Teachers as data navigators is a study that aims to provide a national snapshot of primary and intermediate teachers’ data capabilities, and to understand how schools use data when making decisions aimed at improving teaching, learning, and equity.
The research question that guided our study was: How do primary and intermediate teachers perceive their data capabilities and their use of data when making decisions about improving teaching and learning?
A total of 971 teachers from across 263 primary and intermediate schools took part in our study, completing a survey survey focused on their views and practices across five key areas:
- data infrastructure and support;
- data literacy;
- data scrutiny;
- data discussions;
- and data outcomes.
He kitenga | Findings
Overall, teachers were positive about the functionality of the data systems they accessed. They also reported generally positive views of their data literacy. Teachers were most positive about their use of data for instructional decision making (90–95% agreement).
While over 90% agreed or strongly agreed that they were confident understanding what their data say about student achievement, only 76% agreed or strongly agreed that they knew how to compare the outcomes of different groups of students (e.g., by gender or ethnicity).
The area rated least favourably by teachers was their data discussions, and specific aspects of their data-driven collaborative practices. Overall, there was higher agreement (64–75% agree or strongly agree) with items related to general discussions about data, such as having regular and useful team discussions focused on data analysis and interpretation. But there was less agreement (37–50%) with items related to formal or structured opportunities to have data-driven discussions, such as allocated time dedicated to discussing data and inequities shown in student data. Just over a third of teachers (37%) agreed or strongly agreed that their school had protocols or checklists for having productive discussions about their data.
Teachers were generally in agreement that the data gathered and used in their school is clearly aligned with their school’s strategic goals (80%). Most teachers also considered their data to be sufficient for understanding and improving students’ achievement, progress over time, and learning and wellbeing needs (84–89% agreement).
The qualitative findings highlighted that most teachers saw equity as a quality or an ideal that they worked towards throughout their practice. One group of teachers described equity as responding to diversity and “different” student needs, whereas another described it as achieving “equality” or “sameness”. In their open-ended comments, teachers also described a range of strategies and approaches they saw as improving equitable outcomes for their students. They emphasised the need for collaborative, critical, and triangulated approaches to data use to improve equitable outcomes for students.
In response to the above research question, we identified four key messages from across the quantitative and qualitative findings, and our review of the literature:
- Teachers reported that they had the general capabilities needed to navigate their data and make data-informed decisions about improving teaching and learning.
- More support is needed to develop teachers’ in-depth understanding of how to analyse and discuss data.
- The ways teachers define equity can shape how they look at their data and make provisions for students.
- Strong data capabilities are driven by collaborative school cultures, where teachers are critical about data use, and draw on multiple data sources to inform their practice.