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Engaging Women in Computer Science and Engineering: Promising Practices for Promoting Gender Equity in Undergraduate Research Experiences

Published: 01 July 2011 Publication History

Abstract

Building on research that identifies and addresses issues of women’s underrepresentation in computing, this article describes promising practices in undergraduate research experiences that promote women’s long-term interest in computer science and engineering. Specifically, this article explores whether and how REU programs include programmatic elements designed to promote gender equity and identifies specific mechanisms that are seen as effective in supporting women in REU programs and in encouraging them to persist in computer science and engineering fields. The findings are drawn from a comprehensive study that includes a national survey of REU programs, follow-up interviews with REU program directors from across the country, and an in-depth evaluation of one REU program over four years.

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      cover image ACM Transactions on Computing Education
      ACM Transactions on Computing Education  Volume 11, Issue 2
      July 2011
      111 pages
      EISSN:1946-6226
      DOI:10.1145/1993069
      Issue’s Table of Contents
      Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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      Publication History

      Published: 01 July 2011
      Accepted: 01 November 2010
      Revised: 01 October 2010
      Received: 01 February 2010
      Published in TOCE Volume 11, Issue 2

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      Author Tags

      1. Women in computing
      2. broadening participation in computing
      3. research experiences for undergraduates
      4. undergraduate research

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