Working with Data in Adult English Classrooms: Lessons Learned about Communicative Justice during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Throughout COVID-19, health officials have relied on data visualizations to communicate urgent messages about the spread of the virus and preventative measures. Relatively few efforts have employed participatory engagement with communities who have experienced a disproportionate burden of COVID-19 illness to shape these communications. Sociologist W.E.B. Du Bois viewed data visualization as an approach to changing the way people think about themselves. This paper describes a community-engaged approach to data literacy skill-building with bilingual Latina learners in an adult English program in Northern California, Bay Area. The curriculum combines data visualization activities with language instruction and preventive health themes. Early work on COVID-19 in 2020–21 emphasized improving health knowledge and message interpretation but later shifted to a critical data literacy perspective, focusing on myth-busting, improving risk messaging in their own social networks, and supporting learners to see the power of their own experiences in data story-telling processes. This pedagogical approach, guided by Charles Brigg’s idea of communicative justice priorities, locates adult learners’ data visualization work as part of a broader effort to be included in the perspectives that shape knowledge production in today’s healthcare system. This approach can be used to examine disparities in information access in linguistically minoritized communities and guide future education interventions.