Technologies, knowledge and truth: the three dimensions of information literacy of university students in Slovakia

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to inform on results of the study based on the dissertation project – the study of newcoming university students and their information literacy experience. It describes the three categories of information literacy experience as perceived by these students.Design/methodology/approachThe document is based on a qualitative phenomenographic study of 40 first-year undergraduate students of teacher education programs from five faculties of Comenius University in Bratislava. Data were collected from each participant in two stages by three methods: written statements, drawings and interviews.FindingsThe phenomenographic analysis results in three categories of information literacy: (1) the conception of digital technologies, (2) the conception of knowledge and (3) the conception of truth. The outcome space presented by two alternative models points to a strong interrelation of all three categories. The resulting conceptions point to the diversity of the concept of information literacy in relation to other types of literacies, especially digital, reading and media literacy, as well as to intersections with other scientific disciplines such as psychology, cognitive science or philosophy.Research limitations/implicationsThe most important limits of this qualitative research are the low numbers of participants and the high degree of subjectivity in data evaluation. For this reason, a verification study was carried out one-year later.Originality/valueAlthough phenomenographic studies of information literacy in the educational context are quite common, the third category of this study brings a new contribution to the information literacy theory – the dimension of truth or truthfulness of information.

The origins and informed uses of the terms phenomenography and phenomenology

“…As explained supra, different conceptions are another idea commonly presented to demarcate the school of phenomenography from that of phenomenology (Fázik and Steinerová, 2020; Marton, 2015). Because of the foundational variations in human attitudes toward the world, the preferred approach/attitude of phenomenology comes to be that of epochal reduction, somewhat elimination of bias, an approach too often bypassed in descriptions of phenomenography and/or phenomenology (details below).…”

“…In this regard, works have been undertaken in information literacy, with the goal to implement phenomenography. Thus, phenomenography was used to look into the different conceptions of users to leverage information literacy (Bruce, 1994(Bruce, , 1997(Bruce, , 1999F azik and Steinerov a, 2020). For better or worse, the version of phenomenology encountered with most if not all exponents of phenomenography is one displaying a few concepts taken from and limited to Husserl phenomenology but, by the same token, unrepresentative of Husserl work and the work of other phenomenologists.…”