Abstract
This position paper uses the concept of “hidden curriculum” as a heuristic device to analyze everyday data-related practices in formal education. Grounded in a careful reading of the theoretical literature, this paper argues that the everyday data-related practices of contemporary education can be approached as functional forms of data literacy education: deeds with unintentional educational consequences for students’ relationships with data and datafication. More precisely, this paper suggests that everyday data-related practices represent data as cognitive authority and naturalize the routines of all-pervading data collection. These routines lead to what is here referred to as “data (il)literacy” – an uncritical, one-dimensional understanding of data and datafication. Since functional data (il)literacy education takes place subconsciously, it can be conceptualized as a form of hidden curriculum, an idea that refers to lessons taught and learned but not consciously intended to be so.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Mertala, P. (2020). Data (il)literacy education as a hidden curriculum of the datafication of education. Journal of Media Literacy Education, 12(3), 30-42. https://doi.org/10.23860/JMLE-2020-12-3-4
Included in
Communication Technology and New Media Commons, Curriculum and Instruction Commons, Curriculum and Social Inquiry Commons, History Commons, Instructional Media Design Commons, Mass Communication Commons, Other Communication Commons, Other Education Commons, Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education Commons
