When we talk about data literacy in the Louis Riel School Division (LRSD), we are referring to our Multi-Year Strategic Plan's (MYSP) focus on creating a culture of inquiry and responsibility that has all learners demonstrate the aptitudes, skills and knowledge to be autonomous and confident in their innate ability to achieve goals and become life-long learners. It is a culture where all parents/guardians demonstrate support for the MYSP and contribute to a culture of inquiry and responsibility in their schools.
Staff create and nurture this culture by demonstrating they are members of on-going cycles of collaborative evidence-informed inquiry to improve practices and systems.
How do experts define data literacy?
How do experts define data literacy?
Data literacy is the ability to ask and answer real-world questions from large and small data sets through an inquiry process, with consideration of ethical use of data. (Wolff et al., 2016)
While it's important to agree on what we mean when we talk about data literacy in LRSD, we also need to agree on a framework specific to developing our data literacy. We are inspired by the Open Data Institute's (ODI) Data Skills Framework which helps us recognize the collective and individual skills we need to develop as a learning community.
Another ODI tool we use is its Data Ethics Canvas. It helps us to navigate the ethical issues at the heart of any individual or collective effort to steward and use data to create positive and lasting change in LRSD.
Our next spotlight story in this Data Literacy Series will look at our journey with a specific tool that helps develop teachers' collective efficacy in LRSD: The Collaborative Learning Cycle (Wellman, B. & Lipton, L., 2004).
Christian Michalik
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This article is part of an ongoing series spotlighting the Louis Riel School Division's Data Literacy Initiative and how it relates to creating a culture of inquiry and responsibility.
