Situated information literacy: history instruction at a high school early college

Abstract

Purpose -This study aims to explore the question "how would professors teach information literacy to prepare high school students for college?" by observing two history professors at a high school early college during routine classroom instruction. Design/methodology/approach -The research took a case study approach to studying information literacy instruction, drawing from multiple data types but relying primarily on classroom observations and teaching artifacts. Findings -This research found that subjects taught information literacy by situating students as legitimate peripheral participants in the discipline of history. They did so as part of the daily fabric of classroom instruction, using pedagogical techniques such as dialogical reading, spending time with texts, writing to think and thinking historically. Research limitations/implications -This research focuses on history instruction. Future studies could include additional disciplines and directly examine the impact of teaching practices on student cognition. Practical implications -The findings suggest that taking a disciplinary approach is one way to apply insights from the field of situated information literacy to the high school to college transition. It also suggests that information literacy instruction need not be confined to research assignments, and that information literacy educators consider the possibilities these teaching techniques offer for enhancing instruction. Originality/value -This paper offers a rich description of information literacy pedagogy in an unusual but intriguing context of use to instruction librarians and educators at both high school and college levels. It also offers a bridge between situated information literacy rooted in workplace research and academic information literacy instruction.

Moving beyond the descriptive

“…Farrell and Badke, 2015), a focus on situated information literacy tends to have been interpreted in practice as students’ socialisation into fixed and static disciplinary structures (e.g. Farrell and Badke, 2015; Walk, 2015; Grafstein, 2002). Even models of critical information literacy, which have extended understanding of “the socio-cultural forces underlying information production, consumption, and the ideologies that often underlie information literate behavior and its teaching” (Farrell, 2012) have failed to move substantially beyond stratified and institutionally centred subject-specific understandings of practice (Hicks, 2018b).…”

Ahead of Schedule: A History of Early College High Schools

“…And important educational considerations remain, distinct from impact on college credentialing. These questions include pedagogical practices (Walk, 2015), if or in what way early college enhances students’ intellectual growth, and the early college influence on extra-academic developments. These developments, such as pursuing meaningful passions, cultivating one’s self and habits of democratic citizenship, and contributing to campus and community, are often thought to be a hallmark of the traditional college experience.…”