The Literacy Domains of Data Advocacy
In the context of data the Data Advocacy for All project, Data Literacy is understood to be a nexus of mindsets, abilities, and practices that enable one to advocate with data in meaningful, ethical, and transformative ways. When it comes to data advocacy, we have identified three crucial literacy domains in which students need to gain experience in order to develop the critical-rhetorical capacities to ethically and effectively work with data to instigate social change. As evident in the chart below, we identify these three broad domains as Understanding Data, Processing Data, and Persuading with Data, and in each arena, we have identified four subdomains:
Figure 1. This graphic showcases how all of the literacy domains of data advocacy are interrelated, including each of the three primary domains in navy—Understanding Data, Processing Data, and Persuading with Data—as well as the subdomains beneath each one in red.
As so organized, these literacy domains are presented as distinct and linear. But we envision these domains as overlapping and reciprocal. When we create maps with data, we are often telling stories. When we tell stories with data, we are often thinking rhetorically and using persuasive devices. However, for the sake of organization, we have separated out these domains so that you, as teachers, can think about each of these domains more deeply and find relevant resources as needed: