Digital Youth Divas: Exploring Narrative-Driven Curriculum to Spark Middle School Girls’ Interest in Computational Activities

Abstract

Women use technology to mediate numerous aspects of their professional and personal lives. Yet, few design and create these technologies given that women, especially women of color, are grossly underrepresented in computer science and engineering courses. Decisions about participation in STEM are frequently made prior to high school, and these decisions are impacted by prior experience, interest, and sense of fit with community. Digital Youth Divas is an out-of-school program that uses narrative stories to launch the creation of digital artifacts and support non-dominant middle school girls’ STEM interests and identities through virtual and real-world community. In this article, we discuss the framework of the Digital Youth Divas environment, including our approach to blending narratives into project-based design challenges through on- and offline mechanisms. Results from our pilot year, including the co-design process with the middle school participants, suggest that our narrative-centered, blended learning program design sparks non-dominant girls’ interests in STEM activities and disciplinary identification, and has the potential to mediate girls’ sense of STEM agency, identities, and interests.

Acknowledgments

We thank the staff of the Digital Youth Network and are especially grateful to Asia Roberson, Digital Youth Divas program manager, and Jim Sandherr and Elaina Boytor, Digital Youth Network research assistants, for their contributions. We also thank the editors and reviewers of this special issue for their expert and insightful critique of our work through multiple rounds of revision. Finally, we acknowledge all Digital Youth Divas mentors, youth, parents, and other caring adults who contributed their valuable time and perspectives, without which this work would not have been possible.

The section titled “The DYD Program Model” is a reprint of the Digital Diva Model that appears in Erete, S., Martin, C. K., & Pinkard, N. (2017). Digital youth divas: A program model for increasing knowledge, confidence, and perceptions of fit in STEM amongst Black and Brown middle school girls. In Y. Rankin & J. Thomas (Eds.), Moving Students of Color from Consumers to Producers of Technology (pp. 152–173). Hershey, PA: IGI Global. doi:10.4018/978-1-5225-2005-4.ch008. Reprinted by permission of IGI Global. Permission to reuse must be obtained from the rightsholder.

Funding

This material is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation (#1433838). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are our own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Additional information

Funding

This material is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation (#1433838). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are our own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.