Research Guides: Research Assignment Design: Critical Information Literacy

Critical Information Literacy

"Critical information literacy (CIL) is a theory and practice that considers the sociopolitical dimensions of information and production of knowledge, and critiques the ways in which systems of power shape the creation, distribution, and reception of information... In many ways, [CIL] can be seen as an approach to information literacy informed by critical theory, and oftentimes critical pedagogy... Though not limited to teaching, critical information literacy is rooted in information literacy instruction and the educational efforts of librarians. CIL urges students to recognize and resist dominant modes of information production, dissemination, and use."

From: Emily Drabinski and Eamon Tewell's 2019 Critical Information Literacy

Ways to incorporate critical information literacy:

Promoting critique

Creating strategies for spotting bias
Checking for retracted studies
Discussing primary sources that document changes in the field
Evaluating provenance and funding

Evaluation of data and methodology

Monitoring methodological issues
Paying attention to the types of data being used

Access to scholarly research and power

Problematizing the profit model of academic publishers and databases
- Discussing paywalls and databases
Investigating who gets to perform scholarship
Investigating who and what gets studied

The search process

Discussing the history of discriminatory or problematic language in controlled vocabularies
Discussing algorithmic biases
Discussing power structures within search tools

Source types

Consider moving away from peer review privilege to make IL instruction more applicable to critical thinking
Include more than the written word, including interviews, social media feeds, visual rhetoric, putting them in context with other sources
Consider including social media, blogs, and newspapers produced by people of color for audiences that are predominately people of color
Arm students with the skills to "effectively incorporate 'alternative media' into their papers without being penalized, including justifying their determination that these are credible sources." (p. 96)
Move away from dichotomous paradigms by using the cycle of information to discuss sources
- Rather than scholarly vs popular/primary vs secondary/peer reviewed vs not, consider discussing the time and place of publication, the type of source and information, and the authors

News and information

Consider access privilege
Consider representative privilege
Think about how social media might fill gaps
Consider how "most news organizations are beholden to their parent companies, their advertisers, and the audience those advertisers speak to." (p.102)
Discuss framing and "how the details selected for inclusion or exclusion can affect the implicit message of a news report, and how social media can either fill gaps or poke holes in news reports." (p.102)
Include global perspectives

Decentering the center

Acknowledge that what is considered common knowledge "is an unquestioned and unacknowledged white perspective." (p.16)
Centering marginalized voices/perspectives by using counterstories/testimonials
Problematize assumptions or accepted truths
Critique authority as "socially constructed within the context of structures of oppression, including racism and sexism." (p.101)

Knowledge and information production

Consider how traditional methods of knowledge and information production are biased
Consider how avenues of scholarly communication are influenced by biases in knowledge and information production

Dissecting a research question

When working with researchers, consider being "bound up with users' struggles against racism [which] entails emphasizing the teaching dimensions of reference work and deploying concepts of critical pedagogy and critical questioning." (p.274)
Consider these question prompts when working with researchers:
- When you're looking at XXX type of research, who might have been excluded from this?
- Can you imagine another type of authority that might have something to say about this? Maybe a type of authority not in academia?
- What is the target of this research? What might be outside this target?
- What is the agenda behind this primary source? What are the agendas at play for this story?
- What is being assumed with this research question?
Consider showing students how to think critically by using bad prompts

Library Instruction Examples

Critical Pedagogy for Business and Management Undergraduates: Evaluation of Marketing Information
Designed for business students working with marketing databases, this exercise analyzes marketing data in terms of power, privilege, and perspectives, in addition to the price, product, promotion, and place. Worksheet, slide, and suggested databases included.
Googling Google: Search Engines as Market Actors in Library Instruction
This exercise challenges Google as neutral, interrogating results, problematizing tools used in the research process, and investigating the links between capitalism, racism, misogyny, and homophobia.
Social Justify Your Lesson Plan: How to Use Social Media to Make Pop Culture Scholarly
This exercise investigates social media as a viable platform for scholarship by exploring collaborative research through a social media platform and library resources. Includes session instructions, a preparation checklist, and an outline of needed materials.
Social Justice in Information First Year: High Potential Students
The assignment prompts undergraduate students to critically examine results of google image searches as an illustration of inequities in information found on the internet.
Seeking Social Justice in Information | Graduate Counseling, Leadership and Education Students
Designed for graduate students, this exercise examines the perspective/privilege of information sources and identify/understand whose voices are represented, whose voices are missing, and the impact on understanding when searching for information on the internet.
Teaching with Data: Visualization and Information as a Critical Process
This lesson plan walks students through identifying, locating, cleaning, interpreting, and visualizing data, acknowledging that data is a culturally constructed process with historical and political contexts that reveal some things and obscure others.
Thinking through Visualizations: Critical Data Literacy Using Remittances
Using World Bank data, this lesson plan compares visualizations to datasets to discuss how data is used in information sources, explore the advantages and disadvantages of using data and non data sources, and develop critical thinking skills around how data is created and used.
Bias in Your Search Results
This lesson helps students recognize that information tools and systems reflect existing power structures in terms of creation, organization, and access. Includes lesson plan, handout, and materials needed for activities.
Critical Pedagogy and the Information Cycle: A Practical Application
This lesson examines the cycle of information production and publication, distinguishing between source types in order to determine what shapes texts and matching source purpose, authority, and audience with information needs.
Critical race digital literacy rubric for assessing mis/disinformation literacy instruction lesson plans
This source explore Critical Race Digital Literacy as a pedagogical approach to mis/disinformation literacy education and purposes a rubric for assessing mis/disinformation lesson plans.
Checking Our Baggage: Reflective Primary Text Analysis for Religious Studies
This exercise encourages religious studies students to check assumptions about sources but analyzing a primary text with secondary information for a closer reading.
Question Authority and Be an Authority: The Future Belongs to Us
This lesson assists students in becoming conscious of their role in knowledge production as authors and how to come to a collective agreement on what kinds of authority are needed for a particular information purpose. Learning outcomes, needed materials, and session instructions are listed.
The Gender Gap in Wikipedia
This activity explore the marginalization of women and different racial groups on Wikipedia. Students learn about the "Talk" page to evaluate Wikipedia articles and learn about authority and power structures of information on the internet.