Initiatives geared toward broadening participation in computing research have addressed the longstanding underrepresentation of various populations - including women, Black people, Latinx people, and persons with disabilities. Although there has been an increase in underrepresented populations participating in computing, building upon these…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study is to explore how college students from the United States describe the motivational factors that influence them to seek a degree in computer science. There is a gap in the research that shows a need to look at the motivations of women from their first experiences in computer science to begin and…

This action research study investigated how a community college faculty member can improve completion rates in introductory computer science (CS1) courses. Some students think the CS1 course is challenging or non-interesting after taking the class midway and then dropping out. Others would fail the exams repeatedly. Since the exams are mostly…

Computer Science (CS 1) offerings in most universities tend to be notoriously difficult. Over the past 60 years about a third of students either fail or drop out of the course. Past research has focused on improving teaching methods through small changes without changing the overall course structure. The premise of this research is that…

The purpose of my study is to explore why and how Black women undergraduates at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) persist in computing. By centering the experiences of Black women undergraduates and their stories, this dissertation expands traditional, dominant ways of understanding student persistence in higher education.…

The opportunity to innovate, experiment, and take chances in the classroom should be accessible to all students regardless of the social identities they hold; however, white women and women of color (WOC) in male-dominated physics, engineering, math and computer science (PEMC) learning environments, and STEM broadly, have been expected to take…

Biological engineering includes a higher representation of women (Yoder, 2015) than most science, technology, engineering, mathematics and information technology fields, while computer science has seen a precipitous decline in women's representation. However, disciplines like biological engineering are becoming more computationally intensive…

Over the past 20 years, the field of computer science has experienced a growth in student interest. Despite this increase in participation rates, longstanding gender gaps persist in computer science. Recent research has examined a wide variety of individual factors (e.g., self-efficacy, sense of belonging, etc.) that impact student interest and…

Several studies have focused on how in-person informal CS learning programs like summer camps and after-school programs impact Black girls' intent to persist in Computer Science; however, virtual informal CS learning programs remain to be studied. This mixed-methods study uses Intersectional Computing and Social Cognitive Career Theory to examine…

National efforts have been made to increase STEM participation among racially marginalized individuals (Ro & Loya, 2015). However, women, especially African American women, remain underrepresented in STEM fields, particularly in engineering and computer science disciplines. The purpose of this basic interpretive qualitative study was to…

There is a purported shortage of employable labor in the tech workforce, yet Black, Indigenous, Women of Color (BIWOC) in urban centers struggle to find and sustain roles in "high-tech." The tech ecosystem is a CIS-gendered, white male heterosexual space that perpetuates and "ideal worker norm" (Kachchaf et al., 2015), which…

This dissertation study is about understanding the beliefs of undergraduate computer science (CS) faculty to adapt culturally responsive computing (CRC) pedagogical approach in teaching computer science courses. Using the lenses of critical pedagogy, culturally responsive teaching, and culturally responsive computing, this study explored whether…

The problem of low student completion rates in distance learning courses remains one of the major issues that institutions of higher learning face. Efforts by school administrators to reverse this trend have so far produced mixed results. The rapid expansion of distance learning has encouraged many institutions to move more courses online,…

The underrepresentation of women in computer science has been a concern of educators for multiple decades. The low representation of women in the computer science is a pattern from K-12 schools through the university level and profession. One of the purposes of the introduction of the Advanced Placement Computer Science Principles (APCS-P) course…

The computing profession in the United States would benefit from an increasingly diverse workforce, specifically a larger female presence, because a more gender-balanced workforce would likely result in better technological solutions to difficulties in many areas of American life. However, to achieve this balance, more women with a solid…