Contributions of Paulo Freire for a Critical Data Literacy: a Popular Education Approach

Abstract

Paulo Freire is the patron of education in Brazil. His main work - the Popular Education pedagogy - influences many educators all over the world who believe in education as a way of liberating poor oppressed people. One of the outcomes of Freire's work is a literacy method, developed in the 1960's. In this paper, we propose the adoption of elements of Freire's Literacy Method for use in a pedagogical pathway towards data literacy. After tracing some parallels between literacy education and data literacy, we suggest some data literacy strategies inspired on Freire's method. We also derive from it a definition for critical data literacy.

Critical is not political

“…Economically, literacy is associated with the up-skilling of the labour force, as such, in the context of datafication an emphasis is placed on learning general computer-and data-skills needed to become an economically productive member of society. Socially, literacy is seen as the emancipatory process of understanding and critically engaging with one's context (Golden, 2017;Špiranec et al, 2019;Tygel & Kirsch, 2016). In other words, literacy is more than learning how to read and write, it is about economic resilience and agency, about a person's ability to economically and socially participate in society.…”

Descolonizando los sistemas algorítmicos: diseño crítico para la problematización de algoritmos y datos digitales desde el Sur

“…Este enfoque ha sido de gran valor para repensar nuestra relación con las tecnologías digitales, al inspirar modos de alfabetización crítica de datos (Tygel y Kirsch, 2016), formas de enseñar a estudiantes para ser etnógrafos de su propia vida digital (Markham, 2019) o para problematizar el papel de la ciudadanía y las y los científicos en las iniciativas de ciencia ciudadana (De Alburquerque y De Almeida, 2020). En nuestro proyecto, los planteamientos de Freire nos motivaron a problematizar, partiendo de un hacer y pensar desde Latinoamérica, los alcances de nuestro proyecto.…”

“…En segundo lugar, la intervención metodológica sugiere ir más allá de las generalidades sobre el extractivismo de datos, para abordar estas operaciones de extracción colonialista, como las analizan Mejías y Couldry (2019) con un enfoque situado y contextual, recogiendo la experien-cia relacional y cotidiana de las personas oprimidas (Tygel y Kirsch, 2016). Es especialmente relevante, en contextos como el latinoamericano, de profundas inequidades y formas de colonialismo (véase Ricaurte, 2018), desarrollar dispositivos de investigación que activen las formas de autonomía, reconociendo las relaciones y vivencias de las personas e interpretando sus posibilidades (Escobar, 2018).…”

Is Data Literacy a Catalyst of Social Justice? A Response from Nine Data Literacy Initiatives in Higher Education

“…The critical perspective on data literacy encompasses skills that place data science in a specific context of development, emphasizing Freire's idea of literacies for liberation. But above all, this perspective views data as a technology of power, which the several collectives must appropriate and enhance according their own needs [49,50].…”