As countries around the world share a similar view of ensuring a future workforce skilled in the thinking skills required to support and sustain the changing technological and innovation landscape, it is likely that this mantra will persist for the foreseeable future. Of the STEM disciplines, the Technologies curriculum should be considered fundamental to addressing the perceived shortage of specialists to solve the world’s most complex problems. However, student enrolment numbers in Digital Technologies subjects in particular, remain stubbornly low compared to other subject areas such as Science and Mathematics. Adding to the perceived lack of interest in Digital Technologies subjects is the continued issue of gender disparity. Sadly, gender disparity is not a problem that is unique to Australia, but one that is often reported across many other international educational jurisdictions. This paper presents an analysis undertaken of the Australian senior secondary school Digital Technologies curriculum, focusing on the final year of secondary school education, with insights gained from the learning areas of Biology (where girls dominate) and Physics (where boys dominate), in relation to student enrolment numbers. This analysis was complemented with a review of the literature, which includes input from findings from other educational jurisdictions around the world. The findings of this investigation lend credence to the authors’ views that the Digital Technologies curriculum needs to eliminate the hidden bias, where it is principally seen as a business-focused subject and aligned to the interests of boys.

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Examining the Subtlety of Gender Bias in the Australian Digital Technologies Curriculum

  • Milorad Cerovac,
  • Therese Keane

摘要

As countries around the world share a similar view of ensuring a future workforce skilled in the thinking skills required to support and sustain the changing technological and innovation landscape, it is likely that this mantra will persist for the foreseeable future. Of the STEM disciplines, the Technologies curriculum should be considered fundamental to addressing the perceived shortage of specialists to solve the world’s most complex problems. However, student enrolment numbers in Digital Technologies subjects in particular, remain stubbornly low compared to other subject areas such as Science and Mathematics. Adding to the perceived lack of interest in Digital Technologies subjects is the continued issue of gender disparity. Sadly, gender disparity is not a problem that is unique to Australia, but one that is often reported across many other international educational jurisdictions. This paper presents an analysis undertaken of the Australian senior secondary school Digital Technologies curriculum, focusing on the final year of secondary school education, with insights gained from the learning areas of Biology (where girls dominate) and Physics (where boys dominate), in relation to student enrolment numbers. This analysis was complemented with a review of the literature, which includes input from findings from other educational jurisdictions around the world. The findings of this investigation lend credence to the authors’ views that the Digital Technologies curriculum needs to eliminate the hidden bias, where it is principally seen as a business-focused subject and aligned to the interests of boys.