Youth Responding to Food Access Data Investigations Through Community Service Action Plans

• In Event: Beyond the Numbers: Youth Interpreting and Acting on Data for Social Change

Abstract

Critical data literacy extends beyond technical competencies to include engagement with the social, political, and ethical dimensions of data (Louie, 2022). Social studies classrooms, with their emphasis on civic reasoning and historical inquiry, offer fertile ground for cultivating these capacities. Yet few studies explore how data science can be meaningfully integrated into social studies curricula to support critical data literacy (Shreiner & Guzdial, 2022; Shreiner, 2024). Furthermore, research suggests that students often struggle to move beyond personal connections to engage with broader sociopolitical issues and systemic inequities (authors, 2024; Stornaiuolo, 2020). We examined how eighth graders engaged with the sociopolitical aspects of data in a unit focused on tribal sovereignty and food systems. We ask: How do students engage with sociopolitical issues when working with data in a social studies classroom?

The study took place in an eighth-grade classroom during a unit on the ongoing significance of treaties between the United States government and tribal nations, taught through the lens of the food sovereignty movement (authors et al., 2023). To explore inequities in food access, students mapped food access on reservations and created data visualizations (Figure 2). As a follow-up activity designed by the teacher, students developed written community service action plans (SAPs) in which they researched community health data and proposed ways to support food sovereignty and tribal sovereignty. Data sources include 24 student SAPs, which we analyzed qualitatively using Lee et al.’s (2021) humanistic stance toward data science education and Sabzalian’s (2019) anticolonial civic education framework. We coded each SAP for (1) evidence of the cultural and sociopolitical layers of interaction with data and tensions between them and (2) the inclusion of Indigenous perspectives and Indigenous presence, which emphasize Indigenous peoples' contemporary existence, agency, and vibrancy and their distinct ways of knowing, from Sabzalian’s framework.

Our analysis revealed tensions between cultural and sociopolitical dimensions in students' data work. The assignment reflected cultural norms of civic education embedded in its prompts: identifying problems, using data for reasoning, proposing solutions, and justifying their effectiveness through research. These practices supported students’ data analysis skills as they investigated reservation food access and developed intervention proposals. However, while students engaged with sociopolitical issues around Indigenous food sovereignty, their engagement was critically limited. Through the lens of Perspectives, we found that students failed to engage Indigenous knowledge systems or existing food sovereignty efforts, treating Indigenous communities as objects of study rather than sources of knowledge. Presence illuminated how students’ reliance on Western intervention models, such as SNAP-Ed programs, positioned Indigenous communities as passive recipients of aid rather than recognizing their agency and self-determination efforts.

This study contributes to scholarship at the intersection of data science and social studies by demonstrating how cultural and sociopolitical tensions in critical data literacy can reinscribe colonial logics. We argue that pairing sociopolitical reasoning with anticolonial frameworks, such as Sabzalian’s (2019) work, offers a promising path for designing interdisciplinary curricula that integrate data science and social studies in ways that support decolonizing education and justice-oriented engagement with sociopolitical issues.

Authors

• Kristin A. Searle, Utah State University

• Mengying Jiang, Utah State University

• Bolaji R Bamidele, Utah State University

• Michaela Harper, Utah State University

• Kylie Bell, Utah State University

• Emma Griffin, Utah State University