Advancing Inclusivity in Cybersecurity Education: Integrating Intersectionality to Enhance Student Engagement in Australian Higher Education Curriculums Strategies, Barriers, and Future Directions

Research identifies that Australian women, gender-diverse individuals, and culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities are disproportionately susceptible to cybercrimes such as phishing due to factors including language barriers, limited educational access, and social isolation. These groups also face significant barriers to entering and advancing within the cybersecurity field. Current higher education cybersecurity curricula in Australia predominantly focus on technical proficiency, neglecting the crucial role of intersectionality and user-centered approaches in enhancing student engagement and learning outcomes.

Why it matters

This analysis highlights critical gaps in cybersecurity education and outreach, indicating that current approaches may not adequately protect vulnerable populations or foster a diverse cybersecurity workforce. Addressing these issues is vital for national security, economic resilience, and social equity, requiring strategic adjustments to educational policy and practice to enhance both societal protection and talent pipeline diversity.

Key insights

• Australian women, gender-diverse individuals, and CALD communities exhibit higher susceptibility to cybercrimes due to specific vulnerabilities.
• Contributing factors to this vulnerability include language barriers, restricted access to cybersecurity education, and social isolation.
• These demographic groups encounter substantial obstacles in both entering and progressing within the cybersecurity profession.
• Australian higher education cybersecurity curricula are largely uniform, emphasizing technical skills over inclusive or user-centered perspectives.
• The current curriculum design overlooks the importance of intersectionality in boosting student engagement and learning.
• A lack of gender inclusivity and consideration of intersectionality is a significant oversight in existing educational frameworks.

Source

arXiv — Computers and Society — https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.17758