Broadening Gender in Computing for Transgender and Nonbinary Learners
In this episode I unpack Menier, Zarch, and Sexton’s (2021) publication titled “Broadening gender in computing for transgender and nonbinary learners,” which is a position paper problematizes the current lack of trans and nonbinary individuals in discourse around gender in CS education.
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Welcome back to another episode of the CSK8 podcast.
My name is Jared O'Leary.
Each week of this podcast
is either an episode with a guest or multiple guests, or a solo episode
where I unpack some scholarship in relation to computer science education.
And this week's particular episode, I'm unpacking a paper titled Broadening
Gender and Computing for Transgender and Non-binary Learners.
This paper was written by Amanda Minear, Rebecca Isaac and Stacy Sexton.
Apologies if I mispronounced any names.
All right, here's the abstract for this particular paper.
Quote, Gender disparities in computer science education have been a key
focus of efforts to broaden participation in computing BPC.
While the importance of outreach to women and girls has been well-established,
many researchers may not be aware of
the needs of students who identify across and outside the gender binary.
As more teens and young adults identify as transgender and or non-binary.
Computer science researchers
and practitioners will need to understand how the needs of these students
align with and diverge from those of their cisgender peers.
In this Position paper, we discuss how current BPC efforts targeted toward
women and girls may unknowingly discourage transgender
and especially non-binary learners, and call for the respect community
to broaden gender and computing
through additional research and discussion, end quote.
And respect, by the way, is in all caps.
It stands for research and equity and sustained participation
in engineering, computing and Technology at an annual conference.
Now, include a link to that in the show notes
which you can find at Gerard O'Leary dot com or by clicking the link in the app
that you're listening to this on.
If I were to summarize this paper into a single sentence,
I'd say that this position paper probabilities
is the current lack of discourse around trans and non-binary
individuals in discourse around gender, in CSE education.
Now, I do feel the need to state my own personality on this particular topic,
so I do identify as a non-binary individual.
So I certainly have some biases related to the discourse around gender
and you'll definitely hear those throughout the episode.
So this week
I'm going to talk about this particular paper,
and then two weeks from now, in the next unpacking scholarship episode, I'm
going to talk about a paper that I helped coauthor with three other people
within the trans community, and that's with the Capital T to talk about.
Okay, so what can we as educators actually do to help out
trans students that we might be working with?
So I'll talk about that more in two weeks from now. So stay tuned.
All right.
So for this week's particular episode, if you'd like to actually read the paper,
then I'm going to unpack, which I highly recommend doing pretty short five pages.
I do include a link to it in the show notes, so make sure you check that out.
All right.
So in the introduction, the authors begin by discussing how many of the broadening
participation and computing efforts that really focus on gender
tend to focus on women or girls in computing.
However, the authors point out that when it's discussed,
they tend to present gender within a binary.
So, for example, the research might only discuss males and females
without even mentioning trans or non-binary individuals.
Now, actually looking at this introduction,
I realize I should probably have clarified definitions of trans
and non-binary, which the authors do on the first page of the PDF.
So here's a quote from that quote
We consider those who have a gender identity different
than the one that they were presumed to have at birth to be transgender
and those whose gender is not male or female to be non-binary.
It is important to note that these categories are not mutually exclusive.
End quote.
So interestingly, the authors took a look at the papers
from the Respect conference that I mentioned earlier,
and they specifically looked for any papers that focus specifically
in the abstract titles or keywords on gender, specifically women or girls,
as well as LGBTQ, IJA plus identities or the queer community.
Now, of the 202 papers that mentioned that in some way in the abstract titles
or keywords, they found only three
that actually mentioned anything relevant to trans or non-binary learners.
And these papers focused on, quote, the sense of belonging of LGBTQ computer
science students, homophobic or transphobic Wikipedia vandalism
and the representation of queer people of color in games and quotes from page one.
So even though these papers specifically focused on gender or queer identities
in relation to computer science education, three out of 202 of them actually
even mention or discuss trans
and non-binary individuals within the abstracts, titles or keywords.
Now, the authors note the following quote Our goal is not to diminish important
work by others to diversify computing, but to advocate for a population
that will become increasingly visible in our schools, workplaces and society.
Quotes from the first page. Now same here.
So even though I'm non-binary, I'm not sharing this paper to shame anyone
in this community who's engaged in gender discussion
and don't frequently mention trans and non-binary individuals.
Nothing like that.
I really appreciate the work that they're doing.
So for example, like the work that Clea Braswell was doing within Tech.
If you haven't listened to the episode
that released last week, I highly recommend it.
She's doing some awesome work.
But we do need to call out when the discourse completely ignores
marginalized or underrepresented populations,
like literally doesn't even speak about these communities.
This paper from the authors, it appears, and my own reaction
to this in this podcast is to just problematize the discourse and say, Hey,
this is something we need to talk about. This is important.
It impacts people and it's not discussed enough in the field.
So let's initiate a dialog.
Now, it's important to also note that two of the three authors do identify
within the community.
So this is not CIS individuals taking control of the narrative
of trans individuals by advocating for them
without actually engaging dialog with them.
All right. So the next section in this paper
is called Transgender and Non-binary Identities.
Now, this section begins with a quote that I want to read that specifically unpacks
what are the differences between sex and gender?
So as I mentioned previously,
I intentionally seek out viewpoints that are different than mine.
And one of the things that I've been watching quite a bit
lately is people who talk about trans and non-binary
individuals who are very much so against preferred pronouns, etc..
And I'm specifically looking at the way that they talk about things
and the concerns that they have specifically framed the discussion
around sex with the omission of any kind of discussion around
how that is different than gender.
So I think it's important to clarify these too.
So here's a quote that I'm going to read.
Quote, Sex and gender are related, but distinct concepts,
both socially constructed.
Sex describes physical attributes of human bodies
that we have labeled, as noted by activists
and scholars advocating for intersex people's rights to bodily autonomy.
Sex itself is constructed, manipulated and reinforced
within the social medical complex.
Gender describes a more internal process of self-identification, which may
or may not manifest in a gendered affect or outward presentation.
As noted above, transgender people have a gender identity different
than the one that they were presumed to have at birth, end quote.
So to kind of clarify
the discussion around sex typically is referring to genitalia or chromosomes.
While the conversation around gender refers to socially situated identity
of what it means to play out a particular gender,
which is often associated with a particular sex.
So, for example,
somebody who has presented as male for most of my life,
when somebody is telling me to, quote, be a man or to man
up on something, they're not referring to my chromosomes or genitalia.
They are referring to the identities that are socially reinforced
through historical and contemporary practices
that kind of dictate
what it means to be manly or to enact out a particular gender identity.
These gendered associations
then relate to different things that you do or enact in life.
Now, if you want to learn more about the nuances related to this,
I do unpack this seminal paper by Judith Butler that specifically talks
about Performativity. In other words, gender as a performance.
And so I provide some examples in that that I recommend checking out.
It is actually the most popular episode,
so I recommend listening to it if you want to learn more about this,
and I'll include a link to that in the show notes so far.
To summarize it in a very short way.
Sex is biological, whereas gender is social.
However, as the authors noted, sex is also social.
When you consider intersex,
which if you're not familiar with that term,
I recommend looking it up as it raises many questions about the false binary
that is often presented with sex and gender.
Now, I do recommend reading the rest of the section
because it kind of clarifies some things around transgender nonbinary individuals.
I'm going to give that to you as a teaser
to encourage you to read this short paper.
Now, the next Section two point A discusses U.S.
transgender and non-binary population.
So these are stats that I was actually unfamiliar with,
so it's interesting to read through them.
So one of the stats that they mentioned is that adults between the ages of 18
and 23 comprised of 1.8% of people identifying as transgender,
and they estimate that in the United States
that there are over
So even though it's a small percentage, it's still a large number of people.
So if you are working in CC education, you are going to at some point
have a student who is going to be trans or non-binary,
even if they don't know it at the time.
They might find the words to describe how they feel later on in life as I did.
So I don't think it was until my late twenties or early thirties when I actually
heard the word non-binary and I was like, Oh, that makes a lot of sense.
That's how I've been feeling for a very long time.
So all the teachers I worked with had a non-binary student,
even though they and myself didn't know it at the time.
Now the next section in here to Point B is on campus and in the workplace.
The authors discuss how a large percentage of trans and non-binary individuals
face discrimination in various capacities, or just a lack of general support.
Whether B is something such as including something outside
of male and female for filling out a form to identify yourself.
But they also specifically mentioned that 30% of respondents in a survey
who identified as trans and non-binary live below the poverty line,
and 77% reported having at least one experience in education
that was negative and related to being transgender,
and that nearly one in five respondents for this particular survey,
quote, reported being fired, denied a promotion or not being hired for a job
they applied for because of their gender identity or expression
in the year prior to the survey, in quotes from page two of the PDF.
So to summarize the section on transgender and non-binary identities, the authors
basically talk about, Well, what does it mean to be transgender
or to be non-binary and note that there is not consensus
within the community itself.
So the many different perspectives on these identities, even among trans
and non-binary individuals, and then they specifically cite
the percentage of people who identify as trans and non-binary
and then some of the problems that these individuals face.
So the next section, Section three, is called current Gender Focus
BPC efforts and BPC broadening participation.
So in this particular section in the start, the authors mentioned that
there is a lot of disparities among trans and non-binary individuals in terms
of the lack of representation in K-12, higher education and in the workforce.
Now, an interesting quote that I want to read from page
three is quote, While the majority of trans men and non-binary
persons indicated that they started the transition before age 24, nearly
two thirds of trans women said they began transitioning at age 25 or older, beyond
the age at which many gendered focused interventions are employed, end quote.
Now, again,
I don't think I came to the term non-binary until my late twenties
or early thirties,
and I had previously described myself as like, I don't really know hide
and if I am neither male or female, I didn't really have a term for it.
So I was like, Look, I shave my legs.
I do a lot of very feminine things, but then I also do
masculine things like fight and my tie and stuff like that.
So like it was weird not having a term to actually be able to express myself
and say, Hey, I'm not a man, I'm not a woman, I'm something else.
So for a K-12 practitioner
trying to provide support to trans students and non-binary students,
they might not actually transition until outside of their K-12 tenure.
So what we need to have as a community is support
not just in the K-12 space or in the undergraduate space,
but within computer science as a field, not just computer science education.
So the next subsection
of broadening gender in computing.
Here's a really important quote that I want to read from page three Quote
Research on the factors associated with the underrepresentation of women
in CSE focuses on access Girls have to computing,
particularly in the early years, both at home and in school.
A feeling of lack of belonging, computing, which may be exacerbated
by stereotyping of teachers and guidance counselors as well as popular media.
Subsequently, the efforts to address the disparities often focus on increasing
access for girls in computing through interventions such as girls coding clubs,
or the use of tools for teaching coding such as gaming,
focusing on increasing a sense of belonging and computing
closely tied to belongingness to a gender may have the unanticipated outcome
of further gendering.
The field of computing at a cost of including people
across the gender spectrum, while not having a sense of
belonging, is likely to be a factor for trans and non-binary people in CIS,
the factors that create a sense of belonging may differ for them.
Therefore, it is important that we seriously examine
the assumptions and essentialism actions that underpin our efforts to recruit
and retain a more diverse set of people into computing and technology.
The impulse to want to change a situation for girls and women in
computing is a good one,
and the intent here is not to deride the work done over the decades in this area,
but to provide additional perspective about how gendered approaches
to gender equity might produce unintended consequences.
For example,
while activities like dance and textiles have historically been gendered themselves
and produce
positive results in the classroom, uncritical use of these activities risks
centralizing the category of girl and producing gendered ways
of applying computing. Again.
Having these activities to attract interested students is not the issue,
but having only having traditionally girl type activities
available can create an unintended barrier for some students, end quote.
From page three.
I know that was a long quote, but oh, that was such a good quote.
It reminds me a lot of the discussion that I had with Sara Judd,
who had a great interview on this podcast, and I include a link
to that in the show notes if you haven't listened to it.
So one of the things that Sara mentioned in the classes that they attended
is if you were a woman, you were expected to like ponies and pink things, etc.
You weren't expected to enjoy nerdy stuff like Star Wars and video games,
which is a false stereotype for many people.
Now, in the curriculum that I create, I've had some people ask,
What are some projects that are great for girls?
What are some projects that are great for boys?
My response has always been, Well, what are they interested in?
If a kid is interested in race cars, then cool.
Have them create a project for race cars.
In other words, rather than assigning projects based off of gender,
why not just ask a student, What are you interested in
and let them explore that regardless of what their gender is?
All right.
Supplying the section, the authors conclude with a discussion
on future work to broaden gender in computing
and what they're basically pushing for is, hey, as a community of scholars,
practitioners, etc., we need to move beyond the gender binary,
whether it be in surveys, actually including options for trans and non-binary
individuals, instead of just saying, are you male or female
and we need to do this across the spectrum.
So can't just be interventions within K-12.
It also needs to be in higher education and within the workforce, which leads to
some of my lingering questions or thoughts that I'd like to share
at the end of these unpacking the scholarship papers.
So one of the questions I have
is in what ways might your CS class or the experiences that you facilitate
be intentionally gendered or reinforce a gender binary?
I'm not saying that as an accusation or anything like that.
It's just something that I think that we should think through as individuals,
whether it be in how we say hello to the class, like Good
morning boys and girls unintentionally reinforces a gender binary.
Or let's say you have your class set up so that boys sit on one side and girls
sit on the other side and maybe on the boys wall.
You have like blue paper and nerdy stuff.
On the girl side, you have cutesy things and pink background.
I don't know, it's kind of amazing out loud.
Some potential ways that things might be gendered in the classroom.
The paper that I'll discuss two weeks from now won't provide
some more examples of that and some things to consider
to make sure you stay tuned for that.
But another question that I have is one that I've talked about previously,
and that is why do we discuss some gender imbalances and on others?
For example, why is it that we have millions of dollars of funding to increase
participation in computer science education for girls and women?
We don't have millions of dollars of funding to increase the number
of male educators in elementary schools, even though 80% of teachers are
white women. We don't mention that much. Why is that?
Why? Also, do we not have millions of dollars of funding to have research
that is more inclusive and expansive when it comes to gender?
So talking outside of the binary,
I voice these questions quite a bit in
some of the other episodes, so make sure you check out
the different discussions on gender in the unpacking, scholarship episodes,
and even some of the interviews.
If you do go to General AECOM and then click on the podcast tab,
you can actually click on the little tags
underneath the titles and then I'll help you find some other similar episodes
with some of the same topics
that might discuss some of the same topics as this one.
But because I've already talked about them before, I don't want to rant here,
but I do want to say I really enjoyed this paper.
I appreciate the perspectives of the authors,
and although I certainly have my biases as a non-binary individual, just know that
this is just my perspective.
As one person who is non-binary, I do not represent everybody
within the nonbinary or trans community.
Thank you so much for listening in this episode.
Stay tuned next week for another interview.
A really good discussion on project based learning,
and then two weeks from now, we'll have another unpacking episode
that will discuss how to work with and support trans and non-binary students.
Until then, I hope you're all staying safe and are having a wonderful week.
Article
Menier, A., Zarch, R., & Sexton, S. (2021). Broadening Gender in Computing for Transgender and Nonbinary Learners. 2021 Conference on Research in Equitable and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology (RESPECT), 1–5.
Abstract
“Gender disparities in computer science education have been a key focus of efforts to Broaden Participation in Computing (BPC). While the importance of outreach to women and girls has become well established, many researchers may not be aware of the needs of students who identify across and outside the gender binary. As more teens and young adults identify as transgender and/or nonbinary, computer science researchers and practitioners will need to understand how the needs of these students align with and diverge from those of their cisgender peers. In this position paper, we discuss how current BPC efforts targeted toward women and girls may unknowingly discourage transgender and especially nonbinary learners and call for the RESPECT community to Broaden Gender in Computing through additional research and discussion.”
Author Keywords
Gender, broadening participation, nonbinary, transgender
My One Sentence Summary
This position paper problematizes the current lack of trans and nonbinary individuals in discourse around gender in CS education.
Some Of My Lingering Questions/Thoughts
In what ways might your CS class or discourse be unintentionally gendered or reinforce a gender binary?
Why is it we only discuss some gender imbalances and not others?
Resources/Links Relevant to This Episode
Other podcast episodes that were mentioned or are relevant to this episode
AI4ALL, Curriculum Development, and Gender Discourse with Sarah Judd
In this interview with Sarah Judd, we discuss what Sarah learned both in the classroom and as a CS curriculum writer, the curriculum Sarah continues to develop for AI4ALL, advice and philosophies that can guide facilitating a class and designing curriculum, some of our concerns with discourse on gender in CS, my recommended approach to sustainable professional development, and much more.
Broadening Gender in Computing for Transgender and Nonbinary Learners
In this episode I unpack Menier, Zarch, and Sexton’s (2021) publication titled “Broadening gender in computing for transgender and nonbinary learners,” which is a position paper problematizes the current lack of trans and nonbinary individuals in discourse around gender in CS education.
Examining Coding Skills of Five-year-old Children
In this episode I unpack Metin, Basaran, and Kalyenci’s (2023) publication titled “Examining coding skills of five-year-old children,” which investigates whether gender, parent education, or socioeconomic status has an impact on coding abilities of five-year-olds.
In this episode I unpack Tsan, Boyer, and Lynch’s (2016) publication titled “How early does the CS gender gap emerge? A study of collaborative problem solving in 5th grade computer science,” which investigates the potential impact of gendered groups on the quality of completed Scratch projects in an in-school computer science class for 5th grade students.
How to Get Started with Computer Science Education
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Pedagogy of the Oppressed
This episode is the start of a miniseries that unpacks Paulo Freire’s (1970) book “Pedagogy of the Oppressed.” This particular episode unpacks chapter 1, which discusses how oppressors maintain control over the oppressed. Following unpacking scholarship episodes discuss what this looks like in education and how educators can adopt a “pedagogy of the oppressed” to break cycles of oppression.
This episode is episode two of a miniseries that unpacks Paulo Freire’s (1970) book “Pedagogy of the Oppressed.” This particular episode unpacks chapter 2, which discusses the “banking” approach to education that assumes students are repositories of information, and then proposes a liberatory approach to education that focuses on posing problems that students and teachers collaboratively solve. If you haven’t listened to the discussion on the first chapter, click here.
This episode is episode three of a miniseries that unpacks Paulo Freire’s (1970) book “Pedagogy of the Oppressed.” This particular episode unpacks chapter 3, which discusses the importance of dialogue when engaging in liberatory practices. This episode builds off the previous unpacking scholarship episodes on chapter one and chapter two, so make sure you listen to those episodes before jumping in here.
This episode is the final episode of a miniseries that unpacks Paulo Freire’s (1970) book “Pedagogy of the Oppressed.” This particular episode unpacks chapter 4, which synthesizes the concepts introduced in the previous chapters and discusses the difference between anti-dialogical and dialogical practices in education (and at large). This episode builds off the previous unpacking scholarship episodes on chapter one, chapter two, and chapter three so make sure you listen to those episodes before jumping in here.
Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory
In this episode I unpack Butler’s (1988) seminal publication titled “Performative acts and gender constitution: An essay in phenomenology and feminist theory,” which unpacks the notion that gender is a performative act that is socially and historically constructed.
Promoting Equity and Activism in Computer Science Education with Kim Wilkens
In this interview with Kim Wilkens, we discuss embracing failure, encouraging activism and community impact through CS and technology, supporting marginalized gender identities in CS, and much more.
In this episode I unpack Mellström’s (2009) publication titled “The intersection of gender, race and cultural boundaries, or why is computer science in Malaysia dominated by women?,” which “points to a western bias of gender and technology studies, and argues for cross-cultural work and intersectional understandings including race, class, age and sexuality” (p. 885).
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