Ways of Experiencing Information Literacy: Making the Case for a Relational Approach

Chandos Information Professional Series

Ways of Experiencing Information Literacy

Making the case for a relational approach

Susie Andretta

Table of Contents

Cover image

Title page

Copyright

List of figures and tables

List of abbreviations

Acknowledgements

Foreword

About the author

Chapter 1: Introduction: who this book is for how to use it

Abstract:

Background and overall aim of the research

Outline of the book

Chapter 2: The relational approach explained

Abstract:

The deep and surface approach to learning

The structure of awareness: internal and external horizons

The outcome space of learning

Experiential variation: fostering deep and transferable learning

The relational studies

Conclusion

Chapter 3: How the relational approach was employed in this research

Abstract:

The stages of the empirical research

Further description of specific aspects of the methodology and research methods

Conclusion

Chapter 4: The multiple-context relational approach generated by the empirical research

Abstract:

Comparing the students’ conceptualisations of academic research and information literacy

The coding framework for the final analysis

The four categories of information literacy

Transformation and transfer

Reflections on the frequency distribution of the codes

The multiple-context outcome space of information literacy

Conclusion

Individual stories

Abstract:

Student 4

Student 10

Student 16

Student 19

Conclusion

Conclusion

Abstract:

Contribution to the relational body of research

Contribution to practice

Limitations of this study

Areas for future research

Conclusion

Appendices

Appendix A: Consent form for the Head of Department, London Metropolitan University

Appendix B: Consent form for students

Appendix C: Practical procedures of the empirical research

Appendix D: Abstract of the thesis

References

Index

Copyright

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First published in 2012

ISBN: 978-1-84334-680-7 (print)

ISBN: 978-1-78063-324-4 (online)

© S. Andretta, 2012

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List of figures and tables

Figures

2.1. A structure of awareness 19

2.2. Ability to use the range of category lenses when searching 40

3.1. Concentric circle illustrating the internal and external horizons of information literacy 50

3.2. The binary information relationship in a personal context 60

3.3. The binary information relationship in an academic context 60

3.4. The ternary information relationship in an information provision context 60

3.5. The ternary information relationship in an information education context 60

3.6. Examples of coded and uncoded text 75

3.7. Pointer in HyperResearch linking the code ‘Academic information relationship’ to a relevant text segment in a transcript 78

3.8. Report showing the codes for information literacy in a personal context for student 14 79

3.9. Report showing extracts for students 2, 5 and 17 for the code ‘Academic IL meaning’ 80

3.10. Report showing extracts for student 11 for the codes ‘Personal IL meaning’, ‘Academic IL meaning’ and ‘Provision IL meaning’ 81

Tables

2.1. The outcome space of learning 22

3.1. Coding framework used during the initial stage of the research 51

3.2. Coding framework used during the medial stage of the research 58

3.3. Coding framework used during the final stage of the research 63

3.4. List of the information sector for the sample of students who participated in the initial stage of the research 67

3.5. List of the information sector for the sample of students who participated in the medial and final stages of the research 67

4.1. Comparison of the ACRL’s Information Literacy Standards and the themes from the students’ views of academic research 93

4.2. The final coding scheme 98

4.3. Frequency of instances displayed by code 154–5

4.4. The multiple-context outcome space of information literacy 157

List of abbreviations

ACRL Association of College and Research Libraries

AIR Applied Information Research

ALA American Library Association

ALIA Australian Library and Information Association

BERA British Educational Research Association

CILIP Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals

ESOL English for Speakers of Other Languages

FILE Facilitating Information Literacy Education

FT Full-time

GP General practitioner

IL Information literacy

IT Information technology

LIS Library and information science

TEFL Teaching English as a Foreign Language

Acknowledgements

My thanks go to Christine Bruce for inspiring the thesis through her work on the relational approach of information literacy, and to Alan Bundy and Ference Marton for influencing the approach to information literacy and phenomenography presented in this book. I am also indebted to Ross Todd for his input in the foreword. And finally I would also like to express my appreciation of Harvey Mellar for providing timely supervision throughout the research, while at the same time enabling the thesis that is presented in this book to develop heuristically.

Foreword

This book is a timely addition to the information literacy discourse, particularly at a time when multiple perspectives of information literacy, multiple approaches to examining and measuring these empirically, and multiple frameworks for information literacy instruction are emerging. For almost 40 years now, the concept and practice of information literacy has been part of the library and information science and educational fields. Its emergence and development indicate that it is a significant concept in academic and school libraries, as well as in a range of social and professional contexts, and advocated as foundation for contemporary education, workplace sustainability and social engagement.

The term information literacy was first used by Zurkowski (1974) in the National Commission on Libraries & Information Science (Washington DC) report ‘The Information Service Environment, Relationships and Priorities’. In this report, information literacy was posited as an individual’s capacity to use information tools and information sources to address problems. This appears to be the foundation for the final report of the Presidential Committee on Information Literacy (ALA, 1989), which described information literate people in the following way:

Ultimately, information literate people are those who have learned how to learn. They know how to learn because they know how knowledge is organized, how to find information, and how to use information in such a way that others can learn from them. They are people prepared for lifelong learning, because they can always find the information needed for any task or decision at hand.

In the wake of our society’s prolific growth of information, and the wellspring of information interconnections and networks through digitally generated and transmitted information, this formalization has spawned many variations of definitions as institutions and organizations globally gave it increasing focus, particularly in articulating sets of skills deemed necessary for people in all walks of life to engage effectively in the rich information landscape, as well as identifying attributes of information literate people. The formalization and operationalization of information literacy, primarily as discrete information handling skills and operationalized through instruction-based tasks to develop these skills, has also provided the platform for sustained discussion surrounding the distinctions, if any, between information literacy and bibliographic instruction, user education, information skills, library skills, and library literacy, and its relationship to functional literacies such as reading and writing, visual literacy, digital literacy, and critical literacy, to name a few.

More importantly, in my view, the plethora of understandings, definitions, descriptions, and models of information literacy has in recent years fostered considerable and sustained scholarly discourse and research, which is playing a significant role in explicating this complex concept. The work of Christine Bruce (1997a) is significant here. Her landmark research focused on understanding and creating a picture of the different ways in which information literacy is experienced by higher educators from a range of academic disciplines. Based on a phenomenographic approach, which seeks to establish the variations in the ways in which a phenomenon is perceived and experienced, Bruce’s research provided rich insight into how university educators interact with the world of information from their own experience, and a framework for librarians and other educators to understand critical differences in people’s experiences with information to provide more effective, people-centred information literacy instruction.

Grounded in critical reflection on information literacy education, Andretta’s empirical research builds on and extends this experience-centred conceptualization of information literacy, and a user-centred approach to information literacy education. In doing so, it first questions the efficacy of well-established task-based approaches to information literacy education, many of which appear to be based on models and schemas of information literacy that are largely without theoretical foundation, not derived from systematic research, and not strongly tested and validated models. Second, it moves beyond task-based approaches to information literacy education, which has the potential to be a mismatch between experiences, expectations and processes. Third, it addresses critical questions surrounding deep and surface learning and its relationship to the way people experience information, how these experiences are shaped and modified through learners’ on-going experiences and learning with information, and how educators might best intervene in the experiences to engage learners more effectively and shape meaningful learning.

The research focuses on postgraduate students, and complements the growing body of research that focuses on undergraduate students and university educators. By systematically examining the changing relationship between postgraduate students and information as the students engage with the literature review process, the research provides a fresh and rich conceptualization of their information literacy experiences, and a constructivist lens of awareness, transformation, and transfer as a framework for instructional design. Through acknowledging variation in the way that information literacy is perceived and experienced, the research also provides insights into how librarians and educators involved in information literacy education can play a stronger, learner-centred role in instructional design and delivery.

At the heart of this work are fundamental questions surrounding how people in all walks of life go about making discoveries, and creating and developing new knowledge and understanding. This is central to the mission of formal education, whether it be primary, secondary or higher education. Andretta challenges us to examine carefully and critically the epistemological and ontological assumptions that shape how graduate students use information to generate and validate knowledge. This suggests that simplistic models of information research and information processes advocated by libraries and their information literacy agendas may be inconsistent with not just the way disciplines build deep knowledge and deep understanding, but also how learners experience that learning process through their engagement with information. We are invited to think outside the box, to challenge our own thinking and professional information literacy practice, and to rethink what is often reduced to a one-size-fits-all approach to information literacy education. From multiple perspectives, and in the context of this important research, I am inspired by the words of Robert F Kennedy (1917–1963), 35th president of the USA (1961–1963): ‘We set sail on this sea because there is knowledge to be gained’ (The Quotations Page, no date). Such challenges are part of the future of information literacy: celebrating its journey, building its future. This is the fundamental reason why information literacy is so important today, and the fundamental reason why it is so critical to engage in this addition to our corpus of knowledge surrounding information literacy.

Dr Ross J. Todd,     Associate Professor, Director, Center for International Scholarship in School Libraries (CISSL), School of Communication & Information, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA

About the author

Dr Susie Andretta has published extensively on information literacy drawing from her research on the impact of information literacy education from a learner-centred perspective and the perspective of the educator as a facilitator of learning. In 2005 she published Information Literacy: A Practitioner’s Guide to promote effective information literacy use as a foundation of independent and lifelong learning, and explore the empowering effect of information literacy on the facilitator and the learner. In 2007 she edited the book Change and Challenge: Information Literacy for the 21st Century to examine the implementation of information literacy education from a range of UK-based and international perspectives. In this book, Ways of Experiencing Information Literacy: Making the case for a relational approach, she proposes that the experience of information literacy is defined in terms of a dynamic relationship between learner and information literacy, which operates in learner-defined multiple-contexts.

1

Introduction: who this book is for how to use it

Abstract:

The book presents an investigation of the experience of information literacy from the perspective of postgraduate information management students. To accomplish this, the study employed a relational approach identifying the dynamic relationships between students and information, and assessed the impact of these relationships on the outcome of learning. Such a learner-centred perspective proposes an alternative to information literacy education that fosters the development of information skills and the accumulation of knowledge about the information environment. In this respect, the book appeals to educators dealing with any learning situation because the relational approach of information literacy reflects the act of learning, which needs to be considered alongside any content-specific provision.

Key words

relational approach

learner-centred perspective of information literacy

phenomenography

person–information relationship

This book presents my doctoral research (Andretta, 2010a), investigating the experience of information literacy from the perspective of postgraduate information management students. The key issue that inspired this research was the need to examine what being an information literate learner entails, and to this end I employed the relational approach developed by Bruce (1997a), which examines information literacy from the perspective of the person experiencing it by looking at the relationship between people and information. In other words, the purpose of the research was not to answer the question ‘what is information literacy?’ but to explore what information literacy means to the learner.

A number of issues are raised here that appeal to different audiences. The learner-centred perspective of information literacy proposed by this relational study stands in contrast with a tutor-centred view of information literacy, defined as developing information skills and knowledge of the information environment. This latter view is described as tutor-centred because skills and knowledge are determined by the tutor, rather than negotiated between tutor and learner (Andretta, 2006a: 1). Coming to terms with the relational approach is therefore of relevance to professionals in higher education who are responsible for delivering information literacy programmes. These professionals include faculty staff from library and information science disciplines, like myself, or academic librarians involved in user education across a spectrum of subjects. In addition, as this research focuses on the experience of information literacy practices by information management postgraduate students undertaking academic research, reading about these experiences might benefit students from postgraduate courses in cognate disciplines who are embarking on similar research work.

The book also illustrates how the relational approach was used to structure the empirical research and the analysis of the data in an attempt to make this study transparent to researchers who wish to undertake similar investigations. The inclusion in the appendices of thesis-related documentation targets doctoral students in particular by offering concrete examples of some important aspects of the empirical study, such as the articulation of ethical strategies or of the abstract of the thesis. It is hoped that the detailed account of this study will offer a useful frame of reference for neophyte researchers who intend to employ phenomenographic or relational frameworks.

In this book, the relational approach of information literacy focuses on the relationship between the learner and the information goal, but the most important point is that the learner-defined context in which this experience occurs determines the nature of both the information goal and the relationship. For example, in a personal context students experience information literacy as Functional Literacy, where everyday information goals, such as finding the required train departure, are solved by a simple relationship between the person and the right answer, such as consulting a train timetable. By contrast, in an academic context, students experience information literacy as Lifelong Learning, where the information goal is open-ended. For example, reviewing the literature for a topic can be structured in different ways depending on which key themes the review focuses on. In this case, the information goal cannot be accomplished by finding the right answer to a question, but only by finding an answer that can be justified. In other words, students have to generate their own ‘right’ answer, and this act of learning (reviewing the literature) is as important as the content learned (the literature debate). The open-ended nature of Lifelong Learning gives an insight into the students’ relationship with information (the act of learning) that applies in any academic context (the content learned), making this academic experience of information literacy relevant to educators, irrespective of their disciplines.

The relational approach presented in this book also offers two qualitative ways of measuring the impact of information literacy: transfer and transformation. These measurements transcend the assessment of skills and knowledge by focusing on how the impact of the learning experience is manifested in practice. Transfer shows the extent to which what is learned or known in one context is applied to another context. For example, a student’s professional or personal knowledge of a research topic translates into a greater understanding of the literature debate about the topic, and this in turn generates confident academic practice through a sense of ‘ownership’ of the review and how to structure it. Transformation, on the other hand, illustrates how the learners’ views of themselves evolve, based on the change in the way information literacy is conceptualised or practised as a result of reviewing the literature. The increased academic confidence that comes with completing literature review tasks helps these students deal with the uncertainties of real-world research and open-ended goals. They begin to see research not as a rigid and linear process of investigation but as a dynamic one, whose focus and design change in response to findings from the literature and practical constraints, such as lack of time. Transfer and transformation may be of use to those educators who wish to focus on the qualitative impact of learning by examining students' interaction with information at subject-specific level.

No prior knowledge of information literacy is assumed here, especially as educators and researchers from subjects outside library and information science may not be familiar with this concept. Although a full account of the information literacy debate goes beyond the scope of this book, and is covered in previous publications (Andretta, 2005, 2007a, 2009b, 2009c,2010c and 2011c), within this context it is broadly described as the ability to find, evaluate, use and disseminate information in order to ‘learn how to learn’ (ALA, 1989). Thus in this book information literacy is seen as the foundation of learning that is experienced by the students as individuals, as students and as information professionals.

Background and overall aim of the research

Before I present a rationale for this relational study, it is necessary to establish my professional interest in information literacy education and introduce the two modules that provide the information goals used to identify the students' information literacy conceptualisations and practices. My interest in information literacy began in 2000 with the development of an information literacy module for first year undergraduate students from the Department of Applied Social Studies at the University of North London (renamed London Metropolitan University in 2002). The rationale for this course was based on findings from the literature, which confirmed my assumption that students at this level are not information literate; on the contrary they experience difficulties with accessing and evaluating the information required for their academic studies (Shapiro and Hughes, 1996; Hepworth, 1999; Bundy, 2000 and 2005). This prompted me to undertake a number of investigations about the need to profile students in order to implement an information literacy education programme that addressed their learning needs (Andretta, 2001), and at the same time encourage independent learning (Andretta and Cutting, 2003). The implementation of this first year module was followed by the development of a web-based information literacy support programme for dissertation students on the BSc in Information Management at London Metropolitan University (Andretta, 2002).

In 2003, this web-based provision expanded to accommodate the integration of information literacy education in the Applied Information Research (AIR) and the dissertation modules for the MA in Information Services Management at the same institution. It should be noted that this MA provides a UK-based first professional qualification for information professionals, such as librarians and information managers. These two modules therefore aim to foster the students’ independent learning attitudes by encouraging them to become reflective information practitioners (Andretta, 2004). My decision to research the information literacy provision embedded in these two postgraduate modules was based on the following reasons. In the first instance the literature showed that research of the information literacy experience, that is the conceptualisation and practice of this phenomenon by postgraduate students was not as widespread as research that examined information literacy education at undergraduate level of provision (Bruce, 1999; Candy, 1995 and Candy, 2000; Bundy, 1999, 2000 and 2003). In addition, by selecting information management postgraduate students as the focus of my research I wanted to shed some light on the experience of information literacy from the point of view of this discipline-specific population in order to enhance my information literacy provision.

The Information Literacy Standards devised by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL, 2000) were used to structure the initial provision of AIR and the dissertation modules because these standards represent information literacy as a process of investigation that suits the ethos of systematic and real-world research that these modules promote. A detailed account of the ACRL Standards is given in a previous publication (Andretta, 2005: 41–54). Here, they are summarised as an investigative process consisting of five stages: the identification of the information needed (Standard 1), the retrieval and evaluation of the information sought (Standards 2 and 3), its application to accomplish a specific purpose (Standard 4) while operating within a clearly defined legal and ethical framework (Standard 5). The purpose of AIR and the dissertation modules was to expose students to the ACRL’s Information Literacy Standards by engaging in research that is valid and transparent, while at the same time focusing on research projects that are innovative, sustainable and that reflect the professional concerns of the information communities these students belong to. In AIR these research features are combined with the idea of adding value to the research proposals by asking the students to complete the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s research proposal form for small grants (Andretta, 2005: 185–188) to simulate the conditions of the funded research environment. In their dissertations