Reframing data ethics in research methods education: a pathway to critical data literacy

Abstract

This paper presents an ethical framework designed to support the development of critical data literacy for research methods courses and data training programmes in higher education. The framework we present draws upon our reviews of literature, course syllabi and existing frameworks on data ethics. For this research we reviewed 250 research methods syllabi from across the disciplines, as well as 80 syllabi from data science programmes to understand how or if data ethics was taught. We also reviewed 12 data ethics frameworks drawn from different sectors. Finally, we reviewed an extensive and diverse body of literature about data practices, research ethics, data ethics and critical data literacy, in order to develop a transversal model that can be adopted across higher education. To promote and support ethical approaches to the collection and use of data, ethics training must go beyond securing informed consent to enable a critical understanding of the techno-centric environment and the intersecting hierarchies of power embedded in technology and data. By fostering ethics as a method, educators can enable research that protects vulnerable groups and empower communities.

Critical data ethics pedagogies: Three (non-rival) approaches

“…As Stoyanovich and Lewis (2019) have observed in their call for balancing engineering and social science methodologies in data science instruction, we still have to build the pedagogical resources to teach and practice data analytics in more integrative ways. This observation is supported by the curriculum review performed by Atenas et al (2023) as a contribution to the debate on "data literacy" in higher education. The authors have examined 250 syllabi of 80 graduate programs in data science from Euro-American countries (USA, UK, Spain, France, Germany, Brazil, Portugal, and Italy).…”

The Cultural Production of Everyday Ethics in Two University STEM Labs

“…Increasingly, scientific practitioners espouse commitments that recombine or resist these categories of moral philosophy. Especially in the last decade, calls for an ethics of social justice in science have proliferated (Alexander et al, 2022; Atenas et al, 2023; Faden & Powers, 2011; Huang & King, 2017; Mamo & Fishman, 2013; Riley & Lambrinidou, 2015; Walsh, 2015). Social justice ethics shares a virtue ethical commitment to certain abstract principles—specifically, principles such as equity, anti-racism, and harm reduction—but incorporates a deontological duty to act as well as the consequentialist mantra that “impact matters more than intent.” Social justice ethics embraces scientific life as political.…”

Developing the DALI Data Literacy Framework for critical citizenry

“…El profesorado desempeña un papel crucial en la formación de la ciudadanía a través de metodologías críticas en sus respectivas disciplinas, y la universidad tiene una responsabilidad fundamental en el fomento de una ciudadanía consciente. Esperamos que nuestro marco DALI, junto con su metodología, inspire a otros colectivos a participar en procesos dialógicos y a reflexionar sobre marcos que contribuyan a una comprensión más profunda del mundo (Atenas et al, 2023;.…”

“…Ha habido muchos intentos de abordar una visión ética de los datos a través de marcos (un buen análisis de ellos en Atenas et al, 2023), y ya se han hecho algunos intentos específicos para definir la AD con anterioridad. Por ejemplo, la AD se ha incorporado a marcos que esbozan áreas esenciales de competencia que abarcan conocimientos, habilidades y actitudes necesarias para la Alfabetización Digital (Marín y Castañeda, 2022).…”