Primary students’ learning about citizenship through data science

Abstract

Much of the mathematics that children experience in school neglect the skills increasingly needed for citizenship, particularly the power of complex data to investigate and make sense of the world. We draw on the relatively new field of data science as a multi-disciplinary approach to investigate problems through analysis of massive, non-standard, incongruous and/or messy data. Our exploratory qualitative study had as its research question: What can children learn about citizenship when they engage with data science? The case study in this paper illustrated ways that children’s learning about citizenship were enriched through an age-appropriate data science investigation. The study analysed classroom video from a Year 4 classroom (aged 9–10) over six lessons that integrated curricula in digital technologies, health, and mathematics. In these lessons, the children generated and analysed non-standard data and debated social, well-being and privacy issues as they considered their activities in cyberspace. The video data were analysed using a framework based on critical citizenship education literature that examined dimensions of power, collective engagement, individual responsibility and action. Three key findings emerged. First, the case study highlighted skills in citizenship education developed through data science, positioning children as agents and advocates. Second, the study showed how a complex data investigation in citizenship education was achievable with primary children through meaningful curriculum integration. This is important given that problems that citizens address are typically interdisciplinary. Finally, the findings revealed a gap between data science skills and those developed in the mathematics curriculum, and recommend ways that the maths curriculum could be updated.