“Show me the data!” is a phrase often meant as a request for “raw” data to prove a statement. People request data to prove claims that might seem anecdotal or lacking evidence. In these situations, data usually refers to numbers and usually in large amounts. Even though large quantities of systematically collected data can help create awareness or address scepticism about the existence of a complex issue, numbers can be limited in meaningfully addressing that same issue. In addition, the emotions, stories, experiences, and worldviews are rendered invisible in the process of collecting and normalising large amounts of descriptive data. In this chapter, we present our initial attempts to use quantitative data as a starting point for eliciting concerns about equity in higher education through data visualisations and data-objects. We describe our interventions as part of a research project that aims to generate debate on equity in higher education with an emphasis on gender. We focus on gender due to data availability while keeping an intersectional perspective on other power-mediating dimensions, such as nationality. This work adds to a growing corpus of work on how data representations are instrumental to deal with complex societal issues while bringing to the fore the importance of complementing the so-called facts with situated concerns.

From data to concerns: gender equity in higher education / Moretti, Matteo. - (2024), pp. 176-185. (Intervento presentato al convegno 2CO3 Communicating Complexity).

From data to concerns: gender equity in higher education

Moretti, Matteo
2024-01-01

Abstract

“Show me the data!” is a phrase often meant as a request for “raw” data to prove a statement. People request data to prove claims that might seem anecdotal or lacking evidence. In these situations, data usually refers to numbers and usually in large amounts. Even though large quantities of systematically collected data can help create awareness or address scepticism about the existence of a complex issue, numbers can be limited in meaningfully addressing that same issue. In addition, the emotions, stories, experiences, and worldviews are rendered invisible in the process of collecting and normalising large amounts of descriptive data. In this chapter, we present our initial attempts to use quantitative data as a starting point for eliciting concerns about equity in higher education through data visualisations and data-objects. We describe our interventions as part of a research project that aims to generate debate on equity in higher education with an emphasis on gender. We focus on gender due to data availability while keeping an intersectional perspective on other power-mediating dimensions, such as nationality. This work adds to a growing corpus of work on how data representations are instrumental to deal with complex societal issues while bringing to the fore the importance of complementing the so-called facts with situated concerns.
2024
9788835164326
From data to concerns: gender equity in higher education / Moretti, Matteo. - (2024), pp. 176-185. (Intervento presentato al convegno 2CO3 Communicating Complexity).
File in questo prodotto:
Non ci sono file associati a questo prodotto.

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11388/350609
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus ND
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? ND
social impact