Research in Practice Project Activity (RIPPA): Capital in Computing Education in the United Kingdom and Ireland

Despite research and policy efforts to broaden participation, computing education in the United Kingdom and Ireland is still characterised by low levels of participation and diversity among its student population. Recent research suggests that capital plays a significant role in student participation, referring to the legitimate, valuable and exchangeable resources which can be used to generate social advantage within specific fields. This Research in Practice Project Activity (RIPPA) will investigate a survey developed to measure forms of capital which enable students to participate in computing-related fields, and succeed in it. The survey will be distributed by RIPPA participants among universities all over the United Kingdom and Ireland. Using Confirmatory Factor Analysis, the hypothesised survey structure will be assessed in terms of model fit to the observed data, and adjusted to achieve a survey with high internal consistency among the items and factors. With the proposed model, group differences will be investigated using the Mann-Whitney U test. In addition, thematic analysis of open-ended questions will further reveal the motivation of why students engage with computing education. Ultimately, the goal of this collaborative research effort is to broaden participation in computing education in the United Kingdom and Ireland, by developing an understanding of the factors underlying student participation, and how this relates to various forms of capital that students have access to.