Teaching Critical Information Literacy to Address Structural Oppression in Scholarly Communications
Type of Presentation
Workshop (1 hour and 15 minutes)
Target Audience
Higher Education
Location
Room 218/220
Proposal
This session will focus on structural oppression within the academic library, and ways two librarians teach students to recognize and analyze the effects of racism and sexism on the information available within library resources. These issues play out in the organization of library resources, the systems used to provide access to information, and the scholarly communication landscape. As librarians, our mission is to support students' ability to critically evaluate the information available to them. Understanding the ways structural oppression has shaped that information - from bias in the peer review process to decisions about what to purchase to the ways that information is organized in various retrieval tools - is an important part of that critical evaluation.
We will begin with an overview of the ways systemic oppression is embedded in the particular context of the academic library, including the systems used to organize and provide access to resources and the ways students are taught to evaluate "scholarly" sources. From there, we will discuss the ways we teach this topic in a semester-long course, Information Literacy and Research, and then facilitate a discussion of how smaller lessons related to this topic could be incorporated into course-integrated instruction sessions.
We aim to provide sufficient background for novice attendees, but hope that even advanced participants will gain new ideas for lessons to incorporate in their courses.
Presentation Description
This session will focus on structural oppression within the academic library, and ways we teach students to recognize and analyze the effects of racism and sexism on the information available within library resources. We will begin with an overview of how systemic oppression is embedded in the context of the academic library, discuss how we teach this topic in a semester-long course, and then facilitate a discussion of how lessons related to this topic could be incorporated into course-integrated instruction.
Session Goals
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Examine some ways in which systemic racism and sexism have shaped academic libraries.
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Discuss the effects of systemic oppression in academic libraries in relation to information literacy and student learning.
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Discuss ideas for designing lessons that encourage critical information literacy and an evaluation of research practices.
Keywords
Diversity, Inclusion, Systemic Racism, Critical Information Literacy
Publication Type and Release Option
Presentation (Open Access)
Recommended Citation
Ivory, CJ and Pashia, Angela, "Teaching Critical Information Literacy to Address Structural Oppression in Scholarly Communications" (2018). Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy. 48.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/gaintlit/2018/2018/48
Teaching Critical Information Literacy to Address Structural Oppression in Scholarly Communications
Room 218/220
This session will focus on structural oppression within the academic library, and ways two librarians teach students to recognize and analyze the effects of racism and sexism on the information available within library resources. These issues play out in the organization of library resources, the systems used to provide access to information, and the scholarly communication landscape. As librarians, our mission is to support students' ability to critically evaluate the information available to them. Understanding the ways structural oppression has shaped that information - from bias in the peer review process to decisions about what to purchase to the ways that information is organized in various retrieval tools - is an important part of that critical evaluation.
We will begin with an overview of the ways systemic oppression is embedded in the particular context of the academic library, including the systems used to organize and provide access to resources and the ways students are taught to evaluate "scholarly" sources. From there, we will discuss the ways we teach this topic in a semester-long course, Information Literacy and Research, and then facilitate a discussion of how smaller lessons related to this topic could be incorporated into course-integrated instruction sessions.
We aim to provide sufficient background for novice attendees, but hope that even advanced participants will gain new ideas for lessons to incorporate in their courses.
