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PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore teen-adult dialogic interactions during the co-design of data literacy activities in order to determine the nature of teen thinking, their emotions, level of engagement, and the power of relationships between teens and adults in the context of data literacy. This study conceives of co-design as a learning space for data literacy. It investigates the teen–adult dialogic interactions and what these interactions say about the nature of teen thinking, their emotions, level of engagement and the power relationships between teens and adults. Design/methodology/approachThe study conceives of co-design as a learning space for teens. Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC-22), a natural language processing (NLP) software tool, was used to examine the linguistic measures of Analytic Thinking, Clout, Authenticity, and Emotional Tone using transcriptions of recorded Data Labs with teens and adults. Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC-22), a natural language processing (NLP) software tool, was used to examine the linguistic measures of Analytic Thinking, Clout, Authenticity and Emotional Tone using transcriptions of recorded Data Labs with teens and adults. FindingsLIWC-22 scores on the linguistic measures Analytic Thinking, Clout, Authenticity and Emotional Tone indicate that teens had a high level of friendly engagement, a relatively low sense of power compared with the adult co-designers, medium levels of spontaneity and honesty and the prevalence of positive emotions during the co-design sessions. Practical implicationsThis study provides a concrete example of how to apply NLP in the context of data literacy in the public library, mapping the LIWC-22 findings to STEM-focused informal learning. It adds to the understanding of assessment/measurement tools and methods for designing data literacy education, stimulating further research and discussion on the ways to empower youth to engage more actively in informal learning about data. Originality/valueThis study applies a novel approach for exploring teen engagement within a co-design project tasked with the creation of youth-oriented data literacy activities. 

Abstract The paper examines the concept of participation in co‐design practices with children and youth. Rooted inParticipatory DesignandParticipatory Action Researchframeworks, the paper draws from multi‐disciplinary literature to survey existing definitions of the relationships, roles, and types of human interactions in participatory co‐design. The paper advocates for the active role of children and youth in the co‐design process and presents models of youth participation. The paper highlights the importance of understanding and clearly communicating various degrees of participation, with the ultimate goal of empowering youth and involving them in brainstorming, planning, decision‐making, and interpretation stages of the design process. We introduce the concept ofconscious co‐designand the need to reflect on the design process at a meta level inParticipatory DesignandParticipatory Action Research.