Dissertation Defense Announcement Ed.D. Program: Ildiko Koczan “Gender Minority Experiences in ITI: A Qualitative Study of Navigating Tech Identity Development”

IT (Information Technology) professionals are critical assets in the current US knowledge-based technological economy (Eisenhart et al., 2015) as they play an important role in creating technology that is consequential across multiple dimensions of the human experience (Rodriguez & Lehman, 2018). Creating technology that can serve our diverse society equitably requires diverse groups of people in making that technology (Lunn et al., 2021). However, the low representation of gender minority IT students is a persistent problem in the information technology fields (Lunn et al., 2021; Rodriguez& Lehman, 2018; Varma, 2010). Research correlates tech identity development with successful career transitioning and persistence in a technology discipline (Carlone & Johnson, 2007; Mahadeo et al, 2020; Rodriguez & Lehman, 2018), yet professional identity development remains a critical area to be addressed for gender minority students, especially gender minority students of color (Rutledge & Gnika, 2022).

This qualitative study sought to understand the lived experiences of 14 gender minority ITI students at the School of Communication and Information (SC&I) at a large research institution, examining how these experiences influenced their tech identity development. The data sources consisted of in-depth individual interviews that contained an embedded artifact analysis with all participants, and an in-person open structured talking circle with 7 participants.

The study results revealed five major findings. First, the ITI major was an appealing alternative to CS that was accessible, meaningful, and met parental expectations. Second, four major factors facilitated participants’ tech identity development: 1) tech interest, 2) tech competence, 3) sense of belonging, and 4) career self-efficacy. Third, gender minority students’ tech identity development was negatively impacted by low career confidence and the absence of e-portfolios that connected academic and experiential learning to careers. Fourth, participants’ strategies for coping with social and personal barriers, including gendered bias, socio-economic adversities, and mental health stressors, further mediated their tech identity development. Fifth, the facilitating and constraining factors combined contributed to three distinct tech identity levels: high, moderate, and low, reflecting an individual balance between facilitating and constraining factors.

This study contributes to the existing body of research on gender minority students’ experiences in tech programs, offering new insights into how gender minority ITI students navigate their tech identity development and critical practices to support their journey. The findings have implications for program and advising practice, curriculum, and policy improvement to better facilitate gender minority students’ transition to tech careers.