With a background of digitalisation and what that has meant for the introduction of programming in the mathematics syllabus, this literature review examines forms of application for programming within mathematics in upper secondary school. This review also sets the background with the help of important key competencies for a digitalized information society, such as computational thinking, as described by the European Commission. The Swedish National Agency for Education has also prescribed several of these key competencies in its curricula. Previous research has also shown that increased digitalisation leads to an increased divide in society and threatens the equality of the school system. Thus, this review also examines possible risks of digital exclusion that applications of programming within mathematics and an emphasis on digitalisation may entail. To better explain this, Bourdieu’s theory of capital and habitus together with Selwyn’s theory of technical capital are used. The search results and their empirical data within this review include case studies, correlation and regression analyses, and data collected through interviews, questionnaires, and more. This review should not be considered generalizable for Sweden as a whole, but it shows several forms of application for programming within school mathematics and describes the impact on learning, risks of digital exclusion, success factors, and benefits this may entail. Furthermore, aspects of digital exclusion explicitly regarding capital are also discussed. This review is far from exhaustive, and several identified aspects have had to be excluded due to an ever-increasing scope. However, this only seems to indicate that interest for and within the research field is high and that it is actively being researched. This review highlights what much other research has shown, namely that the picture is not unambiguous and needs to be further clarified, which leads the discussion to further research. This review proposes a qualitative study to empirically examine students’ experiences of possible digital exclusion with an explicit connection to the application of programming within mathematics.

In today’s educational landscape, digitalization, driven by economic interests, has become increasingly prominent. This development has sparked interest in understanding how high school students’ technical capital and mathematical self-efficacy influence their outcomes. To deepen the understanding of this interplay, this study integrates Selwyn’s Bourdieusian capital theory on technical capital with Bandura’s theories on mathematical self-efficacy. Empirical data were collected through a survey administered to 208 high school students across three schools in Sweden, ensuring anonymity and integrity. Linear regression was employed, controlling for gender, academic program, socioeconomic factors, and completed coursework. The results demonstrate that technical capital significantly predicts mathematical self-efficacy, with a predictive capacity of up to 59.6%. Moreover, tolerance for deviation in the model increased the predictive capacity to 94.2%. No significant differences in predictability were observed based on gender or academic program dependencies. However, gender differences revealed a more linear relationship between technical capital and digital/technical competence among women compared to men. Additionally, both genders displayed equivalent performance in knowledge-based questions. This suggests that men tend to overestimate their digital competence relative to their technical self-efficacy, while women do not exhibit the same tendency toward overconfidence. In conclusion, this study offers insights into how technical capital and self-efficacy in mathematics shape students’ educational outcomes.