1. LILAC 2006 How do students develop information literacy – through formal education or social participation? --- Ola Pilerot, Skövde University Library ola.pilerot@his.se

2. LILAC 2006

3. Outline Approaches to IL Embedded IL A study of bachelor theses Analysis Conclusion

4. LILAC 2006 The IL discourse Two dominant perspectives: IL as a fixed set of skills. –Those who think and act in an appropriate way; identify information needs, locate information sources, perform searches in these, retrieve the suitable information and merge this information with what is already known. Relational approach –“IL is learned when different ways of experiencing it are discerned” (Bruce, Edwards, Lupton, 2006) Background

5. Emerging approach The sociocultural approach to IL –Emphasizes IL as something learned in situational contexts in relation to artifacts, to people, and to specific knowledge. “…away from instrumental, skill-based definitions…toward an understanding of [IL] as a culturally situated phenomenon based in the way communities construct meaning and belonging” (Elmborg, 2006) Background Compare with Critical IL as described by: Holschuh Simmons, M. (2005) Luke, A. & Kapitzke, C. (1999)

6. LILAC 2006 Teachers and Librarians “…teachers tend to stress the subject matter of a learning assignment and underestimate the complexities of information seeking for the students. Librarians, on the other hand, will often prefer to focus on the information search process and disregard subject content or learning outcome”. (Limberg, L. 1999) Background

7. LILAC 2006 Incentive To produce a substantiated argument for the sociocultural approach which the analysed results in this study indicates is crucial for successful embedding of IL.

8. LILAC 2006 From generic to embedded IL Extra curricular classes and/or self paced packages (generic). Extra curricular classes and/or self paced packages that complement the curriculum (parallel). Classes and packages that are part of the curriculum (integrated). Curriculum design where students have ongoing interaction and reflection with information (embedded). (Bundy, A. 2004)

9. LILAC 2006 Empirical material Bachelor theses written within two study programs, product engineering design, and nursing. 2 x 9 theses from the same year.

10. LILAC 2006 Directives for theses Formulated on three levels. –Nationally in the Higher Education Ordinance. –Locally at the university by the Research- and Education Board. –Within the frame for the respective study program. Both student categories are supposed to use scientific methods of inquiry; be theoretically aware, critically questioning; and relate to research findings, and when it comes to the engineering students, be able to seek information and obtain knowledge.

11. LILAC 2006 The students Product engineering design –Bachelor degree –Three year programme –Mainly focused on theoretical content Nursing –Bachelor degree –Three year programme –Mainly focused on theoretical content; some periods of practice Both categories have been offered and participated in a credit bearing IL course.

12. LILAC 2006 Sociocultural aspect What are the ideas, thoughts and values on information seeking and use held by the people that meet and teach the students most often? A brief literature review has been performed to answer this question. The results of the review will be linked to the results of the study.

13. LILAC 2006 Nurses’ and engineers’ information behaviour Both groups are: –frequent information users –moderate users of printed information of scientific nature found outside their own organisations. Information use can be seen as tool for a group to shape an identity. –for the nursing profession scholarly information use is an important tool for creating an identity as a “proper” academic discipline. (Sundin, O., 2003)

14. LILAC 2006 Method Quantitative: counted and compared all references. ? What information was used? Carefully read the theses to find out if they followed the directives. ? How, if at all, did they use theories and methods, and did they refer to related research?

15. LILAC 2006 Quantitative results, PED-students

16. LILAC 2006 Quantitative results, Nursing students

17. LILAC 2006 Content analysis results 1(2) Nursing theses –Common ”template” (investigative, in accordance with directives) –Explicitly qualitative (one exception) –Literature reviews –Categorization of results –To some extent connected to nursing theories –To some extent relating to previous research

18. LILAC 2006 Content analysis results 2(2) PED theses –Descriptive (rather than investigative) –Common template reminding of another genre, i.e. a technical report –Explicit accounts for method(s) are rare –Hardly any theory base –Hardly any references to previous studies

19. LILAC 2006 Analytical tools Communities of practice (CoP) Cognitive authority (CA)

20. LILAC 2006 Communities of practice Components of a social theory of learning: – community, ("learning as belonging"), – identity,("learning as becoming"), – meaning,("learning as experience"), and – practice, ("learning as doing") (Wenger, 1998, 5).

21. LILAC 2006 CoP (cont.) Those who learn within a community of practice: […] do not receive or even construct abstract, "objective," individual knowledge; rather, they learn to function in a community /---/ They acquire that particular community's subjective viewpoint and learn to speak its language. In short, they are enculturated. ( Brown & Duguid, 1991. )

22. LILAC 2006 Cognitive authority “If all we could know of the world was what we could find out on the basis of first-hand experience, we would know little”. (Wilson, 1983,9) “the person whom I recognize as having cognitive authority is one whom I think should be allowed to have influence on my thinking, for I suppose he has a good basis for saying what he does” (Ibid., 14-15)

23. LILAC 2006 Cognitive authority Wilson claims that the… “…student is to develop a taste consistent with those of the teachers, and it is not frowned upon for the student to take the teacher as a model whose taste is to be emulated as far as possible.” (Ibid., 66-67)

24. LILAC 2006 CoP A community of practice is a unique combination of three fundamental elements: a domain of knowledge, which defines a set of issues; a community of people who care about this domain; and the shared practice that they are developing to be effective in their domain” (Wenger, McDermott and Snyder, 2002, 27)

25. LILAC 2006 Analysis Nursing students seem to share the repertoire of their teachers. In the CoP of nurses IL is seen as important, it’s an issue (cf. Wenger). Librarians are therefore more likely to be welcomed into the local CoP of nursing, and they therefore gain cognitive authority.

26. LILAC 2006 Analysis PED students also share the repertoire of their teachers. But in the CoP of PED IL is not a high priority, it’s not an issue. Since librarians are not seen as members of the CoP of PED they are not recognized as cognitive authorities. IL has a greater chance of being easily embedded within the nursing disciplin than in the PED disciplin.

27. LILAC 2006 Overview Higher education discourse Directives Product engineering design Nursing IL-course Behavioural sciences Product engineering discourse Health care discourse IL as an “issue”

28. LILAC 2006 Conclusion To foster communities of practice consisting of subject teachers together with librarians, is a way of achieving embedment and thereby increasing the cognitive authority of the teaching librarian.

29. LILAC 2006 ”…there is a big difference between a lesson that is about the practice but takes place outside of it, and explanations and stories that are part of the practice and take place in it.” (Wenger, 1998, 100)

30. LILAC 2006 References Brown, J. S., & Duguid, P. (1991). Organizational learning and communities- of-practice: Toward a unified view of working, learning and innovation. Organization Science, 2(1), 40-57. Bundy, A. (Ed.) (2004) Australian and New Zealand Information Literacy Framework. 2nd ed. Adelaide : Australian and New Zealand Institute for Information Literacy (ANZIIL). Elmborg, J. (2006). Critical information literacy: implications for instructional practice. Journal of Academic Librarianship. Article in press. Holschuh Simmons, M. (2005). Librarians as disciplinary discourse mediators: using genre theory to move toward critical information literacy. Portal: Libraries and the Academy. 5(3), 297-311. Limberg, L. (1999). Experiencing information seeking and learning: a study of the interaction between two phenomena. Information Research. 5(1), http://informationr.net/ir/5-1/paper68.html Luke, A. & Kapitzke, C. (1999). Literacies and libraries: archives and cybraries. Pedagogy, Culture & Society. 7(3), 467-491 Sundin, O. (2003). Informationsstrategier och yrkesidentiteter [Information strategies and occupational identities]. Borås : Valfrid. Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge, UK : Cambridge University Press. Wilson, P. (1983). Second-hand knowledge: an inquiry into cognitive authority. Westport, Conn. : Greenwood P.