The Feminist Pedagogy Project

Author: Bourne, P.

Critical data ethics pedagogies: Three (non-rival) approaches

Author(s):	Murillo, L. F. R. Wylie, C. & Bourne, P.
Date:	2023
Publication:	Big Data & Society
Citation:	Murillo, L. F. R., Wylie, C., & Bourne, P. (2023). Critical data ethics pedagogies: Three (non-rival) approaches. Big Data & Society, 10(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517231203666

Section on webpage:	Critical Data Justice Literature
Tenets:	Using technology intentionally to build communities and enhance learning.
Annotation:	(Abstract) In a moment of heightened ethical questioning concerning data-intensive analytics, “data ethics” has become a site of dispute over its very definition in teaching, research, and practice. In this paper, we contextualize this dispute based on the experience of teaching data ethics. We describe how the field of computer ethics has historically informed the training of computer experts and how, in recent years, the scholarship on science and technology studies has created opportunities for transforming the way we teach with the inclusion of critical scholarship on relational ethics and sociotechnical systems. The emergent literature on “critical data ethics” has created a space for interdisciplinary collaboration that integrates technical and social science research to examine digital systems in their design, implementation, and use through a hands-on approach. As a contribution to the recent efforts to reimagine and transform the field of data science, we conclude with a discussion of the approach we devised to bridge technology/society divides and engage students with questions of social justice, accountability, and openness in their data practices.

February 11, 2026

Critical data ethics pedagogies: Three (non-rival) approaches

Author(s):	Murillo, L. F. R. Wylie, C. & Bourne, P.
Date:	2023
Publication:	Big Data & Society
Citation:	Murillo, L. F. R., Wylie, C., & Bourne, P. (2023). Critical data ethics pedagogies: Three (non-rival) approaches. Big Data & Society, 10(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517231203666

Section on webpage:	Critical Data Justice Literature
Tenets:	Using technology intentionally to build communities and enhance learning.
Annotation:	(Abstract) In a moment of heightened ethical questioning concerning data-intensive analytics, “data ethics” has become a site of dispute over its very definition in teaching, research, and practice. In this paper, we contextualize this dispute based on the experience of teaching data ethics. We describe how the field of computer ethics has historically informed the training of computer experts and how, in recent years, the scholarship on science and technology studies has created opportunities for transforming the way we teach with the inclusion of critical scholarship on relational ethics and sociotechnical systems. The emergent literature on “critical data ethics” has created a space for interdisciplinary collaboration that integrates technical and social science research to examine digital systems in their design, implementation, and use through a hands-on approach. As a contribution to the recent efforts to reimagine and transform the field of data science, we conclude with a discussion of the approach we devised to bridge technology/society divides and engage students with questions of social justice, accountability, and openness in their data practices.