Information literacy. Empowerment or reproduction in practice? A discourse analysis approach
| Published date | 10 July 2017 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-04-2015-0048 |
| Date | 10 July 2017 |
| Pages | 582-594 |
| Author | Geoff Walton,Jamie Cleland |
| 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 |
Information literacy
Empowerment or reproduction in practice?
A discourse analysis approach
Geoff Walton
Department of Languages, Information and Communications,
Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK, and
Jamie Cleland
Department of Social Sciences, Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to present a qualitative investigation into whether online textual
postings, produced by undergraduate students as part of an undergraduate module, can demonstrate their
information literacy (IL) capabilities as a discursive competence and socially enacted practice. It also asks
whether these online postings embody power relations between students, tutors and librarians.
Design/methodology/approach –Foucault’s notion of discursive competence and the separate but
complementary concept of practice architectures (specifically focussing on “sayings”) devised by Lloyd were
used as thematic lenses to categorise online discussion board postings from a formative online peer
assessment exercise created for first-year UK undergraduate students. Online postings were the node of
analysis used to identify patterns of language across online conversation. These postings were inductively
analysed through manual content analysis. Subject’s responses were initially categorised using open coding.
Findings –Postings appeared to embody student’s discursive competence and information practice in IL,
especially their level of information discernment and what constituted a quality “reference”for an
assignment. However, they also demonstrated that the notion of “references”(information artefacts such as a
journal article) perform a certain function in reproducing the discursive practices of an academic discipline as
an agreed construct between tutor, student and librarian.
Practical implications –Students were engaged in the process of becoming good scholars by using
appropriate online postings to create valid arguments through assessing other’s work, but what they did not
do was question received meanings regarding the quality of information they used as evidence. Far from
exhibiting the desired outcome of critical thinking (a cornerstone of IL) students who appeared most articulate
in discussion tended to emulate the “strong discourse”put forward by their tutors and librarians.
Originality/value –This research uses practice architectures and discourse analysis to analyse students’IL
capabilities and the context in which they are developed. An approach not employed hitherto. This has
practical implications for the ways in which academics and librarians introduce students to the academic
discourse of their discipline and the ways in which the production, communication and exchange of
information in academic contexts is characterised.
Keywords Information literacy, Discourse analysis, E-learning, Information behaviour,
Information practice, Practice architectures
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The broad question asked by this research is, in what ways is information literacy (IL) truly
empowering, as many claim, or is it merely a tool for the reproduction of existing structures
and power relations? The discussion furnished here examines both IL as a set of capacities
and IL as part of wider academic discourse. These are mutually interdependent, with the
former primarily focussing on learners’skills and the latter centred on IL as a theoretical
construct. There are many claims made for IL’s potential in terms of its benefit to the
individual (Secker and Coonan, 2013) and society generally (Obama, 2009), that it is
empowering and essential for engaged citizenship (Hepworth and Walton, 2009), necessary
for study (Andretta, 2005) and the workplace (Crawford and Irving, 2012). A large body of
scholarship and research exists on the topic (Leaning, 2009), yet it remains a highly
contested area with its origins in economic pragmatism rather than engaged democratic
Journal of Documentation
Vol. 73 No. 4, 2017
pp. 582-594
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/JD-04-2015-0048
Received 21 April 2015
Revised 19 February 2016
Accepted 1 March 2016
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0022-0418.htm
582
JD
73,4
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