Statistical Literacy for Active Citizenship: A Call for Data Science Education

Data are abundant, quantitative information about the state of society and the
wider world is around us more than ever. Paradoxically, recent trends in the public
discourse point towards a post-factual world that seems content to ignore or
misrepresent empirical evidence. As statistics educators we are challenged to
promote understanding of statistics about society. In order to re-root public debate to
be based on facts instead of emotions and to promote evidence-based policy
decisions, statistics education needs to embrace two areas widely neglected in
secondary and tertiary education: understanding of multivariate phenomena and the
thinking with and learning from complex data.