Teachers Supporting Teachers Series 8 Episode 4: Future You...evaluation to inform change & innovation

Welcome to this episode in series 8 where we are talking all things career education, STEM, and women in partnership with Australian Government’s Women in STEM Ambassador and the program coordinator for Future You Becky Lawrence. In this episode we spice up evaluation. It's critical for development of programs and continuous improvement, and of course is a close friend with reflective practice. Becky shares the findings from our market research about the first lot of resources developed, and how those findings will be used to inform changes to the program.

What to know more about Future You?

Future You is a national, digital awareness raising initiative led by the Australian Government’s Women in STEM Ambassador and funded through the Women in STEM National Awareness Raising Initiative as part of the Australian Government’s Advancing Women in STEM strategy. 

The initiative aims to increase the participation of girls in STEM by raising awareness of the range of exciting STEM-skilled career opportunities available, raising the visibility of girls and women in STEM study and careers and challenging stereotypes.  

The Future You pilot campaign ran from October-December 2020 and our evaluation of the pilot included recommendations for the next phase of the program. The aim of the pilot campaign was to raise awareness of the diverse range of STEM careers, increase visibility of girls and women in STEM education and professions and address public perception of what a career in STEM involves by reducing stereotypes and gender bias. Future You is aimed at children aged 8-12 and their parents and carers. 

The Future You pilot reached 2.3 million children, parents and carers. The campaign had high awareness among children and parents and carers and the campaign creative was well-liked across genders and age groups, with a male skew in awareness among adults. 

Children who saw the campaign reported a lift in interest in STEM jobs and subjects, with ‘strong interest’ in STEM jobs and subjects increasing three-fold among girls.​ The campaign raised parents’ opinion of the importance of STEM skills for their child’s future, particularly among women. There were small shifts in perception regarding STEM jobs as being ‘for women’ or men/women equally among children surveyed following interaction with the campaign.

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You may also like access to:

Explore and Create Co www.exploreandcreateco.com

Women in STEM Ambassador’s website https://womeninstem.org.au/ 

Future You https://futureyouaustralia.com/

Examples of STEM Equity Program Evaluations https://napequity.org/stem/stem-equity-project/imstem/stem-equity-program-evaluation-rubric/

National Evaluation Guide https://womeninstem.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Report-Eval-Guide-August2020.pdf

My Shadow is Pink by Scott Stuart I Read aloud I Books about gender stereotypes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53ipg9ImrPU