What is the Problem with Girls in Technology?

A WPR Analysis of Intervention Research

Abstract

Efforts to increase girls’ engagement in technology and STEM are widespread, yet the “problem” these interventions address is often taken for granted. This scoping review examines how out-of-school technology and STEM interventions represent this problem and how these representations shape assumptions, subject positions, and intervention logics. Twenty publications identified through ERIC were analysed using Bacchi’s “What’s the Problem Represented to be?” (WPR) framework. The analysis identifies five recurring problem representations. By making these problem representations explicit, the study shows how different framings are associated with distinct assumptions and distributions of responsibility, directing attention either towards engagement conditions and institutional practices or towards individual learners. The study contributes to research on technology education and gender equity by showing how interventions not only respond to, but also actively construct, the problems they seek to address, thereby shaping what becomes visible and which equity strategies are pursued.