Critical and Open Assignments to Amplify Non-dominant Voices
Type of Presentation
Individual paper/presentation
Conference Strand
Critical Literacy
Target Audience
Higher Education
Second Target Audience
K-12
Location
Session 2
Relevance
The presentation describes a critical information literacy approach to teaching relevant to discipline and library faculty.
Proposal
How can we have a just society if our information landscape doesn’t reflect social justice? Why do exclusionary, hegemonic narratives persist in “authoritative” sources, and how can critical and open pedagogies respond to systemic misinformation? The presentation describes how the systemic nature of narratives that exclude certain voices requires students to investigate who produces information–and who doesn’t–while seeking out the suppressed voices. We will examine how even traditionally authoritative sources like encyclopedias and college textbooks distort history inconvenient to dominant groups and omit the experience of the oppressed. To explain how and why this happens we turn to Paulo Freire, Antonio Gramsci, and critical librarianship. Surprisingly, even academic librarians committed to social justice may unwittingly propagate hegemonic narratives by presuming the neutrality of certain source types. To respond to this situation, library and discipline faculty can work together on open practices involving students in creating information that amplifies non-dominant voices. In 2020, a sabbatical allowed me to develop thirty-four research assignments for use by faculty in any discipline. These assignments contain an open/renewable element that enables students to achieve Freirean praxis by positively altering the information landscape.
Presentation Description
The presentation illustrates the problem of “information injustice” with case studies about Latin American history. These examples illuminate who writes the “Official Story” and its consequences for oppressed peoples. We turn to critical theorists to explain the systemic nature of misinformation in which hegemonic narratives “fossilize” in academic information. As a solution, I offer examples of openly licensed, critical and open assignments that support faculty and students working together to improve the information landscape.
Keywords
social justice, open education, critical pedagogy, non-dominant voices, hegemonic narratives
Publication Type and Release Option
Event
Recommended Citation
Swart, Kathy, "Critical and Open Assignments to Amplify Non-dominant Voices" (2022). Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy. 25.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/gaintlit/2022/2022/25
Critical and Open Assignments to Amplify Non-dominant Voices
Session 2
How can we have a just society if our information landscape doesn’t reflect social justice? Why do exclusionary, hegemonic narratives persist in “authoritative” sources, and how can critical and open pedagogies respond to systemic misinformation? The presentation describes how the systemic nature of narratives that exclude certain voices requires students to investigate who produces information–and who doesn’t–while seeking out the suppressed voices. We will examine how even traditionally authoritative sources like encyclopedias and college textbooks distort history inconvenient to dominant groups and omit the experience of the oppressed. To explain how and why this happens we turn to Paulo Freire, Antonio Gramsci, and critical librarianship. Surprisingly, even academic librarians committed to social justice may unwittingly propagate hegemonic narratives by presuming the neutrality of certain source types. To respond to this situation, library and discipline faculty can work together on open practices involving students in creating information that amplifies non-dominant voices. In 2020, a sabbatical allowed me to develop thirty-four research assignments for use by faculty in any discipline. These assignments contain an open/renewable element that enables students to achieve Freirean praxis by positively altering the information landscape.
