Using Technology to Rethink the Intersection of Statistics Education and Social Justice

Introduction

Will saving the poor children of the world from dying of disease lead to overpopulation? This stunning question was recently posed by Hans Rosling of the Gapminder Foundation (http://gapminder.org/videos/will-saving-poor-children-lead-to-overpopulation/). Rosling was obviously not suggesting that this is the case; rather he was drawing awareness to the fact that sometimes erroneous beliefs may, consciously or unconsciously, influence people’s actions or their failure to act. Beliefs and opinions concerning such questions are critical, as some individuals serve in positions of power and are able to make decisions that can impact world problems, such as funding aid to poorer countries. Others will influence policy-makers by their votes and by voicing public opinion, or through engagement with private corporations or foundations. Beliefs motivate individuals to spur action or may cause serious societal harm. The following sections describe this chapter’s theoretical foundations, including the use of critical statistics pedagogy to promote social justice, the role of specialized technologies in statistical explorations, and an explanation of how this work is framed in connection to the development of technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK). Investigations suitable for use with middle school or high school students or with pre-service/in-service teachers are illustrated and some samples of student work are shared.