Educators’ Data Literacy Supporting critical perspectives in the context of a “datafied” education

The utopia of access to data came across a problem which was not new in its configuration, but only in its content. The issue of abundance, immediately recalls the competence to navigate such abundance. Some authors paragon the problem of the appropriation of data by citizenship to the long debate on the digital divide. In the area of educational research, it seems that several strands of research are starting to move into exploration of the problem. A first concern has been data literacy and school teachers’ data literacy , digging into topics relating the conceptual frameworks and activities to improve students skills that go beyond statistical elaboration. The increasing use of data as evidence of quality teaching and education has also been considered. Not specifically connected to teachers’ data literacy, but as an emerging concern, we can mention the data–driven practices connected to learning analytics both by teachers and students. More recently, the idea of using Open Data as Open Educational resources has also raised interest but it seems there are still few practices in place. Lastly, critical approaches to the problem of datafication and the new literacies required to deal with personal data have emerged very recently. However, the strands of research are diversified and there is no agenda for an unitary research and policy making activity. In this article, the problem of datafication in education is considered in order to discuss the emergent needs of educators' data literacy. Moreover, the areas of a potential framework for educators' professional development on data literacy are introduced