Building Their Glass Slipper: Existing Challenges and Promising Approaches for Girls in Technology and Engineering Classrooms

Over the past 20 years, a growing body of work examines why women are underrepresented in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields and careers. However, research is lacking on work focused on how young girls form an identity in the disciplines of technology and engineering or the “T&E” of STEM. The purpose of this two-phased study was to explore perspectives and attitudes that influence girls' decisions to take high school technology and engineering courses and determine if a classroom environment focused on supportive and transformative norms can develop girls’ positive technology and engineering identity. Three overarching research questions guided this study: What are girls’ perspectives of and attitudes toward technology and engineering courses? How do girls’ perspectives or attitudes toward technology and engineering influence their discussions about taking technology and engineering courses in high school? Does a classroom environment that includes supportive and transformative norms in technology and engineering develop girls’ technology and engineering identities? Using sequential exploratory mixed methods, qualitative data were first collected through semi-structured interviews. In addition, a survey was given to the participants to record their perceived technology and engineering attitudes, beliefs, and identities. The findings from this portion of the study informed the intervention for phase two. The second phase of the study gathered quantitative data that compared if girls exposed to human-centered design, recognition, and belonging would form a more robust technology and engineering identity in the middle school technology and engineering classroom