased access to the more sophisticated computers than the

girls since they would know how to use them better. He did not explain how

this 'subconscious belief" was created in the boys but his account implies that

130 the students were somehow socialized to excel in different areas and this

directly resulted in inequitable access to the computers since the boys felt a

"right" to the better equiprnent.

There were some elementary students' accounts which went further than

identifying differences between boys and girls and began to explain the

differences in general terms. Some grade five boys explained how boys view

the differences between genders and races. One said 'sornetimes boys just

don? really like working with girls ... boys just have this thing for girls thinking

[they're] not as smart in something ... [boys] think girls are weak and boring"

(grade 5 boy). Another chimed in with "i don't have a feeling against [girls], it's

the same thing with Native Americans ... they just have different traditions and

think a little different' (grade 5 boy). The implication is clear that girls and

"Native Arnericans' are not only different than boys but are subordinate to and

very much less valued than boys. One of the girls explained why men were

more interested in computers. She felt that men enjoyed the feeling of control

they had when they worked with computers, and they liked the reputation of

being computer experts. She claimed 'men like to feel like they're one step

aheadw (grade 5 girl). This same girl later in the interview explained that the

boys in the computer class were uncomfoflable asking each other for

assistance because this might expose any ineptness they might have with

computers and thus cause embarrassrnent and ruin their reputation as

computer experts. This account seems to suggest that girls and women do not

have a reputation as computer experts and thus are subordinate to men in

cornputer environrnents. Also inferred here is a presumption of expertise

based on sex which compeis men to leam about corn puters to maintain their

status as men.

The rn iddle school st udents had more socio-political accounts of inequity than

either 'girls shou Id be boys" or 'vive la difference' accounts. Developmentally

these students have surpassed the egocentrism of the elementary students

and are more socially aware, this awareness enables them to formulate

accounts which are more rooted in sociaVpolitical explanations. Some of the

accounts attempted to explain the creation of differences between genders.

One of the boys began with a 'vive la difference" account by saying that the

reason there were less girls involved with computers was because 'that's the

way God made them" (grade 8 boy). Later in the same interview, however, he

retracted this deterministic idea and discussed the pressures society placed

on girls to be successful at cooking and sewing while boys were pressured to

be successful at 'play[ing] with machines" (grade 8 boy). He continued this .

account by stating that girls would not really have an option "to be interested

in computers and al1 of that unless they are going to be seen as being weird"

(grade 8 boy) by their peers. He thought that girls who demonstrated great

ability at computers would not be seen or treated like other girls. One of the

girls had a more detailed account to explain how society exerted its pressure

on individuals. She stated

some... parents ... like the girls more ladylike and do (sic) needle work and art and things like that and it rubs off on friends later on ... so if ... one's been raised up doing art and needlework and they see ... a friend of theirs like sort of jumping through tech ed and computers and such, they're going to make her feel maybe unusual ... and maybe she'll try to do like art and needle work and things like that too. Whereas boys ... are encouraged to do more mechanical work and things like that (grade 8, ESL girl).

The students recognize that society places different pressures on boys than

1 32 girls resulting in boys having a definite advantage in technological

environments. Girls are seen as subordinate in these environrnents to such

an extent that they are considered "peculiar' if they demonstrate ability and

interest in technological environments.

While the previous accounts described how the problem of inequity develops

from a socio-political point of view, some of the middle school students'

accounts gave examples of the inequities involving computers. One of the

boys had an explanation for boys' continued greater interest in corn puter

software. He felt that 'the world' detemi ined different acceptable behaviours

and activities for girls than for boys, but that these might change over tirne. He

felt that the people who controlled any changes with computers were the

programmers who were predominantly men. This ensured that software was

al1 geared to male interests. Two of the girls had a similar account. They felt

that more men had jobs requiring cornputers than wornen, that there was a

preponderance of men working in computer stores. and in fact it was a man

that invented the computer in the first place. This was felt to have a direct

bearing on males' greater interest in computers. These accounts indicate that

there is pressure on al1 individuals to conform to socially designated noms,

and that technological fields, like computers, have been designated male and

not female.

Another middle school girl made an interesthg suggestion to increase female

involvement in al1 school courses that were male dominated. She felt that

creating girls-only classes might result in more freeâom for the girls to display

confidence and develop alternate practices in technology or athletics. Her

account suggests her hope that this change would break down the

133 conventional institutional practices by changing the social hierarchy enough

to allow acceptance of different behaviours and attitudes to emerge for girls.

This suggestion seems to imply that girls are not free to reach their potential in

CO-educational cornputer or physical education classes which are male

dominated. The solution implied here is one of exclusion: men must be

excluded for wornen to attain their potential in male dominated environments.

The problem of socio-political inequity is described in excerpts of the

secondary school field notes. where it was very evident that there were

behavioural differences between the girls and the boys in the secondary

classroom. The girls rarely participated in discussions, most were quite

"invisible." Some of the Asian girls were more "invisible" than the Caucasian

girls. Their teacher described them as "personalityless." The girls in the

project recognized students' behavioural differences as well as the teachers'

differential treatment of students since one of them became very concemed

that when they asked teachers in interviews whether they treated males and

females differently they said "no" but that, in this students' experience, they

really did. She realized that the teachers were in a difficult situation, since

differential treatment of students would be considered unacceptable. She

was struggling with ways to word the intewiew questions to uncover that

issue. She found the whole issue of gendet differentiation a paradox since

males and females were clearly not the same, and yet 'people should be able

to do what they want' (field notes, March 1 1, 1997) regardless of their gender.

lmplicit here are the social pressures put to bear on individuals but not always

openly acknowledged. Also implied in these accounts are aspects of the

"hidden' curriculum of school; for instance the quiet encouragement of boys'

domination of the public space in the class through differential student

1 34 treatment. Teachers certainly treat students differently, some as if they are

'personalityless," yet teachers are also affected by social pressures, and so

are often hardly aware of the differential treatment they are giving, and if

aware are unlikely to admit it, for to do so would be to reject the dominant

cultural myth of equality.

A solution to socio-political inequity is implied in an account one of the girls

gave of teachers in Taiwan, who are usually male. The explanation for this

was: because teachers get "pushed around by their students' (grade 11 girl),

and it was not considered ferninine to 'take the cornpetition and threats'

(grade 11 girl), therefore few women "would be good or want to do that"

(grade 1 1 girl). She likened this situation to the small numbers of females in

Canada working in construction jobs, since these jobs are not considered

appropriate for women. Suggested in this account is that women are kept in

their place by social pressures, it would be difficult for a woman in Taiwan to

get a job as a teacher, or a woman in Canada to get a job in construction, as

she would have to demonstrate she could 'handlen it and risk being

considered unferninine. Taking this further, different opportunities for women

could be created by changing what is considered 'fem inine."

One of the secondary students shared an account which identified a way to

change the social relations within the workplace, thus providing a socio-

political solution to inequity. She felt that if wornen worked with a majority of

men that they would be constrained by male pressures. However, if women

worked with a majority of women things might be different. This student

seems to imply that with a majority of males, in a workplace, patriarchal ideals

would predominate, and that a majority of fernales would cause enough of a

135 change in social relations to enable alternate attitudes to develop in the work

environment, thus alleviating some of the oppression experienced by women.

Again, this view implies that the solution to inequity from a socio-politicai

perspective is exclusionary.

The elementary students had very few socio-political accounts and those they

did express were descriptions rather than explanations or solutions. The

middle school students, being more socially oriented, proposed more socio-

political accounts. Their accounts went further than the elementary students'

in giving explanations for inequities using the socio-political point of view but

they fell short of off ering concrete solutions. The secondary students

described the socio-political inequity, explained its development, and offered

solutions.

Table 2

Numbers of the Different Tvpes of Student Accounts of I n e w y r

Three different concept ions of strategies and practices to make educational

technologies more equitable ernerged from the students' accounts. The 'girls

Types of Accounts

l

, girts shouid bet boys

vive la difference

socio-poIitîîI

Elementary Students

males

1 6

3

3

Middle Students Secondary

Students

females

2

4

3

fernales

1 1

19

8

males

4

2

4

total

27

22

11

- females

O

2

- 4

- total

4

4

8

1 36 should be boysn concept was heavily endorsed by the elementary students'

accounts (especially the boys' accounts), but was also evident in some of the

middle boys' and secondary girls' accounts. The 'vive la difference" concept

was slightly less cornmon in the elementary students' accounts (but was the

favoured account among the girls), was described in only a few of the middle

school students' accounts, and was the favoured concept in the secondary

students' accounts. The socio-political concept was only apparent in a

comparative few of the elementary students' accounts (more girls' accounts

than boys'), was the most frequently described in the middle school students'

accounts, and was used in some of the secondary school students' accounts.

As has been mentioned earlier, the elementary students (both boys and girls)

had difficulty discussing issues with educationai technology in social ternis.

They were more cornfortable discussing issues in tangible terms. The

concrete solutions to 'girls should be boys' and "vive la difference' concepts

might explain the elementary students favouring them. In 'girls should be

boys," girls must change to solve inequities and, in "vive la difference,"

courses and materials must change. The girls, of al1 levels, favouring of the

'vive la difference' accounts over the 'girls should be boys' accounts seems

predictable since it is always easier to change anything other than oneself.

The middle and secondary school students did not have difficulty discussing

issues with educational technology in social terms, and the middle school

students favoured socio-political explanations in their accounts. The

secondary students' accounts in many ways rnirrored the accounts of some of

the people they interviewed, especially the elernentary school librarian and

the women workers at Hewlett-Packard. These women's accounts heavily

favoured the 'vive la differencem concept, pethaps explaining thes8 particular

137 secondary students' slight favouring of this concept. lt could well be that,

without such exposure. secondary students may have proffered more

accounts citing socio-political reasons than this particular group of students

did. This is a question worth further investigation.

Measuring the Project's Success

It has long been held by teachers that they could close their doors and "make

a difference' in their own classrooms. It seems that this is not the case with

technology where small, localized interventions proved to be unsuccessfu l in

creating lasting change in practices towards and attitudes about educational

technology .

I returned to the three project sites in the year after the work had been done.

This yielded predictable, yet disappointing, results. I met with many of the girls

I had worked with and interviewed them to determine if they were currently

using any of the strategies in their technology use from the interventions

attempted the previous year. I asked questions like 'how are you using

technology this year?,' 'what is your computer class like this year?,' 'has

anything changed for you as a result of Our work last year?' This helped the

students reflect on the previous year's activities and compare them to their

current experiences. The elementary students were in the same school,

taking computer classes in the same computer laboratory with the same

equipment. The middle school students were in a secondary school with

computer classes offered as electives only and completely different equipment

available. The secondary school students were in grade twelve in the same

school, with the same equipment available.

The elementary students described their computer time as 'boring because

it's always free time.' Students selected activities from the available software

rather than the teacher arranging activities or introducing software using

assignments. The girls discussed the now very familiar story about the boys

always accessing the colour computers, and boys being loud and aggressive

in the computer lab. Some new accounts explaining the discrepancy in

access were offered: the boys get the colour computers because their names

are at the beginning of the alphabet, there are only three groups with girls and

the boys' groups are called first, it seems like the girls' colour computer time is

always lost when we miss computers for holidays, and Ms. M favours the boys

and she teaches computers while Ms. A favours girls and she teaches us

other subjects. Only two of the five girls I interviewed at this time thought they

would choose to take cornputer courses as an elective later in their schooling.

The middle school girls were not taking any electives that focused on

technology. They used the school computers in their CAPP course to type out

resurnes and perform research tasks. Other than that they did not use the

school computers at all. They felt limited in theii elective choices since they

could only take one elective. It seemed to the girls that the same boys that

used the cornputers a great deal at their old school were dominating the

computers at the new school. There were very few girls accessing the

computers at this school as well. The girls simply shrugged when asked why

this rnight be. One of the girls thought she might take a computer course to

better prepare herself for a job in the future.

The secondary school students were not taking any electives that focused on

1 39 technology. They continued to use their cornputers at home rather than those

at school. One of the girls described her latest web page design and the fun

she had copying java scripts. Again elective choices were perceived as

limited for the girls since they needed courses that had provincial exams to

meet university entrance requirements. Boys were more dominant in the

elective courses which involved technology. The girls thought that perhaps

these boys were not planning on continuing their education at university since

they were taking courses which did not have provincial exams and thus were

not considered university prerequisites. The girls thought they would continue

to use their cornputer skills in their university courses for research,

assignments and presentations.

In general, these projects had clearly made very little impact on the greater

culture that the girls were operating within, and thus on the choices the girls

were making. With my removal from the scene, there seemed to be a reversal

of al1 the strategies and practices we had developed to address educational

technology inequity in the three sites. It was almost as if the project had not

happened. I Say airno& because at least the girls' awareness about the

discrepancies was intact; none of the girls attempted to tell me that there was

equal access to and use of school technologies. It was difficult to view this

small success as positive since the descriptions the girls gave of their cuvent

experiences with educational technology were steeped with inequity. I was

terribly disappointed. The confidence I expected the girls to demonstrate by

demanding more equitable practices had crumbled in the face of convention,

and they were happier to accept inequw than to cause a sensation by

demanding a change without adult support. The small, localized interventions

of this project seerned able to create only fragile and temporary changes.

140 Perhaps this partially explains the lack of substantive change in access and

use of educational technologies documented du ring the last fifteen years.

It is true that the girls appeared to feel more cornfortable during the project and

that their access to, and interest in, cornputers increased, perhaps due to the

structure of the project and the ongoing support of a teacher. However, the

changes in the girls' practices and attitudes created by the interventions were

successful only as long as that "micro-culture' existed. Once the project

ended and the girls were again operating within the "macro-culture" of the

school and society, al1 reverted to the status quo of that 'macro-culture"

including the girls' practices and attitudes. There are a number of factors

which might have contributed to the reversion of the interventions. One is the

girls need to "fit inu to their social group, another is the lack of adult support in

a school environment which often requires adult support for significant change

to occur. Another reason might be the 'hidden curriculum" of school operating

to dismantle any radical ideas.

This notion of micro and rnacro cultures has been alluded to as an important

dimension of leaming by Frederick Erickson (1988). He argues that a critical

aspect of learning is the social environment and the social relations within that

environment. He also argues that leaming that is enabled in one social

environment is not always applied to other social environments. This seems

to be the case with the interventions which appeared successful during the

project but failed to cary over into other situations.

Reflections on the Project

My work began with the problem that none of the students I was teaching

seemed to be able to talk about what was actualty going on in the

computer lab - it was as if they had blinders on, and could only see certain

things. While it was clear to me that the boys seemed to take over al1 the best

cornputers and any other computer equiprnent (like the scanner, etc.), and the

girls 'melted into the background', either making do with the inferior

equipment or with none at all. none of the students described the lab in this

way in the beginning. When asked what happened in the lab, for instance, the

boys described how the girls showed no interest so the boys filled the void,

whereas the girls described the scene as one of completely equal access for

the girls and boys! The girls, especially, seemed to have a distorted view of

reality. There were no real differences between the ways the different grade

levels described these scenes, so I thought that I should try and find out why

there seemed to be this kind of 'blindness' on the part of both girls and boys to

what was happening in the lab.

My goals for the project were to work with the students and ernpower them.

So although it would have been easy for me to 'step in' and re-dress the

inequity in the lab, I wanted any ideas for interventions to corne directly frorn

the kids because I reasoned that might be one way for thern to 'ownN ideas for

change, and that such 'ownership' might make change longer-lasting. As a

result of my work with th8 students and their comptent and articulate

responses to the need for change, I thought that the next year (when I was out

of the picture), at the very least the students would approach their teachers

and suggest some different ways to organize the computer lab to make things

1 42 more 'fair.' I thought, furthemore, that I had helped develop the students'

confidence and empowered them sufficiently to do this. Over the tirne I was in

the classes, the students and 1 developed some changes in the ways we

"distributedu the computers, the ways students were instructed on computer

skills, how students were grouped. etcetera. As the access to the computer

equipment became more equitable, the students described more accurately

what used to occur in the lab, and why the changes were needed.

Of course, what I had hoped for and the actual results were very different. As

mentioned, when I returned a year later to visit the kids I had worked with just

about everything had reverted. The small, localized 'isiandsu of equity I had

helped to create the year before had been taken over by the "usual' state of

affairs. My project seerned to show conclusively that "close the door' and

"make a difference" types of interventions do not work to even the playing field

for students working with computers and other technologies.

Although the culture of the computer lab had reverted back to its former state

of inequity, none of the students claimed, as they had at first, that everything

was "equitable' with the computers. The students, a year later, were

describing computer labs where the boys had taken over again and the girls

had been pushed to the margins. Some of the stories to explain why this was

happening were bizarre rationakations which seemed to fiIl a need for the

students to explain their computer experience in a way that also maintained

dominant cultural expectations (like boys are stronger than girls). It's almost

as if they were saying 'computers are for boys' without actually saying those

words which would contradict another dominant sociaVcultural expectation:

1 43 "everyone is equal." The small Nsuccess' I feel I can daim for my project was

that a year later none of the students told me that they believed everything

was equal in the computer lab - it seemed the inequities had been exposed,

and they could talk about what they were and how and why they believed they

occurred. This ability to recognize the inequities in the computer lab may

have been helped by al1 the class discussions, interviews, trials of strategies

to solve inequity and reflections on those trials. All these activities made

computer lab inequities an issue of renown, and one to remember.

Among my colleagues, responses changed as well. Whenever my work was

asked about or brought up, other teachers became defensive and combative.

I think I was viewed with some suspicion, as a kind of "traitor," perhaps,

especially when I could not articulate any interventions which would definitely

work to balance the inequities I described involving students and

technologies. A typical interaction went something like this.

Colleague: 'Maybe there aren't as many girls involved in technology as boys because it's genetic, if you think about it historically, men needed to use tools to hunt and so it's a survival thing ..."

Myself: I would try in vain to point out the way this argument was like a road block, and how cultural traits like tool use could hardly be determined genetically since there were no cultural traits that were consistently male or fernale in different cultures around the world. So, I would conclude, there has to be another explanation for why there are fewer girls involved in technology.

Colleague: (missing the point) would continue to argue for genetics or would walk away shaking their head at my foolishness.

Obviously, I was trying to create a problem where there wasnY one. The

complexities of the situation which I tried to describe were of no interest and I

became branded a troubled 'ferninistW- angry for no good reason.

144 Conclusion

Work in gender equity and technology seems to create dissonance on many

levels. Grappling with these problems requires 'sense making" in relation to a

complex variety of factors. We need to critically examine al1 our practices.

rules and attitudes involving educational technologies in an effort to identify

and to expose those which may encourage and maintain inequities. This is

not a %toryn which is easily summarized in a few words, the list of 'characters"

is long, and the "plot" is very twisted and not always clear. Other teachers

distrust the complexity and look instead for simpler 'truths" to explain their

experiences. This leads to further dissonance when our atternpts at working

alone to solve the problems with inequity end in failure. We are, moreover

unable to convince others to join our work when it is so difficult, and incites so

many risks: personal, professional, emotional and social.

One of the few solaces in al1 this work was developing a network of friends

and colleagues working on the same problerns. This lifeline allowed

discussions which went beyond the denial of the problems or defensive

posturing and created small forums for comparing interventions, students'

accounts and practices, and debating over next steps. I think if I was

beginning this again I might try to formalize these discussions slightly to

ensure they occurred regularly and were directed to some extent to build

some group accountability. I believe these talks and the support of like-

minded people were critical for knowing I was not wasting energy on a

misguided effort. They also helped me to keep a sense of perspective on the

project, to develop strategies to carry on in the face of difficules, to keep me

'true' to my work and, on a few occasions, to prevent me from giving up

altogether.

When I began this thesis I was caught in the preconception that I would be

producing a sustained individual expression, hammering out my thoughts on

a chosen subject. During the process itself, however, I came to realize that

the most authentic statements I was producing were crystallized out of the

dynamics of group discussion. While this thesis ultimately remains

attributable to me, I fully appreciate that the final unity of my expression has

been derived from the respectfui consideration of al1 the minds involved in this

project.

In a project such as this one, it is difficult to come up with only one or two

conclusions. I have learned so much, on so many different levels including

my teaching, my personal beliefs and my academic understanding of the

complex issues of gender, equity and technology. 8ut since I began as a

teacher exploring these issues, I will also end as a teacher.

No matter what age, students' attitudes and practices with educational

technology are more similar than they are different. The interviews in the

three sites disclosed many repeated themes, al1 of which have been identified

and discussed. Three of these were surprising to me and so I repeat them

here: 1. girls tend to access computers in private spaces, such as their

homes. rather than enter the cornpetition with the boys for computers in public

spaces, such as school; 2. girls, for the most pan, competently met the criteria

for the assignments using technology by quietly cooperating, while boys, for

the most part, loudly and aggressively dominated the cornputer lab but often

did not complete assignments or did not meet al1 the criteria; 3. teachers

146 recognized inequit ies with educat ional technology but largely denied the

problem, and were not willing to change any of their practices to solve them.

In light of these three findings, it is perhaps not surprising that students were

adept at creating rationakations to explain their experiences with technology

in a manner that served both to maintain their dignity and to reiterate dominant

cultural expectations. Sorne examples of this were the various explanations

of the grade five boys' greater access of the colour computers. These

'accountsu ranged from their faster running speed, and greater physical

strength to their disinterest in sitting with their friends and the proximity of their

desks to the door, allowing them to be first in line. The renditions seemed

endless, and clearly, much easier to bear than the starker reality that

computers were male domains and did not include girls.

St udents' awareness about gender inequities was raised through al1 the

discussions which were held. During the initial discussions with the students

at the beginning of the project they al1 claimed there were no inequities with

educational technology. But after visiting with the students a year after the

project they were al1 still very much aware of the gender inequities with

educational technologies. Clearly the importance paid to the issue throughout

the project had left an impact.

As a teacher, one of the most difficult things I came to understand was that I

can not necessarily 'make a difference' when I close the door to my

classroom. Educational technology inequities are not solely influenced by

classroom practices, and therefore can only be minimally affected through

changing only classroom practices. The three very small and localized

147 intervention sites produced during this project quickly disintegrated when the

project was over, leaving little permanent change for the long term. Neither is

'the solution" found on the level of policy. Having a district plan to 'solve"

inequities with educational technology and a district technology coordinator

committed to this cause was also not enough, as the secondary site showed.

Since, as teachers, we can not just close out doors to make a difference with

inequities in educational technology, we might rally together as a school or

even as a school district. Perhaps atternpting interventions within the broader

culture of the school would allow more permanent and stable change. At least

this might offer a certain degree of consistent treatment over more than just

one year. Also if students' awareness can be raised with just one teacher

discussing an issue, surely this affect would be magnified if many teachers

were part icipating.

It seems that the issue of gender inequity requires serious attention at al1

levels of the school system in order for change to be made possible at the

classroom level. Every attempt should be made to educate prospective

teachers, at teacher-training facilities in universities, of issues regarding

gender equity. School districts should also recognize within their policies the

problems created by gender inequities. Simple recognition, however, is not

enough and school districts should offer encouragement, perhaps incentives

in the form of grants, to administrators and teachers to take action to reduce

these inequities. Administrators in schools should help to create an

environment in which equity issues are seen as important. Staff, parents and

students can then openly discuss problems of inequity and al1 members of the

school community can work to address these problems. By incteasing

148 awareness of inequity and the importance given to this problem it is more

likely that longer lasting and farther reaching change c m be produced.

lnequity in relation to educational technology is embedded deeply into our

social institutions. Changing practices within those institutions effectively

requ ires a critical examination of attitudes, behaviours, rules and regulations

involving that technology to identify practices that encourage and maintain

inequities. Perhaps this critical examination of our practices will help teachers

to see. not only that there is a problem of inequity, but that changing our

practices may help solve those pnblems.

As teachers, we should listen carefully and critically to our students. The

students in this study had a great deal to Say about the inequities they had

experienced in school, not only with educational technology, but also in the

gymnasium and elsewhere in the school, and beyond it. Within the students'

accounts many explanations of inequities are given and suggestions are

made for improvements. Classroom schedules do not often allow time for

discussions, reflection and teachers rarely listen to their students'

understandings on issues. We need to find the time and force ourselves to

listen to the important perceptions Our students have.

I found that it is effective to discuss important issues with students. In this

project the fact that discussions were held and that the students' conceptions

of gender, technology and equity were challenged have already made an

impact on their understanding of these issues. And hopefully those

understandings will continue to affect the students' opinions and decisions

later in their lives.

There is not a happy ending to this story, although one is certainly yeamed for

by many. The hero did not corne through in the nick of tirne. The purposes

that were presented in the introduction were not realized, the project failed to

meet its goals. That said, it would be difficult to daim that nothing was gained

by the effort, and impossible to deny that clear directions for institutional

change -- as well as uncornfortable reminders of the ease in which gender

inequity is accepted on the part of teachers, parents and administrators -- have been identified. Simply put. if gender-equity is what we seek. then there

are powerfully effective 'ways,' but there are equally powerful 'wills' which

deny, obstruct and oppose them.

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