It’s not all about gender: A Multi-dimensional Course Perspective on Diversity and Inclusion in Software Engineering Education
Resumo
Diversity and inclusion (D&I) are topics that are increasingly being recognized as important in CS education. There are a few guidelines on approaching D&I in CS education courses. When narrowing down to Software Engineering (SE), the literature on approaching D&I in SE education is scarce. There has been recent growth in the SE field in the literature covering this topic, mostly around software teams. Still, most publications are not focused on education and are typically centered around gender. However, there are other important dimensions of diversity that remain underexplored, such as race/ethnicity, disability, neurodivergence, and age. This experience report details how we approached those diversity dimensions in a graduate school course – attended by both MSc and PhD students – on Diversity and Inclusion in Software Engineering. We explored two perspectives: users and teams, which relate to the subdomains of Software Requirements and Human Aspects of Software Engineering, respectively. In this course, classes were held remotely, using Google Meet, Discord, and Google Classroom as communication tools, and took place twice a week, with each meeting lasting 2 hours. Assessments were conducted using a formative approach, observing student participation and engagement throughout the semester. According to student feedback, creating a safe space was important for creating a sense of belonging and an ambiance for learning and sharing their experiences. We provide details on how we structured and conducted this course. In addition, we share lessons learned throughout this process.
Palavras-chave:
Diversity, Inclusion, Safe space, CS education
Referências
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W DuBow and AS Pruitt. 2019. NCWIT Scorecard: The Status of Women in Technology. Boulder, CO: NCWIT.
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Lesly Elguera Paez and Claudia Zapata Del Río. 2019. Elderly users and their main challenges usability with mobile applications: a systematic review. In Design, User Experience, and Usability. Design Philosophy and Theory: 8th International Conference, DUXU 2019, Held as Part of the 21st HCI International Conference, HCII 2019, Orlando, FL, USA, July 26–31, 2019, Proceedings, Part I 21. Springer, 423–438.
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Kiev Gama, Ana Paula Chaves, Danilo Monteiro Ribeiro, Kezia Devathasan, and Daniela Damian. 2024. How Much Do You Know About Your Users? A Study of Developer Awareness About Diverse Users. In 7th IEEE InternationalWorkshop on Empirical Requirements Engineering, EmpiRE@RE 2024, Reykjavik, Iceland, June 24, 2024.
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Reza Nadri, Gema Rodríguez-Pérez, and Meiyappan Nagappan. 2021. On the relationship between the developer’s perceptible race and ethnicity and the evaluation of contributions in oss. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering 48, 8 (2021), 2955–2968.
Mei Nagappan. 2021. CS 846: Diversity in Software Engineering. [link]. University of Waterloo.
Anton J Nederhof. 1985. Methods of coping with social desirability bias: A review. European journal of social psychology 15, 3 (1985), 263–280.
Inês Nunes, Ana Moreira, and João Araujo. 2023. Gire: Gender-inclusive requirements engineering. Data & Knowledge Engineering 143 (2023), 102108.
Débora Maria Barroso Paiva, André Pimenta Freire, and Renata Pontin de Mattos Fortes. 2021. Accessibility and software engineering processes: A systematic literature review. Journal of Systems and Software 171 (2021), 110819.
Artur Oriel Pereira. 2018. O que é lugar de fala? Leitura: Teoria e Prática 36, 72 (2018), 153–156.
Vahab Pournaghshband and Paola Medel. 2020. Promoting diversity-inclusive computer science pedagogies: A multidimensional perspective. In Proceedings of the 2020 ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education. 219–224.
Yolanda A Rankin and Kallayah K Henderson. 2021. Resisting racism in tech design: centering the experiences of black youth. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 5, CSCW1 (2021), 1–32.
Djamila Ribeiro. 2019. Lugar de fala. Pólen Produção Editorial LTDA.
Gema Rodríguez-Pérez, Reza Nadri, and Meiyappan Nagappan. 2021. Perceived diversity in software engineering: a systematic literature review. Empirical Software Engineering 26 (2021), 1–38.
Ankita Saxena. 2014.Workforce diversity: A key to improve productivity. Procedia economics and finance 11 (2014), 76–85.
Uta Schloegel, Sebastian Stegmann, Rolf Van Dick, and Alexander Maedche. 2018. Age stereotypes in distributed software development: The impact of culture on age-related performance expectations. Information and Software Technology 97 (2018), 146–162.
Stephen Secules, Cassandra McCall, Joel Alejandro Mejia, Chanel Beebe, Adam S Masters, Matilde L. Sánchez-Peña, and Martina Svyantek. 2021. Positionality practices and dimensions of impact on equity research: A collaborative inquiry and call to the community. Journal of Engineering Education 110, 1 (2021), 19–43.
Alexander Serebrenik. 2020. Gender in Open-Source Software Development - Keynote. In XXXIV Brazilian Symposium on Software Engineering. [link]
Mohammed Seyam and Mervat Abu-Elkheir. 2023. Diversity-focused Course Design for Computer Science Students: Incorporating Diversity Conference Attendance into Course Design and Delivery. In Proceedings of the 2023 Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 1. 40–46.
Lynn M Shore, Amy E Randel, Beth G Chung, Michelle A Dean, Karen Holcombe Ehrhart, and Gangaram Singh. 2011. Inclusion and diversity in work groups: A review and model for future research. Journal of management 37, 4 (2011), 1262–1289.
Selena Silva and Martin Kenney. 2019. Algorithms, platforms, and ethnic bias. Commun. ACM 62, 11 (2019), 37–39.
Karina Kohl Silveira and Rafael Prikladnicki. 2019. A systematic mapping study of diversity in software engineering: a perspective from the agile methodologies. In 2019 IEEE/ACM 12th InternationalWorkshop on Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering (CHASE). IEEE, 7–10.
Jane G Stout and Heather M Wright. 2016. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer students’ sense of belonging in computing: An intersectional approach. SBES’24, September 30 – October 04, 2024, Curitiba, PR Kiev Gama and Reydne Santos Computing in Science & Engineering 18, 3 (2016), 24–30.
Josh Terrell, AndrewKofink, Justin Middleton, Clarissa Rainear, Emerson Murphy-Hill, Chris Parnin, and Jon Stallings. 2017. Gender differences and bias in open source: Pull request acceptance of women versus men. PeerJ Computer Science 3 (2017), e111.
University of Pittsburgh. 2024. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Glossary. [link] Accessed May 23, 2024.
University of Washington, College of the Environment. 2021. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Glossary. [link] Accessed March 6, 2021.
Nicki Washington, Tiffany Barnes, Jamie Payton, Sarah Dunton, Felesia Stukes, and Alan Peterfreund. 2019. RESPECT 2019: Yes, we still need to talk about diversity in computing. Computing in Science & Engineering 21, 1 (2019), 79–83.
Adriana Wilde. 2023. Equality, diversity, and inclusion in the CS curriculum. In Proceedings of the 2023 Conference on United Kingdom & Ireland Computing Education Research. 1–1.
Alison Wylie. 2013. Why standpoint matters. In Science and other cultures. Routledge, 26–48.
Jessica Zeitz and Karen Anewalt. 2021. Creating a Repository of Diversity and Inclusion Assignments for Computer Science. In Proceedings of the 52nd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education. 1321–1321.
American University Library. 2024. Ageism. [link] Accessed May 23, 2024.
Brian Arao and Kristi Clemens. 2013. From safe spaces to brave spaces. The art of effective facilitation: Reflections from social justice educators 135 (2013), 150.
Association for Computing Machinery. 2018. Policy Against Harassment at ACM Activities. [link].
Aleya Ramparsad Banwari, Philip Dambisya, Benedict Khumalo, and Kristin van Tonder. 2023. 16. A design justice approach to Universal Design for Learning: Perspectives from the Global South. (2023).
Daphne Barretto, Julienne LaChance, Emanuelle Burton, and Soohyun Nam Liao. 2021. Exploring Why Underrepresented Students Are Less Likely to Study Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. In Proceedings of the 26th ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 1. 457–463.
Margaret Burnett, Simone Stumpf, Jamie Macbeth, Stephann Makri, Laura Beckwith, Irwin Kwan, Anicia Peters, and William Jernigan. 2016. GenderMag: A method for evaluating software’s gender inclusiveness. Interacting with Computers 28, 6 (2016), 760–787.
Eamonn Callan. 2016. Education in safe and unsafe spaces. Philosophical Inquiry in Education 24, 1 (2016), 64–78.
Cambridge Dictionary. 2024. Sisterhood. [link] Accessed May 23, 2024.
Ronnie de Souza Santos, Brody Stuart-Verner, and Cleyton VC de Magalhaes. 2023. LGBTQIA+ (In) Visibility in Computer Science and Software Engineering Education. In 2023 IEEE/ACM 16th International Conference on Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering (CHASE). IEEE, 167–172.
Connor Dodd, Rukshan Athauda, and Marc Adam. 2017. Designing user interfaces for the elderly: a systematic literature review. (2017).
W DuBow and AS Pruitt. 2019. NCWIT Scorecard: The Status of Women in Technology. Boulder, CO: NCWIT.
Wendy M DuBow. 2013. Diversity in computing: Why it matters and how organizations can achieve it. Computer 46, 3 (2013), 24–29.
Lesly Elguera Paez and Claudia Zapata Del Río. 2019. Elderly users and their main challenges usability with mobile applications: a systematic review. In Design, User Experience, and Usability. Design Philosophy and Theory: 8th International Conference, DUXU 2019, Held as Part of the 21st HCI International Conference, HCII 2019, Orlando, FL, USA, July 26–31, 2019, Proceedings, Part I 21. Springer, 423–438.
Ford Foundation. 2023. How to make AI systems more just with Hilary Pennington and Dr. Timnit Gebru. [link]
Paulo Freire. 1970. Pedagogy of the oppressed. Penguin.
Kiev Gama. 2024. On the Awareness about Diversity and Inclusion being integrated to Requirements Engineering. In Proceedings of the 1st Workshop on Multi-disciplinary, Open, and RElevant Requirements Engineering.
Kiev Gama, Ana Paula Chaves, Danilo Monteiro Ribeiro, Kezia Devathasan, and Daniela Damian. 2024. How Much Do You Know About Your Users? A Study of Developer Awareness About Diverse Users. In 7th IEEE InternationalWorkshop on Empirical Requirements Engineering, EmpiRE@RE 2024, Reykjavik, Iceland, June 24, 2024.
Gartner, Inc. 2024. Ageism. [link] Accessed May 23, 2024.
Sandra G Harding. 2004. The feminist standpoint theory reader: Intellectual and political controversies. Psychology Press.
Vinay Harpalani. 2017. ‘Safe spaces’ and the educational benefits of diversity. (2017).
Vivian Hunt, Sundiatu Dixon-Fyle, Sara Prince, and Kevin Dolan. 2020. Diversity wins: How inclusion matters. [link]
Matthew Hutson. 2021. It’s Too Easy to Hide Bias in Deep-Learning Systems. In IEEE Spectrum. [link]
Sonja Hyrynsalmi and Sami Hyrynsalmi. 2019. What motivates adult age women to make a career change to the software industry?. In 2019 IEEE International Conference on Engineering, Technology and Innovation (ICE/ITMC). IEEE, 1–8.
Sonja M Hyrynsalmi. 2023. How Diversity and Inclusion Are Approached in Software Engineering University-level Teaching. In 2023 IEEE/ACM 4thWorkshop on Gender Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Software Engineering (GEICSE). IEEE, 17–24.
Amy J. Ko. 2021. Requirements of Oppression - Keynote. In 2021 IEEE Intl Requirements Eng. Conference. [link]
Kenton Machina and Anu Gokhale. 2015. Interventions for increasing male and female undergraduate interest in information technology. Computers & Education 87 (2015), 277–284.
Sean Mealin and Emerson Murphy-Hill. 2012. An exploratory study of blind software developers. In 2012 ieee symposium on visual languages and humancentric computing (vl/hcc). IEEE, 71–74.
Treyce Meredith. 2022. Designing for Neurodiversity. In Figma Config. [link]
Meredith Ringel Morris, Andrew Begel, and Ben Wiedermann. 2015. Understanding the challenges faced by neurodiverse software engineering employees: Towards a more inclusive and productive technical workforce. In Proceedings of the 17th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on computers & accessibility. 173–184.
Vivian Genaro Motti. 2019. Designing emerging technologies for and with neurodiverse users. In Proceedings of the 37th ACM International Conference on the Design of Communication. 1–10.
Christian Murphy, Anya Mushakevich, and Yunha Park. 2021. Incorporating readings on diversity and inclusion into a traditional software engineering course. In 2021 Conference on Research in Equitable and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology (RESPECT). IEEE, 1–5.
Reza Nadri, Gema Rodríguez-Pérez, and Meiyappan Nagappan. 2021. On the relationship between the developer’s perceptible race and ethnicity and the evaluation of contributions in oss. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering 48, 8 (2021), 2955–2968.
Mei Nagappan. 2021. CS 846: Diversity in Software Engineering. [link]. University of Waterloo.
Anton J Nederhof. 1985. Methods of coping with social desirability bias: A review. European journal of social psychology 15, 3 (1985), 263–280.
Inês Nunes, Ana Moreira, and João Araujo. 2023. Gire: Gender-inclusive requirements engineering. Data & Knowledge Engineering 143 (2023), 102108.
Débora Maria Barroso Paiva, André Pimenta Freire, and Renata Pontin de Mattos Fortes. 2021. Accessibility and software engineering processes: A systematic literature review. Journal of Systems and Software 171 (2021), 110819.
Artur Oriel Pereira. 2018. O que é lugar de fala? Leitura: Teoria e Prática 36, 72 (2018), 153–156.
Vahab Pournaghshband and Paola Medel. 2020. Promoting diversity-inclusive computer science pedagogies: A multidimensional perspective. In Proceedings of the 2020 ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education. 219–224.
Yolanda A Rankin and Kallayah K Henderson. 2021. Resisting racism in tech design: centering the experiences of black youth. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 5, CSCW1 (2021), 1–32.
Djamila Ribeiro. 2019. Lugar de fala. Pólen Produção Editorial LTDA.
Gema Rodríguez-Pérez, Reza Nadri, and Meiyappan Nagappan. 2021. Perceived diversity in software engineering: a systematic literature review. Empirical Software Engineering 26 (2021), 1–38.
Ankita Saxena. 2014.Workforce diversity: A key to improve productivity. Procedia economics and finance 11 (2014), 76–85.
Uta Schloegel, Sebastian Stegmann, Rolf Van Dick, and Alexander Maedche. 2018. Age stereotypes in distributed software development: The impact of culture on age-related performance expectations. Information and Software Technology 97 (2018), 146–162.
Stephen Secules, Cassandra McCall, Joel Alejandro Mejia, Chanel Beebe, Adam S Masters, Matilde L. Sánchez-Peña, and Martina Svyantek. 2021. Positionality practices and dimensions of impact on equity research: A collaborative inquiry and call to the community. Journal of Engineering Education 110, 1 (2021), 19–43.
Alexander Serebrenik. 2020. Gender in Open-Source Software Development - Keynote. In XXXIV Brazilian Symposium on Software Engineering. [link]
Mohammed Seyam and Mervat Abu-Elkheir. 2023. Diversity-focused Course Design for Computer Science Students: Incorporating Diversity Conference Attendance into Course Design and Delivery. In Proceedings of the 2023 Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 1. 40–46.
Lynn M Shore, Amy E Randel, Beth G Chung, Michelle A Dean, Karen Holcombe Ehrhart, and Gangaram Singh. 2011. Inclusion and diversity in work groups: A review and model for future research. Journal of management 37, 4 (2011), 1262–1289.
Selena Silva and Martin Kenney. 2019. Algorithms, platforms, and ethnic bias. Commun. ACM 62, 11 (2019), 37–39.
Karina Kohl Silveira and Rafael Prikladnicki. 2019. A systematic mapping study of diversity in software engineering: a perspective from the agile methodologies. In 2019 IEEE/ACM 12th InternationalWorkshop on Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering (CHASE). IEEE, 7–10.
Jane G Stout and Heather M Wright. 2016. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer students’ sense of belonging in computing: An intersectional approach. SBES’24, September 30 – October 04, 2024, Curitiba, PR Kiev Gama and Reydne Santos Computing in Science & Engineering 18, 3 (2016), 24–30.
Josh Terrell, AndrewKofink, Justin Middleton, Clarissa Rainear, Emerson Murphy-Hill, Chris Parnin, and Jon Stallings. 2017. Gender differences and bias in open source: Pull request acceptance of women versus men. PeerJ Computer Science 3 (2017), e111.
University of Pittsburgh. 2024. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Glossary. [link] Accessed May 23, 2024.
University of Washington, College of the Environment. 2021. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Glossary. [link] Accessed March 6, 2021.
Nicki Washington, Tiffany Barnes, Jamie Payton, Sarah Dunton, Felesia Stukes, and Alan Peterfreund. 2019. RESPECT 2019: Yes, we still need to talk about diversity in computing. Computing in Science & Engineering 21, 1 (2019), 79–83.
Adriana Wilde. 2023. Equality, diversity, and inclusion in the CS curriculum. In Proceedings of the 2023 Conference on United Kingdom & Ireland Computing Education Research. 1–1.
Alison Wylie. 2013. Why standpoint matters. In Science and other cultures. Routledge, 26–48.
Jessica Zeitz and Karen Anewalt. 2021. Creating a Repository of Diversity and Inclusion Assignments for Computer Science. In Proceedings of the 52nd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education. 1321–1321.
Publicado
30/09/2024
Como Citar
GAMA, Kiev; SANTOS, Reydne.
It’s not all about gender: A Multi-dimensional Course Perspective on Diversity and Inclusion in Software Engineering Education. In: SIMPÓSIO BRASILEIRO DE ENGENHARIA DE SOFTWARE (SBES), 38. , 2024, Curitiba/PR.
Anais [...].
Porto Alegre: Sociedade Brasileira de Computação,
2024
.
p. 487-498.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5753/sbes.2024.3531.
