Faculty/Teaching Role Models

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What is the Action?

Use female faculty/teaching staff as role models for existing or future computing students.

Quick Facts to Support this Action

Teachers are one of the most frequently mentioned group of role models for women in computing education.

Having a gender balanced faculty is a factor that leads to achieving gender balance among recruited students.

Female students show a significantly higher interest in computing/coding if they are taught by female teachers rather than by male.

Ways to Implement this Action

Discover possible implementation options by expanding the toggles below.

➤ Outreach Events

Invite female faculty role models to participate in outreach events that target recruitment. Training of role models is beneficial. Guidance on role model training is available here.

➤ Organise Meetings

Organise informal meetings at the faculty for students and female staff members, for instance, in a lunch setting. Previous research indicates that informal meetings with first year computer science students have improved retention. This can be an action on its own – check out TechMate’s action Short Meetings with First Year Students.

➤ Industry Engagement Events

Where a faculty member is partially employed with industry or has had extensive industry experience, share this with students as part of the industry engagement events. Here, the guide on organising industry role model events applies.

➤ Guest Lectures

Invite a female colleague from another discipline or from an industry that can collaborate with computer science for a guest lecture to share different perspectives on computing field. This can be an action on its own – check out TechMate’s action Invite and Industry Role Model to Deliver a Guest Lecture.

Evaluation Approach

While measuring short-term impact is often challenging, there are ways to assess effects of this action, such as surveying and/or interviewing participants.

Where a school outreach event is assessed after a faculty role model visit (parental consent may be required, sample parental consent form available here), student survey sample questions are as follows (full list for inspiration is available on page A-19 of the study Do Female Role Models Reduce The Gender Gap in Science?):

  • Did you enjoy the visit of the faculty role model? (Yes/No)
  • Would you say that this visit changed… [Possible answers: Strongly agree/Somewhat agree/Disagree/Strongly disagree] (1) your perception of computer-science-related jobs? (2) your interest in computer-science-related jobs? (3) your perception of women’s place in computer-science-related jobs?
  • Would you say that this visit… [Possible answers: Strongly agree/Somewhat agree/Disagree/Strongly disagree] (1) gave you new ideas for your future? (2) influenced your aspirations and choices of study? (3) confirmed a choice you had already made? (4) made you want to pursue science-related studies?

Sample questions for a role-model feedback survey where a school outreach or another event-based iniative has been performed (full list for inspiration is available on page A-14 of the study Do Female Role Models Reduce The Gender Gap in Science?):

  • Overall, you found that the students were… [Possible answers: Yes, very much/Yes, somewhat/Not really/Not at all/Mixed] (1) interested (2) engaged in the discussion (3) inattentive or difficult to contain
  • Would you say that gender stereotypes (e.g., “computer science is not for girls”) were strong among the students? (1) Yes, very much (2) Rather yes (3) Rather no (4) Not at all
  • Overall, how did your session go? [Possible answers: Very well/Well/Average/Not so well/Not well at all]
  • Based on the class’s reactions (questions, smiles, discussion with students at the end of the intervention…), how receptive do you think the students were to the following messages? [Possible answers: This topic was not addressed/This topic was addressed and the students were very receptive/This topic was addressed and the students were rather receptive/This topic was addressed but the students were not very receptive/This topic was addressed but the students were not at all receptive] (1) “Science/Computer Science is everywhere” (2) “Jobs in computer science are fulfilling” (3) “Jobs in computer science are for girls too” (4) “Jobs in computer science pay well”

To understand the in-depth experience of teaching role models (e.g. members of a faculty), organise an interview with faculty role models. Sample interview questions (full list is available here on page 147) That’s How We Role! A Framework for Role Modeling in Computing and Engineering Education:

  • What is a role model for you?
  • How do you experience the responsibility of being a role model for your students? Is this responsibility limiting your behavior in any way?
  • Are you including role models in your teaching? If so, how?
  • Who do you think are your students’ role models?
  • Some say that we may be steering students in a particular direction by presenting different areas in computing in different ways, e.g., (simplified example) hardware is the “real” part of CS, while software is not as respected. What do you think?

 

Accenture Report – Cracking the Gender Code (2016). https://www.accenture.com/…/accenture-cracking-the-gender-code-report.pdf

Breda, T., Grenet, J., Monnet, M. and Van Effenterre, C., 2020. Do female role models reduce the gender gap in science?: Evidence from french high schools. IZA-Institute of Labor Economics.

Drury, B.J., Siy, J.O., and Cheryan, S. (2011). When do female role models benefit women? The importance of differentiating recruitment from retention in STEM. Psychological Inquiry, 22(4), 265–269.

Grande, V., 2023. That’s How We Role! A Framework for Role Modeling in Computing and Engineering Education: A Focus on the Who, What, How, and Why (Doctoral dissertation, Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis).

Frieze, C., and Quesenberry, J.L. (2019). How computer science at CMU is attracting and retaining women. Communications of the ACM, 62(2), 23–26.

National Girls Collaborative Project (Toolkit) – US – Creating Connections with Role Models: The Power of Collaboration https://stemnext.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/NGCP-Role-Model-Guide-Web-Version-1.pdf  

Role Model Strategies – Encouraging Youth to Consider STEM Careers – Sci Girls https://assets.science.nasa.gov/content/dam/science/cds/general/documents/2024/02/role-model-strategies-guide-scigirls-dec2023.pdf 

Szlavi, A., Haugland, H.S., and Jaccheri, L. (2024, November). Role Models as an Intervention for Gender Diversity in Computing Education. In Norsk IKT-konferanse for forskning og utdanning (No. 4).

Xu, K., Wendell, D., and Walsh, A.S. (2017). Getting to gender parity in a top-tier mechanical engineering department: A case study. In ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, pp. 1–24. ASEE.