Connecting Data Literacy and Power: Exploring Secondary Mathematics Teachers’ Understandings of Data Literacy

• In Event: Data Literacy and Technology in Mathematics Education

Abstract

This paper explores the significance of data literacy and its implications for mathematics education. The growing ubiquity of data offers opportunities for meaningful engagement with mathematics, leading to calls for updating mathematics curricula to support data literacy across education contexts. Data literacy encompasses essential skills to access, interpret, critique, and ethically use data, and it is tied to democratic participation and economic success in Big Data careers. However, introducing data into mathematics classrooms introduces complexity with inherent social, historical, and political dimensions. This study aims to understand teachers' conceptualizations of data literacy, focusing on critical awareness and examining power dynamics within data. The findings can inform teacher learning and larger scale implementations of data literacy.

Author

• Elizabeth Metts, Vanderbilt University