Analyzing high school students’ critical ethical decision-making in data science

As society increasingly relies on Big Data Analytics, there is an urgent need for critical ethical decision-makers who can navigate the risks of data-driven harm. At present, educators lack analytic tools to understand how students make these complex ethical choices. This paper introduces the Ethical Decision Making in Data Science Framework, an analytic tool built on critical mathematics, relational and normative ethics, to characterize student reasoning and agency. We demonstrate the framework by analyzing high school students’ reasoning from task-based interviews following a Critical Ethical Data Science course. Our findings highlight the specific knowledge bases and reasoning practices necessary to cultivate critical ethical data science practitioners.