Dr Owen Churches on using Maths to Understand People

Make Me Data Literate
Make Me Data Literate
Dr Owen Churches on using Maths to Understand People
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A fascinating conversation with Government Statistician Dr Owen Churches. How government data collection can shape policy and change our understanding of the world.

“All government data is the result of definitions. By which I mean when we say ‘this is the number of students at this school’, this isn’t a natural, self-evident process by which we count. And this is a crazy confronting thought process.
The way we learnt to count is great for doing maths, but really bad for doing counting of real things in the world, because most real things, and especially people, aren’t mutable. One person here doesn’t equal the same as one person over there.”

“Statisticians and Government data in general aren’t just passive aggregators, but having these active processes that, because they’ve defined things in particular ways, the rest of the system then needs to acquiesce and fall into line.”

“It’s worth spending time thinking about the problems, and struggling with them a little bit. The closer you get to the data, the less clear things should be.”

Published by Dr Linda McIver

Dr Linda McIver pioneered authentic Data Science and Computational Science education with real impact for secondary students and founded the Australian Data Science Education Institute in 2018. Author of Raising Heretics: Teaching Kids to Change the World, Linda is an inspiring keynote speaker who has appeared on the ABC’s panel program Q&A, and regularly delivers engaging Professional Development for Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Educators across all disciplines. A passionate educator, researcher and advocate for STEM, equity and inclusion, with a PhD in Computer Science Education and extensive teaching experience, Linda’s mission is to ensure that all Australian students have the opportunity to learn STEM and Data Science skills in the context of projects that empower them to solve problems and make a positive difference to the world.

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