Making sense of Gender and ICTs in Education: Exploring theoretical explanations for complex findings

Brown, Cheryl; Czerniewicz, Laura

Making sense of Gender and ICTs in Education: Exploring theoretical explanations for complex findings

Conference Paper

2017-07-05

Publisher

ICEL

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Series

4th International Conference on e-Learning

Abstract

This paper examines findings from two surveys of 10110 university students conducted in South Africa in 2004 and 2007, and explores a theoretical lens for taking the work further. We report on the differences between male and females students' access to and use of ICTs for learning. In particular we note that whilst equal opportunities do largely exist for both genders, there are subtle differences in terms of female students' practical access and sense of personal agency. Findings about use are complicated with male students using ICTs more frequently particularly in the sciences disciplines and for activities such as information seeking and communication (in contrast to research elsewhere). In order to try and better understand our findings and to better focus the qualitative phase of the research currently being undertaken as a result of the findings reported on in this paper, we explore four different theoretical perspectives: Bourdieu's notion of habitus; Feminist Standpoint Theory; Critical Information Systems Theory; and Expectations States Theory. We then suggest using Bourdieu's notion of habitus as our theoretical focus as we believe it offers us the most flexibility whilst enabling a gender focus to be maintained.