How Activities Related to Maker Education Contribute to Overcome Entry Barriers for Girls into Formal Technical Education Pathways - Case Study of Holiday Camps at a Technical Secondary Vocational School in Austria

Abstract

This research considers the suitability of holiday camps as possible entry routes into technical education pathways. Therefore, two very successful holiday camps at a technical secondary vocational school (HTL) in Austria were observed. Using a mixed method research approach, a gender-mixed camp for 13-year-olds with a technical theme is compared to an all-girls event for 8- to 12-year-olds focusing on creativity. We show the recruitment success of given events, but also consider potential biasing factors in the evaluation. A discussion of the most successful activity specifically designed for girls during the camp, creating luminous jewelry, is provided, and an analysis of the stakeholders´ perception reveals the importance of adapted wording in promoting technical activities for girls, as well as the need for the actions and artifacts produced to be meaningful in order to spark participants' interest in the tools used and, beyond that, into formal technical education pathways.

Full text

How Activities Related to Maker Education
Contribute to Overcome Entry Barriers for Girls
into Formal Technical Education Pathways
Case Study of Holiday Camps at a
Technical Secondary Vocational School in Austria
Nanna Nora Sagbauer, Michael Pollak, Martin Ebner
edMedia Conference June 2022

Research Questions
edMedia, June 2022 - Nanna Nora Sagbauer, Michael Pollak, Martin Ebner
Q1
Can holiday camps be utilized as recruiting instruments for formal
technical education pathways?
Q2
Are activities related to maker education specifically designed for girls
effective recruitment tools for formal technical education?
Q3
How do the involved stakeholders perceive activities related to maker
education just for girls?

Girls in formal technical education in Austria
•Traditionally male-dominated field
in the Austrian educational
system
•Only a quarter of the students of
technical or vocational secondary
schools (Höhere Technische
Lehranstalten - HTL) in Austria is
female
Number of school-leaving certificates or diplomas from technical and vocational
secondary schools in Austria (year 2000 to 2020); Data Source: (Statistik Austria)
edMedia, June 2022 - Nanna Nora Sagbauer, Michael Pollak, Martin Ebner

Research Design
Mixed method research approach
Accompaniment of a school
Statistical data
Questionnaires
Structured interviews
edMedia, June 2022 - Nanna Nora Sagbauer, Michael Pollak, Martin Ebner

HTL Hollabrunn
•Small town in Lower Austria
•Higher Federal Technical College (Höhere Technische Lehranstalt)
•~1200 students in year 9 to 13 (female students < 10%)
•~140 teachers
edMedia, June 2022 - Nanna Nora Sagbauer, Michael Pollak, Martin Ebner

Summer@HTL
•Yearly summer camp
•Participants in grade level eight
•Introduction to departments
•Electronics and technical computer science
•Information technology
•Electrical engineering
•Mechanical engineering
•Mechatronics
•Industrial engineering
•Food technology
edMedia, June 2022 - Nanna Nora Sagbauer, Michael Pollak, Martin Ebner

Summer@HTL
•Groups of eight participants are each assigned a peer
•Three workshops a day accompanied by sports
•Workshops focus on topics assigned to school´s
departments
•86 boys and 10 girls in the camp in 2021
•Positive feedback from participants and parents
•High recruitment success for the HTL Hollabrunn as the
chosen upper secondary school
•Other possible influence factors
•Choice of school might be made in advance of camps
•Only the field of study (school´s department) needs to be
clarified
Participants and recruiting success of “Summer@HTL”
2021 for HTL Hollabrunn (this school)
edMedia, June 2022 - Nanna Nora Sagbauer, Michael Pollak, Martin Ebner

Kinder@HTL
•Focus on creativity
•Extended school makerspace
•Autumn holiday camp
•Age 8 to 12
•Only for Girls in 2021
•34 participants
•7 female peers
•3 female HTL teachers
edMedia, June 2022 - Nanna Nora Sagbauer, Michael Pollak, Martin Ebner

Kinder@HTL
•Free to choose creative
activities
•Introduction to technical tools
and production processes
•Daily guided programming
workshop
edMedia, June 2022 - Nanna Nora Sagbauer, Michael Pollak, Martin Ebner

HTL as a suitable school for “Kinder@HTL” 2021 participants – Parents´ opinion
on a 4-point Likert scale
edMedia, June 2022 - Nanna Nora Sagbauer, Michael Pollak, Martin Ebner

Parents´opinion
edMedia, June 2022 - Nanna Nora Sagbauer, Michael Pollak, Martin Ebner

Creating luminous
jewelry
•Most successful activity
•Soldered LEDs with a coin cell as an earring
or necklace pendant
•73% of the participants didn´t know a
soldering iron
•Over 90% of the parents claimed their
daughters were enthusiastic about
soldering luminous jewelry
•> 500 LEDs and 70 button cells
edMedia, June 2022 - Nanna Nora Sagbauer, Michael Pollak, Martin Ebner

Girls´ intention to attend an open day at HTL –Participants´ opinion of “Kinder@HTL” 2021on a 5-point Likert scale
edMedia, June 2022 - Nanna Nora Sagbauer, Michael Pollak, Martin Ebner

Girls´ rating on a 5-
point Likert scale
•“Soldering iron” showed the highest
pre- to post-camp increase with 1.5
points from 3.1 up to 4.6
•“HTL”: highest score with 4.7 out of 5
•All female “Kinder@HTL”: 4.84 out of
5 points
•“Kinder@HTL” autumn camp as a
whole: exceptional 4.9 points
edMedia, June 2022 - Nanna Nora Sagbauer, Michael Pollak, Martin Ebner

edMedia, June 2022 - Nanna Nora Sagbauer, Michael Pollak, Martin Ebner
Conclusion
Q1
Holiday camps can be utilized as recruiting instruments for formal
technical education pathways
Q2
Activities related to maker education specifically designed for girls
present a feasible strategy to increase the number of females in
formal technical education
Q3
Stakeholders identified the wording of the descriptions and the
meaningfulness of the activities or artifacts as crucial for the girls´
involvement