Data Literacy and Citizenship

Abstract

This chapter explores the challenges that emerge from a narrow understanding of the principles underpinning Big data, framed in the context of the teaching and learning of Science and Mathematics. This study considers the materiality of computerised data and examines how notions of data access, data sampling, data sense-making and data collection are nowadays contested by datafied public and private bodies, hindering the capacity of citizens to effectively understand and make better use of the data they generate or engage with. The study offers insights from secondary and documentary research and its results suggest that understanding data in less constraining terms, namely: a) as capable of secondary agency, b) as the vital fluid of societal institutions, c) as gathered or accessed by new data brokers and through new technologies and techniques, and d) as mediated by the constant interplay between public and corporate spheres and philosophies, could greatly enhance the teaching and learning of Science and Mathematics in the framework of current efforts to advance data literacy.