ABSTRACT

The past five or so years have been marked by a proliferation of educational initiatives, programmes, and toys designed to introduce children to coding and to develop their skills and interest in computer science. This article takes a critical approach to this movement, focusing specifically on ways dominant discourse surrounding the coding movement constructs children, girls, and coding and puts pressure on parents to assist their children in becoming valuable to neoliberal economies. The first part of the article reviews research concerning children and coding, the STEM skills gap, and gender divides in computer science. This part concludes with a discussion of neoliberal ideologies which frame these areas of debate. The second part analyzes 71 news articles published in a six-month period in 2018 that report on coding initiatives and related toys, including Robotics Engineer Barbie™. This part of the article reveals ways these coding initiatives are framed as being essential to the future labour market, as solutions to gender parities in Computer Science fields, and as a way to create confident girls for the future workforce. The article concludes with connections to neoliberal ideologies which frame the role of parenting in the age of digital technologies.

摘要

在过去的五年左右的时间里，教育计划，程序和玩具的数量激增，旨在向儿童介绍编码并发展他们对计算机科学的技能和兴趣。本文对这一运动采取了一种批判性的方法，特别关注围绕编码运动的主流话语构造儿童，女孩和编码的方式，并向父母施加压力，要求其子女帮助其对新自由主义经济产生价值。本文的第一部分回顾了有关计算机科学中的儿童和编码，STEM技能差距以及性别鸿沟的研究。本部分以讨论这些领域的新自由主义意识形态作为结尾。第二部分分析了2018年六个月内发布的71条新闻报道，这些报道报道了编码计划和相关玩具，包括机器人工程师Barbie™。本文的这一部分揭示了这些编码计划对未来劳动力市场至关重要，如何在计算机科学领域实现性别均等的解决方案以及为未来的劳动力创造自信的女孩的方式。本文以与新自由主义意识形态的联系作为结尾，这些思想体系构筑了数字技术时代育儿的角色。