Learning at the Intersection of Data Literacy and Social Justice

• Published in: Educational technology & society Vol. 25; no. 4; pp. 70 - 79
• Main Authors: Simon Knight, Camillia Matuk, Kayla DesPortes
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: International Forum of Educational Technology & Society 01-10-2022
• Subjects: civics education; data justice; equity; mathematics education; numeracy
• ISSN: 1176-3647; 1436-4522

With growing awareness of, and attention to, the potential of data to inform decisions across contexts, has come an increasing recognition and need to develop data literacy strategies that support people to learn to be critical of data, given this consequential nature of data use (and abuse). To achieve a just society, inequities in both capacity for data literacy, and the applications of data in society, must be addressed. A key aim is to create learning experiences that engage learners with issues of power and inequity, including those typically marginalized by data literacy education. In this way, data literacy and social justice learning goals are intertwined, and mutually supportive, in developing data literacy in learning about, through, and for social justice. This special issue assembles five empirical studies on learning at the intersection of data literacy and social justice, and that illustrate various approaches to intertwining data science and social justice learning goals. They moreover highlight the importance of the learning sciences as a perspective for understanding how people learn in specific contexts of data justice. This essay reflects on themes raised by these contributions, and offers a framework for conceptualizing the intersections between the learning of data literacy and justice. In particular, we draw on existing distinctions between “reading” and “writing the world,” and propose a mapping of data literacy justice activities from data comprehension to participation, and from thin to thick justice.