TechMate: Translating Gender Equality Research into Actionable Practice for Computing Educators

Abstract

The persistent underrepresentation of women in computing higher education remains a global challenge, with women comprising less than 20% of ICT specialists across the EU. While substantial research has identified effective interventions to support underrepresented groups, this evidence remains fragmented across academic publications, grey literature, and institutional reports. Educators seeking to implement gender-inclusive practices face significant barriers in identifying relevant initiatives, understanding implementation requirements, and accessing practical guidance suitable for their institutional contexts. This work presents TechMate, a fully operational (https://ascnet.ie/techmate/) web-based, open-access toolkit designed to bridge the gap between research evidence and practical implementation. The toolkit consolidates over 25 research-driven gender equality initiatives organised across four evidence-based strands: Policy, Pedagogy, Influence & Support, and Promotion & Engagement. Each initiative is presented as a discrete action with comprehensive implementation guidance, including research-driven supporting facts (Quick Facts section), step-by-step implementation approaches, institutional case studies, evaluation recommendations, and ready-to-use resources. The toolkit provides multiple pathways for educators to discover relevant initiatives: manual navigation through actions, or dynamic search and filter functionality tailored to institutional roles and resource availability. Individual action pages aim to guide users though the initial exploration, implementation planning and evaluation design. Actions range from in-class interventions (such as personalised feedback and intelligent class management) to strategic policy-level changes (including curriculum redesign and recruitment strategies). TechMate is designed for computing academics, programme leaders, and institutional diversity champions seeking evidence-informed guidance to improve recruitment and retention of women and other underrepresented gender groups in computing-related study programmes. The toolkit has undergone an evaluation with computing educators across multiple universities, demonstrating strong perceived usefulness and usability. The paper outlines the development of TechMate from prototype to current version and discusses toolkit’s evaluation outcomes.