Making race and racism invisible: a critical race analysis of data visualizations in online curricular materials for teaching history

Data visualizations, including timelines, maps, and graphs, are often used to present social and political information in the media. Students need to learn how to make sense of data visualizations and recognize when they are being used to mislead, or when they advance white supremacist views. In this study, we used critical race analysis to examine history lessons from four widely-used websites in order to determine if they provided opportunities for students to acquire critical data literacy skills and understand how they presented race and racism in data visualizations. Findings reveal that many lessons miss opportunities to include data visualizations, and, when included, they offer little guidance for helping students understand them. In addition, data visualizations rarely spotlight race or racism, thereby making racial issues and the experiences of marginalized people invisible. We offer advice for teaching data literacy in social studies that centers race and racism.