A Critical Discourse Analysis of Gender Representation in Software Engineering Education Videos on YouTube

2026-06-16

AI Summary

This study uncovers systemic gender bias in software engineering educational videos on YouTube and its potential impact on learners’ sense of belonging. Through critical discourse analysis of 200 English- and German-language instructional videos, complemented by manual coding of contextual domains and linguistic identity markers, the research identifies for the first time an “agency gap”: men are consistently positioned in technically authoritative and decision-making roles, whereas women are marginalized or assigned passive identities. The findings reveal a pervasive defaulting to male norms and masculinized linguistic conventions, which may reproduce gender inequality through symbolic barriers and impede gender diversity in the field. These results offer empirical evidence and theoretical insights to inform the inclusive design of online educational resources.

Abstract

Educational resources may frame students' perceptions of who belongs in software engineering, which is relevant given the field's ongoing gender gap. However, we know little about the hidden curriculum regarding gender in online learning spaces. This study presents a critical discourse analysis of 200 manually analysed English and German software engineering tutorials on YouTube, examining gender representation through contextual domains and linguistic identity markers. Our results show that male characters and masculine linguistic defaults dominate the tutorials. We identified an agency gap, in which technical and decision-making roles are almost exclusively assigned to male actors, while female actors are either absent or tend to passive, low-agency roles. The findings indicate that software engineering education on YouTube may reproduce gendered norms, in which linguistic and representational gatekeeping may serve as a symbolic barrier to software engineering.

Problem

• gender representation
• software engineering education
• YouTube tutorials
• hidden curriculum
• symbolic barrier

Innovation

• critical discourse analysis
• gender representation
• agency gap
• hidden curriculum
• software engineering education