Counter-Life Herstories : Department of Organization, Workforce, and Leadership Studies (OWLS) : Texas State University

The Counter-Life Herstories is one component of a larger National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER grant. The purpose of this five-year, longitudinal, mixed-methods investigation is to examine the effects of community cultural wealth (CCW) on the persistence of Black and Hispanic women in the computing workforce pipeline (grades 8-17) as they matriculate from middle school into high school, into a bachelor’s degree program, and into graduate school (i.e., master’s or Ph.D. degree) or the Computing workforce illuminating Black and Hispanic women’s successful computing pathways, and amplifying their counter-life herstories.

History

Counterstories give voice to marginalized people groups to counter the majoritarian perspective about their experiences (Closson, 2010), life histories are individuals’ retrospective accounts about their life stories (Watson & Watson-Franke, 1985), and herstories represent “the rewriting or respeaking of history” from a woman’s perspective (Mills, 1992). Counter-Life Herstories offer a powerful approach to reveal hidden truths about Black and Hispanic women’s computing educational trajectories and to provide a holistic view of their educational experiences in the broader socio-political context of U.S. computing education (Ashford-Hanserd, 2020a; Ashford, 2016; Cole & Knowles, 2001).

Objectives

This project will:

Contribute to fundamental research in STEM education
Build a knowledge base on the influence of community cultural wealth on persistence in computing education and the workforce in the United States
Create a robust compilation of quantitative and qualitative data that can be used to study educational and career trajectories for women in computing.
Build capacity for K-16 educators, researchers, policymakers, and industry leaders through the creation of products, professional development workshops, and an annual conference.

Get Involved

The annual Counter-Life Herstories Conference shares women of color’s narratives in a live, TEDx-style format with girls of color in grades 5-12 in Central Texas.
The purpose of this conference is to build an interdisciplinary team of education researchers, policymakers, and high-tech leaders in Central Texas to explore opportunities to investigate women’s diverse experiences in the STEM+Computing workforce in Central Texas.