City University of Seattle Library: Research Methods and Design: Data Literacy

Data Literacy

Overview

Data literacy is the ability to read, analyze, create, manage, and talk about data. Understanding how data functions is both important at an academic level--whether you are writing a dissertation or working on a data science project---but also at a personal level. Data regularly informs our daily decisions. The ability to read, analyze, and understand data can impact something as simple as reading a weather report or as important as who to vote for or how money for social services is allocated. Lastly, understanding data use is an important disposition to have when protecting your own privacy and information.

Data Literacy Crash Course [YouTube Video Playlist]

Study Hall: Data Literacy presented by Arizona State University + Crash Course

Building the dispositions required for data literacy takes time and patience. However, there are some good primer courses available to you should you like to improve your data literacy skills. We recommend the one below.

Course Overview

"Data is everywhere. We expect it on our computers and in science labs, but it’s also in things like the food we eat, the websites we surf, and the cars we drive. We use it at work, school, or even just scrolling through YouTube. In this 15 episode playlist, your host Jessica Pucci will help us learn to think about the data we're presented with."

Watch below or click through to YouTube to see the full list of videos.

Equity and Data Literacy

What is Data Equity?

Data equity is the process of considering data--how it is gathered, analyzed, and disseminated--through an equity lens. The number one rule of data equity is recognizing that, in every data project, we make subjective, human choices that have real, human impacts. Throughout the research and data collection processes, choices are constantly being made. Data equity is working towards ensuring those choices align with the goals, priorities, and contexts of the projects in which you are working.

Key Questions for Data Equity

Who is getting prioritized?
Are you factoring in the human, lived experiences of the data and its potential impacts?
Whose value system is being centered and privileged? Whose definition of success?

Information in this overview was inspired by We All Count (https://weallcount.com/)

Resources on Data Equity

The following items cover a variety of topics surrounding data and research equity.

Online Resources, Tools, and Frameworks

Algorithmic Justice League
The Algorithmic Justice League’s mission is to raise awareness about the impacts of AI, equip advocates with empirical research, build the voice and choice of the most impacted communities, and galvanize researchers, policy makers, and industry practitioners to mitigate AI harms and biases.
Applying Racial Equity Awareness in Data Visualization
This article covers eight techniques that data visualization producers should consider when creating visuals through a DEI lens.
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Schwabish, J., & Feng, A. (2020, August 27). Applying racial equity awareness in data visualization. The Urban Institute. https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/x8tbw
CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance
The CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance are people and purpose-oriented, reflecting the crucial role of data in advancing Indigenous innovation and self-determination. These principles complement the existing FAIR principles encouraging open and other data movements to consider both people and purpose in their advocacy and pursuits.
Equitable Evaluation Framework
This framework is a product of the Equitable Evaluation Initiative. The EEI Team believes that shifts in evaluation purpose and practice do not solely rest in philanthropy but among evaluators and nonprofits as well.
Principles for Advancing Equitable Data Practices
Currently, research organizations use the Belmont Report—which emphasizes three principles: beneficence, respect for persons, and justice—to guide formal oversight to protect people who are studied. However, people in government, nonprofits, and other sectors also create and use data in ways that may have serious consequences for others’ lives. This brief introduces the Belmont Report’s principles and provides selected principle-aligned practices and resources to help data experts at all levels integrate the principles into their work and move toward more equitable data practice.
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Gaddy, M. & Scott, K. (2020, June 8). Principles for advancing equitable data practices. The Urban Institute. https://www.urban.org/research/publication/principles-advancing-equitable-data-practice
We All Count
We All Count is committed to increasing data literacy – and particularly data equity literacy for everyone. Check out their "Data Equity Framework" for practical guidance on how to center equity on your next data project.

Books

Algorithms of Oppression by Safiya Umoja Noble
ISBN: 9781479849949
Publication Date: 2018-02-20
In Algorithms of Oppression, Safiya Umoja Noble challenges the idea that search engines like Google offer an equal playing field for all forms of ideas, identities, and activities. Data discrimination is a real social problem. Noble argues that the combination of private interests in promoting certain sites, along with the monopoly status of a relatively small number of Internet search engines, leads to a biased set of search algorithms that privilege whiteness and discriminate against people of color, specifically women of color. Through an analysis of textual and media searches as well as extensive research on paid online advertising, Noble exposes a culture of racism and sexism in the way discoverability is created online. As search engines and their related companies grow in importance--operating as a source for email, a major vehicle for primary and secondary school learning, and beyond--understanding and reversing these disquieting trends and discriminatory practices is of utmost importance. An original, surprising and, at times, disturbing account of bias on the internet, Algorithms of Oppression contributes to our understanding of how racism is created, maintained, and disseminated in the 21st century.
Analyzing Inequalities by Harnois, Catherine E.
ISBN: 1506304133
Publication Date: 2018
A practical guide designed to be used in a range of 100-level and 200-level courses, including introductory sociology, social problems, and courses that focus on race, class, gender, or sexuality. Early chapters focus on single categories of difference and inequality; later chapters examine how these factors intersect within the domains of family, education, and work
Decolonizing Methodologies by Linda Tuhiwai Smith
ISBN: 9781786998163
Publication Date: 2021-04-08
With Decolonizing Methodologies, Linda Tuhiwai Smith made us rethink the relationship between scholarly research and the legacies of colonialism, and to confront the reality that, for the colonized, such research was often inextricably bound up with memories of exploitation. Offering a visionary new 'decolonizing' approach to research methodology, her book has continued to inspire generations of decolonial and indigenous scholars. This revised and expanded new edition demonstrates the continued importance of Tuhiwai Smith's work to today's struggles, including the growing movement to decolonize education and the university curriculum. It also features contributions from both new and established indigenous scholars on what a decolonizing approach means for both the present and future of academic research, and provides practical examples of how decolonial and indigenous methodologies have been fruitfully applied to recent research projects. Decolonizing Methodologies remains a definitive work in the ongoing struggle to reclaim indigenous ways of knowing and being.
White Logic, White Methods by Tukufu Zuberi (Editor); Eduardo Bonilla-Silva (Editor)
ISBN: 0742542807
Publication Date: 2008-05-02
In this collection of essays, the authors examine how racial considerations have affected the way social science is conducted; how issues are framed, and data is analyzed. With an assemblage of leading scholars, White Logic, White Methods explores the possibilities and necessary dethroning of current social research practices, and demands a complete overhaul of current methods, towards multicultural and pluralist approach to what we know, think, and question.