Technology‐loving Luddites? Declining participation in high school computing studies in Australia

Abstract

The research discussed in this article is based on an Australian Research Council‐funded study carried out over three years (2005–2007) in three states ¹ in Australia. The study sought to understand students’ experiences and decisions at secondary school to ascertain why few girls choose to enter tertiary‐level Communication and Information Technology (CIT) courses, and what strategies could be implemented in schools to remedy this problem. The results suggest that while boys still tend to dominate the higher levels of CIT subjects in Australian high schools across the three states, there was also a general decline in participation at all levels. Drawing on qualitative and quantitative data, the article examines patterns and explanations regarding the nature of participation in CIT subjects. The article develops a Luddite analysis in order to understand the strong rejection of this area of study in the three Australian states.

Keywords:

• computer technology
• high schools
• pedagogy
• dispositions

Notes

1. New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia

2. Hakken (1999) argued that the computer revolution discourse created a binary – computopian/computropian – whereby utopians saw technology driving social change into a better future. On the other side are the computropians. The word com putropian is developed from Raymond Williams’ (1989) analysis of the ‘putrefying’ aspects of modernity (or modernisation), emphasising in particular the negative impact of technology on social life.

3. Taylor (2005) used the notion of platforms to move beyond linear ‘pathways’ notions of life course into one that acknowledges movements in multiple directions but nevertheless connected to moments of opportunity and choice.

4. Web 2.0 refers to a perceived second generation of web‐based communities and hosted services – such as social‐networking sites and wikis – which aim to facilitate collaboration and sharing between users.

5. Focus groups were created from the original survey sent out to all schools in the study. The schools selected were a representative sample based on high and low participation of girls, socio‐economic status and geography. Focus groups were based on gender and interest for each high school (four groups).

6. Taylorism is a social philosophy with ‘its emphasis on compliance and obedience to management in the pursuit of common interest’ to shift the gaze from politics to productivity (Webster and Robins 1986, 310–311)