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Exploring Possible Worlds: Open and Participatory Tools for Critical Data Literacy and Fairer Data Culture

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Data Cultures in Higher Education

Part of the book series: Higher Education Dynamics ((HEDY,volume 59))

Abstract

This chapter is inspired by the webinar I was invited to give earlier in 2020 as part of the project Fair Data Cultures in HE. My doctoral research looks into the interplay between structure, culture and students’ agency in the context of open educational practices in HE from a critical realist perspective. Thus, this chapter is being addressed from that standpoint. That is, looking into the deeper levels of social reality where young people are embedded, in particular, students’ relationship with open and participatory tools in HE. I will explore how educators can offer pedagogical opportunities for open educational practices that enable students’ explorative and critical mindset, so that they transcend the blind acceptance of the socio-political structures within which they are embedded. In so doing, they can question apparatuses and structures that perpetuate mechanisms of surveillance capitalism (Zuboff, S, The age of surveillance capitalism: the fight for a human future at the new frontier of power. Profile Books, 2019). Hopefully, students will be able to shape an alternative world in which they reflexively engage with alternative and more holistic digital practices.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Reflexive engagement in this study is considered a generative mechanism, a causal power that makes practices possible. It is oriented towards goals that are situated in a context, and it requires means (tools or artefacts that are potential opportunities, as they are not pre-given but, rather, contingent) to mediate the tasks/practices to achieve the goals, being oriented towards personal values. Engagement is depicted as a question of personal reflexivity whilst also being relational.

  2. 2.

    No political account implies that the education system is numb to the politics of technology; thus, it is not part of their interest. Instead, what matters are values of efficiency, questions related to “does it work properly” but not questions around the political dimension of technology, that is, for whom does it work and why for those and not for others.

  3. 3.

    https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/9037/My-workload-your-education

  4. 4.

    Post-92 university is a former polytechnic or central institution in the UK that was given university status through the Further and Higher Education Act 1992.

  5. 5.

    For the interested reader, you can look at Kuhn (2021).

  6. 6.

    This quote is taken from Weller’s blog, available from http://blog.edtechie.net/higher-ed/learning-the-rules-of-predicting-the-future/

  7. 7.

    EDUCAUSE: 7 things you should know about Domain of One’s Own [online: https://library.educause.edu/resources/2019/10/7-things-you-should-know-about-a-domain-of-ones-own].

  8. 8.

    This example was discussed in a keynote he gave for the Critical Realist conference in South Africa, 2021.

  9. 9.

    The Web Foundation: https://webfoundation.org

  10. 10.

    You can see Berga’s presentation in Spanish (min 41) using this URL, https://youtu.be/6oJhfiyVmM4?t=2466, and in English using this URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBjqVKaiW5Eu

  11. 11.

    Williamson’s academic blog: Codes Act in Education, available at https://codeactsineducation.wordpress.com/

  12. 12.

    No page provided as it is taken from her Massey Lecture in 1992

  13. 13.

    Proctoring software is based on AI that is aimed at detecting students that are cheating in online exams. For a more detailed explanation, check the reference of Logan, Charles (2021) in the bibliography.

  14. 14.

    Taken from Kirkpatrick (2020) Technical Politics, Andrew Feenberg’s critical theory of technology

  15. 15.

    Elder-Vass, D. (2022). Keynote address given at the International Association of Critical Realism Conference, Pretoria, South Africa

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bath Spa University, Bath, UK

    Caroline Kuhn

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  1. Caroline Kuhn
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  1. Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain

    Juliana E. Raffaghelli

  2. Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain

    Albert  Sangrà

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Kuhn, C. (2023). Exploring Possible Worlds: Open and Participatory Tools for Critical Data Literacy and Fairer Data Culture. In: Raffaghelli, J.E., Sangrà, A. (eds) Data Cultures in Higher Education . Higher Education Dynamics, vol 59. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24193-2_8

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