Production of digital knowledge in the educational field of the IPN from a gender perspective

Abstract

In the historical path of technology the role of its producers has taken hierarchical levels, the androgenic production has privileged certain ways to create and produce the technological knowledge that hides the richness of the other possible forms to address it. Objective. In this study the objective was to identify the way in which the young female students of the IPN produce knowledge from the digital realm, having in consideration that the digital realm is a sphere of technoscientific production articulated with the intention of legitimate a specific form of scientific production: the androcentric one. Methodology. Ten young female students between the ages of 20 and 24 were interviewed, all of them are part of the Escuela Superior de Sistemas Computacionales del Instituto Politécnico Nacional, México City, (Computer Systems Engineering). Throughout the narration of their experiences during their academic life, six categories of analysis were created: a) Experience during High-school, b) Transition from Highs-school to University, c) The link with their instructors, d) School environment and relationship with peers, e) Epistemic violence and f) Harassment. Results. It was identified that the young females have endured a high level of epistemic violence in their academic formation since High-school, a violence that perdures even in the higher levels of education, one of the main indicators of this is the scarce number of female students pursuing these types of careers, in addition to the depictions of abuse that such females recount. Moreover, there are reports of a difference in the teaching approach from their instructors and a significant emotional distance in the relationship between peers. Conclusions. It is a necessity to eradicate violence towards women in the digital realm, as well as to procure other forms of knowledge production that comes from the sensoriality, from the creativity, from the empathy towards the situated social necessities and to a pertinent time to the academic formation.