The decline of coding subjects and the new alienation: investigating the role of software studies in the era of cloud, mobile, and social technologies

Abstract

In the past three decades, innovations in digital technologies have brought about extraordinary transformations in the home, classroom, and workplace. From the mid-1990s until the bursting of the dot.com bubble in the early 2000s, enrolments in the digital technologies learning area increased sharply. Since that optimistic era however, participation in the learning area has steadily declined. Concern has emerged from mainstream media, education authorities, teachers, and business organisations that the economy may be negatively impacted by low enrolments in school coding and IT subjects. Commonly cited reasons and remedies for the decline fit within a dominant education-for-work framing of the phenomenon. In this study, quantitative evidence informs an enquiry into the views and experiences of students, school leavers, and teachers involved in the learning area. This mixed method approach is designed to address the contradiction between the enrolment phenomenon and positive discourse which presents code subjects as an attractive choice for students interested in a career in the field. The investigations explore the role of powerful corporations in facilitating rich learning experiences while at the same time alienating students, not from the use of digital technology, but from its development. The study’s findings provide insight into the relationship between students and the increasingly sophisticated technologies that are changing the purpose and meaning of software development in the classroom. This study adds nuance to debate around the decline phenomenon and suggests that prevailing subject rationales include a stronger emphasis on enjoyment of learning and awareness of the challenges posed by newer digital technologies.

Date of Award	2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Western Sydney University
Supervisor	Carol Reid (Supervisor)