Critical Data Storytelling in the Composition Classroom

Critical Data Storytelling in the Composition Classroom provides a timely and essential framework for integrating data literacy into multimodal composition pedagogy. Angela Laflen demonstrates that in an era dominated by big data and AI, the need to understand how to work with data is no longer limited to scientists and mathematicians. Instead, data literacy has become a crucial skill for participating in democratic society.

At the heart of Laflen’s approach is critical data storytelling-a practice that equips students with the skills to understand, interpret, and ethically communicate with and about data through various multimodal formats. By teaching students to make informed decisions as data storytellers, Laflen addresses the ethical implications of working with data while offering practical strategies for reading and analyzing data stories. This approach empowers both students and teachers to engage critically with data as a tool for learning and communication. It also highlights how multimodal composition has yet to fully account for the central role of data in shaping contemporary communication and argumentation.

By focusing on the ethical and rhetorical dimensions of data storytelling, Critical Data Storytelling in the Composition Classroompresents a pedagogical approach that prepares students for the challenges of working with data in a rapidly evolving digital landscape. This flexible, adaptable model for teaching critical data literacy is of great interest to writing instructors, scholars in rhetoric and composition, and educators who seek to prepare students for the demands of a data-driven world.

Angela Laflen is associate professor of English at California State University, Sacramento. Her scholarship has been published in Computers and Composition, Kairos, Assessing Writing, The Journal of Response to Writing, Pedagogy, and Writing Spaces, among others, and in several edited collections.