Teaching Data Literacy in Social Studies

“Shreiner demonstrates how we use data visualizations to understand and construct arguments about the world around us and provides concrete ideas for how to approach teaching it in social studies classrooms. This book makes teaching data literacy feel relevant, urgent, and—most importantly—doable.” —Sarah McGrew, University of Maryland

Readers will find practical advice and strategies for teaching data literacy in today's K–12 social studies classroom.

We are surrounded by data and data visualizations in our everyday lives. To help ensure that students can critically evaluate data—and use it to promote social justice—this book outlines principles and practices for teaching data literacy as part of social studies education.

The author shows how social studies content and skills can enhance both data literacy and its importance in supporting students’ historical thinking and civic engagement. Shreiner also provides a rationale for including data literacy in the social studies curriculum and highlights the special knowledge and skills social studies teachers offer in promoting a critical, humanistic form of data literacy.

Recognizing that many social studies teachers feel poorly equipped to teach data literacy, this book offers practical advice, summaries of the benefits and challenges to students, guidance for incorporating data literacy across elementary and secondary grades, and strategies to help students analyze, use, and create data visualizations.

Book Features:

• Helps social studies teachers and teacher educators understand the value of teaching data literacy.
• Highlights the special role social studies teachers can play in supporting critical, humanistic data literacy.
• Synthesizes research and scholarship on teaching data literacy in social studies.
• Provides a suggested scope and sequence for incorporating data literacy into the social studies curriculum across grade levels.
• Offers multiple ideas for resources and tools that can support data literacy instruction in social studies.

Tamara L. Shreiner is an associate professor in the History Department and the director of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences PK–12 Initiatives at Grand Valley State University.

“Teaching Data Literacy in Social Studies convincingly argues that data literacy is a core component of informed citizenship and that social studies teachers play a critical role in helping students develop it. Through a narrative brimming with powerful, illustrative examples, Shreiner demonstrates how we use data visualizations to understand and construct arguments about the world around us, helps the reader build their own data literacy, and provides concrete ideas for how to approach teaching it in social studies classrooms. This book makes teaching data literacy feel relevant, urgent, and—most importantly—doable.”
—Sarah McGrew, assistant professor, University of Maryland College of Education

“In Teaching Data Literacy in Social Studies, Shreiner makes a strong case for the ways that helping social studies students understand data and develop their data literacy will ultimately lead to more citizens who are equipped to make the world better. Yet this book could equally be used by STEM teachers to reimagine the ways they can use data visualizations to teach about citizenship and justice in their curriculum. This important book provides many practical suggestions and powerful visual examples built on sound research that will support educators as they continue to find new ways to integrate data literacy in their history, civics, geography, economics, and other social science classrooms and beyond.”
—Christopher C. Martell, associate professor of social studies education, University of Massachusetts Boston

“It’s hard to overstate the timeliness, comprehensiveness, and extraordinary breadth of Shreiner’s Teaching Data Literacy in Social Studies. Teeming with examples and rich visualizations, this book offers social studies educators all the tools they might need to prepare students to meet the critical data literacy demands of our time.”
—Abby Reisman, associate professor, University of Pennsylvania

“So rare to read a book in education that is innovative and yet long overdue, but Teaching Data Literacy in Social Studies is just such a volume. Tamara Shreiner extends the work of Edward Tufte in conveying the virtues and challenges of using all types of data—graphics, timelines, maps, graphs, and charts—to help students make arguments and tell stories. As an experienced teacher and teacher-educator, Shreiner has provided practical support for elementary, middle, and high school teachers while creating a powerful resource for pre- and inservice teacher educators.”
—Bob Bain, associate professor, School of Education and Department of History, University of Michigan

2025 Society of Professors of Education (SPE) Outstanding Book Award Honorable Mention