Automation, agencies and aesthetics: the politics of data visualizations in configuring teachers’ expertise

ABSTRACT

It is well-known that digital learning materials influence the classroom curriculum and didactics. At the same time, few studies examine the role of the data visualizations offered by digital learning materials. Data visualizations signpost the emergence of students as data subjects who can be observed and compared on a computer screen. They thus shape teachers’ socio-technical ways of seeing student learning and are likely to influence student assessments. Drawing inspiration from Science and Technology Studies (STS), this paper advances an analytical framework for eliciting the politics of data visualizations, focusing on automation, agencies, and aesthetics. The framework is exemplified through a case study of a popular Danish digital mathematics platform. In a concluding discussion, the paper considers the importance of addressing unsettled and ethical questions about the role of automated digital systems in teachers’ knowledge practices.

KEYWORDS:

• Data visualizations
• digital learning materials
• automation
• aesthetics
• configuration
• science and technology studies (STS)

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Independent Research Fond Denmark under Grant 1024-00099B. I am grateful to the interlocutors at MathTraining for providing access to their data visualizations and participating in interviews. I would also like to extend my gratitude to the anonymous reviewers and to participants at the symposium ‘Data Visions: Education in the Age of Digital Data Visualizations’ at ECER (2023) for helpful comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Pseudonymized.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Independent Research Fond Denmark: [Grant Number 1024-00099B].