Towards a pattern language for increasing gender diversity in computer science education

Abstract

There are many different reasons why few women participate in CS, such as geek culture, gender stereotypes, lack of female role models, or lack of support for females when choosing a CS career. There are also initiatives which successfully addressed these reasons, leading to a more diverse student population in CS education. In earlier work we identified important aspects of these initiatives and described them as educational design patterns. In this paper we connect these diverse patterns and make the beginning of a pattern language.