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Same Structures, Different Settings: Exploring Computing Capital and Participation across Cultural Contexts

Year: 2025

Type: conference-paper

Abstract: The number of people choosing to study computing in higher education remains low. Previous research has developed a research instrument to identify factors underlying student participation grounded in Bourdieu’s sociocultural theory. This study replicates and extends the original study, which identified key social, cultural, and psychological factors linked to computing education participation in Sweden. Using the validated research instrument, we distributed a survey across 11 UK universities, gathering responses from 131 students. Through Confirmatory Factor Analysis, we assessed the robustness of the original study’s constructs — career interest, subject-specific interest, influence from family and friends, confidence, and sense of belonging — and their relationship to subject choice in computing. After model refinements, the replication confirmed and validated the factor structure, supporting the stability of these constructs and their relationship to computing subject choice across cultural contexts. In addition, the current study adds additional open-ended questions to the research instrument to help explain the quantitative results. A thematic analysis further explains the correlation between previous experience, social influence, confidence, and gender, and how that relates to participation in the field. By replicating and extending the original study’s methodology, this research evaluates the reliability and generalisability of its conclusions, contributing to the evidence base needed to design interventions that broaden participation in computing education.

Source: Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research

DOI: 10.1145/3769994.3770041

Authors: Thom Kunkeler, Matthew Barr, Maria Kallia, Oana Andrei, Xiaohan Li, Andrew Muncey, Aletta Nylén, Megan Venn-Wycherley

Institutions: Uppsala University, University of Glasgow, University of Southampton, University of Chester, Swansea University

Language: English

Topic: Career Development and Diversity

Subfield: Safety Research

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Quality education

Open Access status: hybrid

OpenAlex ID: W4415965942

FWCI:

Cites: 25

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