The Challenges of Engaging Middle School Youth in Critical Data Literacy (Poster 7)

• In Event: Exploring Critical Data Literacy in K–12 Social Studies

Abstract

As our world becomes ever more saturated with data, educational researchers and educators are increasingly concerned with the need for students to not only learn about data, but to become critically data literate. While discussions about data literacy (e.g., Rubin, 2020) and critical approaches to data (e.g., Freire, 1970/2012) are not new, they are taking on increasing urgency. By critical data literacy, we refer to not only awareness of the ways in which data are deployed to support unequal power structures and the ethics of data collection and use, but also the ability of individuals and communities to “act in ways that achieve more just outcomes for themselves and society” (Louie, 2022b, p.2). Yet, while many scholars and educators agree about the importance of fostering critical data literacy in K-12 settings, doing so can be challenging (Stornaiuolo, 2020).
Social studies is full of data visualizations like maps and bar graphs, but often students struggle to interpret these visualizations because they don’t fully understand the socio-political context surrounding the visualization (Shreiner & Guzdial, 2022). While many approaches to critical data literacy begin with students collecting data about themselves (Rubel et al., 2016), we report on the findings of a project that begins with seventh grade students visualizing historical data about land loss. Using student-created data visualizations, we engaged seventh graders at a project-based learning charter school located in the Intermountain West in six, 45-minute lessons about the loss of lands belonging to the Blackfeet Tribe of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation of Montana through treaties with the U.S. government. 41 students consented to be part of the research, the majority of whom were white and none of whom were Indigenous.
Drawing on analysis of audio-recordings of classroom sessions, student-produced artifacts, audio-recorded interviews, and field notes, we identified three challenges to engaging students in critical data visualizations. First, while we engaged students in thinking about their own personal data and historical data, students struggled to see how the historical data from a state different than their own and a population that none of them were members of connected to their own lives. Second, while students created concrete visualizations of historical data about the loss of tribal lands over time, connecting the visualization to the story it was telling was challenging for students. Third, while we provided a number of scaffolds to help students critically navigate the story of the data visualizations they created, students found the scaffolds more frustrating than helpful and often did not want to read the text found on the scaffolds we designed. In our poster, we elaborate on these challenges and discuss possible solutions. Because several researchers (Enyedy et al. 2011; Kafai, Searle, Martinez, & Brayboy, 2014; Stornaiuolo, 2020) report on the challenges of engaging students in making connections to larger socio-political contexts, we view exploration of the challenges we faced in engaging seventh grade students in critical data literacy as a valuable contribution to the field.

Authors

• Kristin A. Searle, Utah State University

• Mengying Jiang, Utah State University

• Colby Tofel-Grehl, Teachers College, Columbia University