Italian Journal of Educational Technology

Editorial. Facets of data literacy: Advancing the field through interdisciplinary lenses

Davide Taibi, Juliana Elisa Raffaghelli, Manuel León-Urrutia — Mon, 25 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0100

Digital data has consolidated as the fuel of technological development. The commercialisation of Large Language Models and Generative Artificial Intelligence has led to the massive adoption of Artificial Intelligence applications by the general public, bringing data literacy to a prominent position in the public debate. In this data-driven economy and society, academia and industry have to collaborate to meet the needs of a data-literate workforce (León et. al., 2020). Moreover, data literacy is also a powerful enabler of civic engagement, as it empowers individuals and communities to keep governments transparent and accountable, tackle local issues, and navigate their own data ecosystems. In this regard, it is also essential support for the wide exploitation of open data and open government resources. Nonetheless, the data-driven practices have led to critical situations, injustice, and concern in several areas of human activity, from the public to the private sector.

The growing availability of data and the increasing incentives to use it, in fact, have brought about a rising concern known as data literacy. This concern is strongly driven by the fact that many individuals lack the necessary skills to effectively utilise the available data, as well as the necessary competencies to make ethical and responsible use of such data. This special issue contains papers supporting this notion, emphasising that data literacy encompasses not only the ability to work with data but also the ability to understand its use and value within different contexts, including areas like citizen science and digital civic engagement.

While there has been an increase in research on data literacy in recent years, much of the existing research is confined to specific disciplinary areas such as research data, and there is still a relative neglect of the civic and citizen context (Yousef, Walker, & León-Urrutia, 2021). Simultaneously, data has increasingly become a part of citizens' lives through the presence of algorithms, machine learning, and the potential for artificial intelligence. Hence, this special issue has aimed to gather papers that explore the possibilities of comprehensive multidisciplinary research on the societal implications of data literacy, its significance, and how it can be effectively fostered.

In fact, the concept of data literacy, as the educational activity aimed at developing understanding and skills relating to such dimensions of our societies, spots the contextual and diversified nature of data practices in response to or reaction to metrics, quantification, and algorithms. The research on the topic has highlighted the existence of practices of participation linked to data appropriation to express cultural diversity, civic empowerment, and hence social and economic innovation. Instead, another strand of research is particularly focused on uncovering algorithmic bias, unstructured data usage, and the search for data justice. From these diversified strands of research, there emerges a clear need to embrace interdisciplinary discussion and collaboration in order to explore and expand the concept and practice of data literacy. Specifically, teachers and educators at all levels of the schooling system, including higher education and lifelong learning, are called to transform their practice through the introduction of data literacy as a contextualised and complex perspective on an emerging technological revolution in contemporary society.

To this aim, the focus of this special issue was to gather research that deals with data literacy as an emerging topic, and an area of knowledge and practice that requires reflection, discussion and transformative action. To that end, we highlight the relevance of building understanding on the basis of empirical research as a perspective on a complex and emerging social problem. Specifically, we called for contributions referring to research dealing with conceptual competence frameworks or models, applying constructs, and/or catering to practical cases showing the benefits of different data literacy experiences for different target groups across lifelong learning.

We collected four relevant research articles, which bring to the fore the polysemy embedded in the concept of data literacy, as well as the multiplicity of practices it can generate.

Data literacy is not a crucial competence only in Higher education contexts, it is more and more important to promote the introduction of these competences at an earlier stage

Bringing data literacy competencies in secondary schools

Sara Havzi, Benedetta Tonnini, Andrea Nelson Mauro, Davide Taibi — Tue, 05 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0100

The importance of developing data literacy skills in secondary schools has been increasingly recognised over the years. In order to achieve the successful development of data literacy skills among secondary school teachers and students, it is necessary to analyse current curricula, implement data literacy projects in school and focus on learning outcomes. It is important to follow the key challenges that teachers and students face in this process. This paper presents the survey results of the piloting study conducted in the framework of Data Literate and Dalfys - two European funded projects that aim at spreading data literacy skills in secondary school contexts. The results show a significant interest of teachers and students to develop data literacy skills but the introduction of data literacy in traditional curricula requires appropriate resources. Temporary solutions, such as introducing data literacy in specific subjects, should be promoted to promptly fill the existing gap in the development of these skills.

“At the tip of data…”: Developing Literacy in educators’ professional development

Maria Ranieri, Gabriele Biagini, Stefano Cuomo, Elena Gabbi — Sun, 28 May 2023 00:00:00 +0200

This paper presents the results of a study aimed at exploring the perceptions of effectiveness and relevance of a training course addressed to socio-pedagogical educators, to develop a critical-reflective sensitivity towards data. The study also intended to investigate the perceptions of educators with respect to the nature of statistics and the contribution it can offer to educational professionals. The tool used for the study was an ad hoc questionnaire, which was filled in by 123 educators who participated in the course. The results indicate that the intervention was appreciated both from an educational and thematic point of view, even if the dimensions of interdisciplinarity and interactivity could be further improved. As regards the perceptions relating to data-based knowledge, with particular reference to statistics, a feeling of cautious optimism shines through, in which an open vision makes its way towards the contribution of quantitative data, without idealizing its role as a univocal source of knowledge of the reality.

(Open) Data literacy: Which relationships with open data adoption? A systematic review of the literature

Eugenia Loría Solano, Montse Guitert Catasús, Juliana Elisa Raffaghelli — Wed, 22 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0100

Data literacy is considered a key dimension supporting citizens’ enhancement of open data. Nevertheless, more precise definitions of its role and the consideration of nuances between the types of knowledge and abilities that influence a relevant use of open data are needed. Therefore, we carried out a systematic review of the literature, spotting: a) the role of data literacy among several barriers to use; and b) activities around open data that promote informal learning by supporting the development of critical data literacy as a proxy of the citizens' further engagement with open data. We screened and selected 66 articles, applying a keyword mapping technique, followed by coding and quantitative analysis of the articles. Our findings highlight that, on the one hand, limited data literacy interferes with the use of open data. On the other hand, open data activities appear to generate relevant opportunities for cultivating citizens' technical data literacy, allowing them to understand and interact with data-driven decision-making processes. Nevertheless, there is little attention on critical data literacy as a key driver for the strategic and transformative use of open government data. Finally, this study could set the basis to support lifelong learning interventions aimed at cultivating open data literacy.

Data literacy ecosystem development framework: Approach for bridging the gender gap in the digital economy of the Western Balkan countries

Dejan Zlatkovski, Riste Temjanovski, Vancho Chabukovski — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0100

This paper is a position paper that is not based on formal research. Its purpose is to propose a Data Literacy Framework for support in the process of the bridging the gender gap in Western Balkans among women entrepreneurs. To succeed in today’s data-driven economy, women entrepreneurs need data skills and digital skills to unlock opportunities and grow businesses. The focus of any successful business in modern economies is how to equip women with suitable data and digital literacy so they can pursue careers in the digital economy, to contribute to the digital transformation of the economy and the public sector, especially in the Western Balkans developing countries. The proposed Data Literacy Framework should be used as an instrument to devise public policy measures for providing education and training opportunities, design customised data literacy upskilling for women entrepreneurs, implement career guidance services, promote the role of the women in the digital economy, and provide support for more effective deployment of various concepts of the digital society.