Teaching data storytelling as data literacy
Kate McDowell, Matthew J. Turk
Information and Learning Sciences, Vol. 125, No. 5/6, pp.321-345

Data storytelling courses position students as agents in creating stories interpreted from data about a social problem or social justice issue. The purpose of this study is to explore two research questions: What themes characterized students’ iterative development of data story topics? Looking back at six years of iterative feedback, what categories of data literacy pedagogy did instructors engage for these themes?.

This project examines six years of data storytelling final projects using thematic analysis and three years of instructor feedback. Ten themes in final projects align with patterns in feedback. Reflections on pedagogical approaches to students’ topic development suggest extending data literacy pedagogy categories – formal, personal and folk (Pangrazio and Sefton-Green, 2020).

Data storytelling can develop students’ abilities to move from being consumers to creators of data and interpretations. The specific topic of personal data exposure or risk has presented some challenges for data literacy instruction (Bowler et al., 2017). What “personal” means in terms of data should be defined more broadly. Extending the data literacy pedagogy categories of formal, personal and folk (Pangrazio and Sefton-Green, 2020) could more effectively center social justice in data literacy instruction.

Implications for practice include positioning students as producers of data interpretation, such as role-playing data analysis or decision-making scenarios.

Data storytelling has the potential to address current challenges in data literacy pedagogy and in teaching critical data literacy.

Course descriptions provide a template for future data literacy pedagogy involving data storytelling, and findings suggest implications for expanding definitions and applications of personal and folk data literacies.