From informational reading to information literacy. Change and continuity in document work in Swedish schools
| Pages | 1042-1052 |
| Published date | 10 September 2018 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-11-2017-0156 |
| Date | 10 September 2018 |
| Author | Anna Hampson Lundh,Mats Dolatkhah,Louise Limberg |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Records management & preservation,Document management,Classification & cataloguing,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Scholarly communications/publishing,Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
From informational reading
to information literacy
Change and continuity in document work
in Swedish schools
Anna Hampson Lundh, Mats Dolatkhah and Louise Limberg
The Swedish School of Library and Information Science,
University of Borås, Borås, Sweden
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to historicise research conducted in the fields of Information Seeking
and Learning and Information Literacy and thereby begin to outline a description of the history of
information in the context of Swedish compulsory education.
Design/methodology/approach –Document work and documentary practices are used as alternatives
to concepts such as information seeking or information behaviour. Four empirical examples of document
work –more specifically informational reading –recorded in Swedish primary classrooms in the 1960s
are presented.
Findings –In the recordings, the reading style students use is similar to informational reading in
contemporary educational settings: it is fragmentary, facts-oriented, and procedure-oriented. The practice of
finding correct answers, rather than analysing and discussing the contents of a text seems to continue from
lessons organised around print textbooks in the 1960s to the inquiry-based and digital teaching of today.
Originality/value –The paper seeks to analyse document work and documentary practices by regarding
“information”as a discursive construction in a particular era with material consequences in particular
contexts, rather than as a theoretical and analytical concept. It also problematises the notion that new digital
technologies for producing, organising, finding, using, and disseminating documents have drastically
changed people’s behaviours and practices in educational and other contexts.
Keywords Information literacy, Reading, Sweden, Literacy, Document theory, Information behaviour,
Information practices, Primary education, History of information
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Research within the Library and Information Science (LIS) sub-fields of Information Seeking
and Learning and Information Literacy is often motivated by the notion that new digital
technologies for producing, organising, finding, using, and disseminating documents have
drastically changed people’s behaviours and practices in educational and other contexts.
Even though changing technologies entail changing information behaviours and practices,
it is problematic to base research in these fields on this premise only. One risk that we run
when emphasising the new, digital, and technological aspects of contemporary information
activities is that longer processes of change and continuity may become obscured. If the
historical roots of present-day information activities are not taken into account, current
changes might be misinterpreted and the impact of new technologies might either be
overstated or taken for granted.
In this paper, we will focus on what is called informational reading, as it was practiced in
Swedish primary school classrooms in the late 1960s. We will give examples of situations
where informational reading was taught and discuss these situations in terms of continuity
and change. In this way, we will illustrate how a particular style of reading can be seen as a
predecessor to information activities in contemporary school settings. Thus, this is an
attempt to historicise research conducted in the fields of Information Seeking and Learning
and Information Literacy and thereby begin to outline a description of the history of
information in the context of Swedish compulsory school.
Journal of Documentation
Vol. 74 No. 5, 2018
pp. 1042-1052
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/JD-11-2017-0156
Received 10 November 2017
Revised 19 March 2018
Accepted 3 May 2018
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0022-0418.htm
1042
JD
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