There is a call for papers for a special issue of the journal of Educational Technology & Society: Learning at the Intersection of Data Literacy and Social Justice.
Guest Editors
Camillia Matuk, New York University
Simon Knight, University of Technology, Sydney
Kayla DesPortes, New York University
The deadline for full manuscripts is September 1, 2021.
Here’s the vision (see here for further info on potential themes and on the production timeline):
Data is ingrained in our day-to-day lives. While there are many examples of how it is used for public good, the destructive impacts of unregulated uses of algorithms and big data are felt across sectors including education, law enforcement, healthcare (O’Neil, 2016). It is such that issues of data literacy are also issues of social justice, and education researchers have a role to play in developing data literate citizens (Raffaghelli, 2020).
Data literacy involves skills such as manipulating data sets, selecting and applying appropriate analyses, and making data-based inferences and arguments (Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2010; Franklin et al., 2007; NGSS Lead States, 2013); but it also involves a critical understanding of what and how data are produced and tracked, of how they can be used for particular purposes, and of the role of context in interpretations of data. Such a critical lens is essential for recognizing how data reflect the biases inherent in the systems that create and use them (Kitchin, 2014) how data are subject to multiple (mis)interpretations (Pangrazio & Selwyn 2018), and how data can echo power relations in society (Van Wart, Lanouette & Parikh, 2020). Without such abilities, there is a risk of reproducing societal inequities; and of further entrenching those in power, and those most vulnerable (O’Neill, 2016; Philip et al., 2013).
This special issue will build on recent research on the role of data literacy education for promoting social justice (Raffaghelli, 2020). In particular, we seek research that examines the transformative potential in the intersection of data literacy, education, and social justice, including racial justice, economic justice, environmental justice, and spatial justice. Together, we expect the contributions to this issue to examine such questions as:
- What dimensions of learning (e.g., technical, socio-political) are most important in a complete account of critical data literacy? How can we best support learners’ growth in these dimensions?
- How can data literacy education empower people, individually and collectively, to be agentic in both their local and global communities?
- How can learning experiences be created that make visible each of the personal, community, and societal interests embedded in data?
More broadly, we anticipate that this special issue will offer examples of designs and frameworks that other researchers may use to align their work—whether or not their primary focus is explicitly on social justice—with social justice values.