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Towards a theoretical framework for understanding the motivations of female South African university students to study Information Technology
Thesis (PhD (Information Technology))--University of Pretoria, 2020.
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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University of Pretoria
2021
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| _version_ | 1867613481736339457 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author2 | De Villiers, Carina |
| author_browse | De Villiers, Carina |
| author_facet | De Villiers, Carina |
| collection | Thesis |
| dc_rights_str_mv | © 2019 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. |
| description | Thesis (PhD (Information Technology))--University of Pretoria, 2020. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/78807 |
| institution | University of Pretoria (South Africa) |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:36:50.456Z |
| license_str | Other — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publishDateRange | 2021 |
| publishDateSort | 2021 |
| publisher | University of Pretoria |
| publisherStr | University of Pretoria |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository |
| spelling | oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/78807 Towards a theoretical framework for understanding the motivations of female South African university students to study Information Technology De Villiers, Carina nita.mennega@up.ac.za Mennega, Rosa Angenita UCTD Information Technology Women in Information Technology Student Motivation Gender Diversity STEM Gender Gap Engineering, built environment and information technology theses SDG-04 Engineering, built environment and information technology theses SDG-05 Engineering, built environment and information technology theses SDG-08 Thesis (PhD (Information Technology))--University of Pretoria, 2020. The considerable growth of the global information technology (IT) sector demands a supply of suitable qualified workers. While universities are an important source of IT graduates, the number needs to be increased, especially those of women and underrepresented minorities. This study investigates the factors that influence the decision of female South African university students to study Information Technology. An explanatory sequential mixed methods approach is followed. It consists of three phases of data collection: a quantitative phase consisting of two surveys (n=1518 and n=3289), a qualitative phase consisting of interviews (n=21) and another quantitative phase consisting of an open-ended questionnaire (n=253). Data collection across all phases is supported by a framework based on the Individual Differences Theory of Gender and IT. We found that female students from the African, Coloured and Asian population groups were twice as likely to choose an IT-related degree than female students from the White population group. This was possible due to the unique interaction of various relevant constructs from the framework. Students of lower socio-economic status availed themselves of government-sponsored bursaries and pursued IT studies fuelled by the opportunities in the IT industry. Tertiary institutions that offered introductory IT courses presented this opportunity to students who have no IT background. Strong female role-models destroyed any prejudices toward women in the IT workplace. IT majors were carefully chosen to exclude the overtly technical degrees such as Computer Science and Computer Engineering and favoured IT qualifications such as Informatics and Publishing. Using Pierre Bourdieu’s social theory as a lens to interpret the results, this study concludes that Bourdieu’s argument regarding the perpetuation of social status via education does not hold in the case of information technology studies. In the IT field, students are assessed on merit and not on cultural habitus. A qualification in IT is attainable by any interested and suitably talented individual, irrespective of race, gender or socio-economic status. Implications for practice are that IT studies need to be promoted as attainable and promising excellent career prospects. es2026 Informatics PhD (Information Technology) Unrestricted SDG-04: Quality education SDG-05: Gender equality SDG-09: Industry, innovation and infrastructure 2021-02-23T10:45:43Z 2021-02-23T10:45:43Z 2021-04 2020 Thesis Mennega, RA 2021, Towards a theoretical framework for understanding the motivations of female South African university students to study Information Technology, PhD thesis, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd http://hdl.handle.net/2263/78807 A2021 http://hdl.handle.net/2263/78807 en © 2019 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. application/pdf University of Pretoria |
| spellingShingle | UCTD Information Technology Women in Information Technology Student Motivation Gender Diversity STEM Gender Gap Engineering, built environment and information technology theses SDG-04 Engineering, built environment and information technology theses SDG-05 Engineering, built environment and information technology theses SDG-08 Towards a theoretical framework for understanding the motivations of female South African university students to study Information Technology |
| title | Towards a theoretical framework for understanding the motivations of female South African university students to study Information Technology |
| title_full | Towards a theoretical framework for understanding the motivations of female South African university students to study Information Technology |
| title_fullStr | Towards a theoretical framework for understanding the motivations of female South African university students to study Information Technology |
| title_full_unstemmed | Towards a theoretical framework for understanding the motivations of female South African university students to study Information Technology |
| title_short | Towards a theoretical framework for understanding the motivations of female South African university students to study Information Technology |
| title_sort | towards a theoretical framework for understanding the motivations of female south african university students to study information technology |
| topic | UCTD Information Technology Women in Information Technology Student Motivation Gender Diversity STEM Gender Gap Engineering, built environment and information technology theses SDG-04 Engineering, built environment and information technology theses SDG-05 Engineering, built environment and information technology theses SDG-08 |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/2263/78807 |