The Educators’ Datafied Present and Future: Complexity as an Approach to Developing Educators' Data Literacies

Abstract

In the higher education context, an increasing concern on the technical or instrumental approach permeates attention to academics’ data literacies and faculty development. The need for data literacy to deal specifically with the rise of learning analytics in higher education has been raised by some authors, though in spite of some focus on the need to develop academics’ data literacy to embrace fair practices, this literature is often also rooted in a technical or data-driven perspective. In this paper, the authors summarize an empirical study based on 137 articles using the terms “data literacy,” “teachers,” and “faculty development,” spanning from 2014 and 2019. The findings point out that out of the total, 78 papers reviewed took an instrumental, data science-focused perspective on data literacy, were the technical abilities like extracting data and interpreting or reporting appropriately (authors, in press). Data safety and effective data management perspectives accounted for another 35 of the 137 articles. Only seven took up data literacy from a critical perspective, while only five looked at the pedagogical practice. These preliminary findings require awareness and discussion on the light of appropriate faculty development approaches and activities. We introduce some recommendations aimed at understanding data as a complex emerging phenomenon in our societies, which requires building the literacies to face their negative effects like data surveillance and algorithmic biases, but also, to uncover its emancipatory power.