Women learning programming from women:

Abstract

Purpose: The general aim of this research is to understand how women learn to program through collective initiatives. This is examined through participants' engagement in a programming workshop organised by Pink Programming in the Gothenburg Region. Theory: “Situated learning theory” by Lave and Wenger was chosen as the basis for this study. Method: The study can be described as a qualitative study where observation and semi-structured interviews were used to produce the findings. Both the observation sessions and semi-structured interviews were recorded and transcribed and thereafter the gathered data was examined through thematic analysis. Results: The findings reveal that despite being underrepresented in the IT field, women still choose Pink Programming, an informal learning platform to learn computer programming in a collaborative manner together with other women in order to develop some basic programming knowledge for their future careers or career advancement. Most participants also had positive feedback on learning programming through Pink Programming. However, it should be taken into consideration that the results also indicate that learning computer programming collaboratively and in a single workshop were not be suitable and sufficient for all interviewed participants.