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Solo, Steady, and Structured Data Literacy

May 25, 2023 by Paulina Przystupa

On the right is blue text on a white background listing: The Tutorial Series; The Creative Series; The Dialogues Series; The Aggregative Series; The Solo Series (which is in a light blue rounded box); The Interactive Series; The Publication Series with each series on its own row; to the left is a grey box with text primarily in black. The text reads “Reading data involves understanding what data is, and what aspects of the world it represents. Working with data involves acquiring, cleaning, and managing it. Analyzing data involves filtering, sorting, aggregating, comparing, and performing other such analytic operations on it. Arguing with data involves using data to support a larger narrative intended to communicate a message to a particular audience. Bhargava, Rahul, et al. “Data murals: Using the arts to build data literacy.” The Journal of Community Informatics 12.3 (2016). Throughout this document, data stories are aligned to show how they can be used to reinforce Reading, Working, Analyzing, and Arguing with data.” Reading is in dark blue matching a circular book spine icon to the left of the text that is in white lines on the blue background; Working is in light blue matching a tabbed planner-style circular icon in white lines on the same light blue; Analyzing is in lavender corresponding to a circular computer icon in white lines on the same lavender; and Arguing is in pink corresponding to a circular text books icon in white lines

This is the series we’re highlighting in this post

For this Digital Data Stories (DDS) Series on Series entry, we’re exploring our Solo Series. While we generally practice archaeology as a group activity, there are times when we need to practice our archaeological data literacy skills solo. Alone in a museum basement pondering a potsherd, staring into the spreadsheet middle distance, or trekking a transect, sometimes archaeologists go it alone. Due to this, we designed some Data Stories as personal pedagogies.

The Data Stories within the Solo Series cultivate mindful tasks and activities that are important for learning archaeological observation. These solo exercises focus on how we use our senses to understand belongings and surroundings. Such careful observation allows us to practice generating data about what future archaeologists might call artifacts and landscapes.

Data Stories in the Solo Series cultivate data literacy by guiding participants through reading, working with, and analyzing the first data humans ever encounter, input from our own senses. Each activity focuses on using our senses to observe either our belongings or surroundings, and then recording our senses as observations. This practice of creating observations is an archaeological data literacy skill on its own because it’s how we turn the process of survey or excavation into data to say something about the past. 

A survey form. On the left hand side is a solid dark blue bar with the words "Observation Recording Sheet" in white on there. The words rotated from horizontal to vertical. The middle section has boxes to fill in with hand writing that say, from top to bottom and from left to right: Observer, Date, Observation #, Property on Route (Public, private, governmental, other), Partern Speciality?, Survey Method (Interval, random, random stratified, other) next to a blank box, Weather next to a blank box, time of day next to a blank box, # of Stops/List of Stops next to a blank box, Total Duration of Survey next to a blank box. In the upper right corner along a slightly S curved road is "The Road Most traveled" with the subtitle, on the other side of the road, "An Archaeology Data-Centric Slowwww Observation Guide".

Here’s an optional form we’re including to guide your observations!

The Data Literacy Program (DLP) designed these as individual guides. However, they can be used as group or classroom activities. You can do this by having participants bring their observations together to discuss similarities and differences in their data collection. Regardless, the goal is for participants to focus on how personal experiences translate into archaeological data and knowledge. This kind of introspection, which encourages thoughtful, ethical, responsible, and self-reflective practice, is important for archaeological data literacy.

We understand this to be part of ethical practice in archaeology because it encourages self-reflection. Such reflection acknowledges that archaeological observation is a subjective experience. We hope that by probing that subjectivity, we can understand how many perspectives exist in the creation of archaeological data.

Also, this helps us to understand how the archaeologist participates in the creation of data rather than collecting something that exists outside the human experience. This practice extends various non-hegemonic theoretical modes including feminist practice, decolonizing practice, and reproducible research practices. These emphasize disclosing how and why analytic decisions get made by acknowledging the archaeologist as part of the narrative. 

Each Data Story includes instruction in data literacy skills, imparting best practices and encouraging ethical scholarship from the start. For example, we use the term “observation” rather than “looking” in these Data Stories. This change encourages archaeological learners to use their many senses to record and create their data.

While we draw from “slow” movement ideas, we acknowledge that “slow” varies by context and discipline. The slow archaeology movement sits at the intersection of a variety of issues but other folks engage with that more directly than we do. Furthermore, as Mol (2021) explores, we agree that some aspects of the slow movement are grounded in privilege.

So, while we draw from exercises and principles within the slow movement, we don’t consider these exercises necessarily slow archaeology. “Slow” in archaeology can conflate a variety of issues, some of which have nothing to do with pacing. As this is not the place for unpacking those issues, we instead consider this series a “solo” series. That allows the focus to be on practicing mindful observation regardless of speed. It is through the practice of careful observation that we generate quality observations, which lead to good data and solid archaeological foundations.   

A black and white data table. From left to right the headings read "Finds" "# of Finds" "Notes". The first row is filled in and says "(example) dogs" under "Finds". It says "2" under "# of Finds" and under "notes" it says "One dog was off lease; another dog was afraid of a goose. I was too!" The next two rows do not have observations.

Here’s an example of some of the thing you might be observing in the Solo Series!

We separate Data Stories in the Solo Series from the slow movement because once one learns to observe intently, these skills do not have to be a slow process. One learns “what to look for” and while it’s important not to only look for those things, learning the tools to observe and observe adaptably are super important. We can be both careful and quick once we’ve got our methods down. In addition, there are places where archaeologists should move faster. For example, archaeologists should increase their pace when it comes to connecting affiliated communities with their archaeological data. 

Above all we hope these Data Stories remind all archaeological learners that we should strive for careful practice. With that, we hope you enjoy our Solo Series Data Stories… at whatever pace you choose to take them.

 

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Category Perspectives| Projects Tags archaeology| data literacy| datastories| open access| open educational resource| sustainability| teaching

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