This document discusses information literacy as an emerging academic discipline. It outlines some key indicators that information literacy exhibits as a discipline, such as the existence of professional associations and journals, and an international community of scholars. The document also reviews some important areas of research in teaching and learning within disciplines, and how the proposed ACRL Framework recognizes information literacy's threshold concepts, further establishing it as a discipline in its own right rather than just a set of personal skills.

1. Information Literacy as a discipline: a contemporary perspective
Sheila Webber
Bill Johnston
Dubrovnik, October 2014

2. Outline
•Beyond definitions and descriptions
•The indicators of a discipline and IL
•Disciplines and pedagogical research
•ACRL Framework 2014/15
•The discipline and the person
Sheila Webber & Bill Johnston, 2014

3. “There are more than enough definitions which enumerate characteristics of information literacy. What is needed is further analysis of information literacy as a coherent field of study” Webber and Johnston, 2000: 395
Sheila Webber & Bill Johnston, 2014

4. IL and the indicators of a discipline
•Becher and Trowler (2001) identify indicators of a discipline
–The existence of professional associations and journals
–The degree to which an international community has emerged
–The existence of academic departments (not yet!)
–Graduate students
–Identification with the discipline
–Distinctive language
–Knowledge and research base
•We identified IL as a soft applied discipline
See: Johnston and Webber (2006); Webber (2010)
Sheila Webber & Bill Johnston, 2014

5. Threshold Concepts
Thinking & Practising in the disciplines
Variation Theory
Phenomenographic Research
Pedagogical research on disciplines’ teaching and learning: some key strands
Approaches to Learning
Entwistle & Tomlinson (2007)
Marton, Hounsell and Entwistle (1984)
Meyer & Land (2003)
Teaching- Learning Environment
Akerlind, McKenzie, Lupton, and Trigwell (2010)
Constructive alignment
Biggs & Tang (4th ed.) (2011)
Sheila Webber & Bill Johnston, 2014

6. ACRL revisions as stimulus
•ACRL’s proposed IL Framework for Higher Education identifies Threshold Concepts (TC), throwing a contemporary focus on the discipline of IL
•You cannot have TCs without having a subject or discipline within which the TCs reside: they are identified by disciplinary experts
•By accepting the TC account of disciplines and disciplinary teaching, ACRL has provided further substance to the case for IL as a discipline in its own right and not a package of personal information skills
Sheila Webber & Bill Johnston, 2014

7. Knowldege & research base: Core elements
•Information Literacy
•Information behaviour
•Learning
•The diagram in the next slide also indicates areas of research activity
Sheila Webber & Bill Johnston, 2014

8. Information literate person
Information economy:
•Law
•Changes in media
•Pricing etc
Organisational culture:
•Mission; Values; Norms
•Management style; ways of working
•Information strategy
Personal goals, relationships, habits, special needs
Local & national culture & society
Technical changes
The information literate person in a changing information culture and society
Johnston & Webber 2013
Based on Webber and Johnston, 2000

9. Sheila Webber
Information School
University of Sheffield
s.webber@shef.ac.uk
Twitter: @sheilayoshikawa
http://information-literacy.blogspot.com/
http://www.slideshare.net/sheilawebber/
Photo and graphics:Sheila Webber
Bill Johnston
Honorary Research Fellow
University of Strathclyde
b.johnston@strath.ac.uk

10. •Akerlind, G., McKenzie, J., Lupton, M., Trigwell, K. (2010) Threshold Concepts and Variation Theory. http://thresholdvariation.edu.au/
•Association of College and Research Libraries. (2014). Draft for comment. http://acrl.ala.org/ilstandards/?page_id=133
•Becher, T. and Trowler, P. (2001). Academic tribes and territories: intellectual enquiry and the culture of disciplines. (2nd ed.) Milton Keynes, England: Society for Research into Higher Education and Open University Press.
•Biggs, J. and Tang, C. (2011). Teaching for quality learning at university. (4th ed.) Milton Keynes, England: Open University Press.
•Entwistle, N. and Tomlinson, P. (Eds.) (2007). Student learning and university teaching. (pp. 73-90). Leicester, England: British Psychological Society.
•Johnston, B. and Webber, S. (2006). As we may think: Information Literacy as a discipline for the information age. Research strategies, 20 (3), 108-121.
•Marton, F., Hounsell, D. and Entwistle, N. (Eds.) (1984) The experience of learning. Edinburgh, Scotland: Scottish Academic Press.
•Meyer, J. and Land, R. (2003). Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge: linkages to ways of thinking and practicing within the disciplines. http://www.etl.tla.ed.ac.uk/docs/ETLreport4.pdf
•Webber, S., Boon, S. and Johnston, B. (2006). Comparison of UK academics’ conceptions of teaching information literacy in different disciplines. In Actes des 5èmes Rencontres Formist: Lyon: 2005 (pp.1-17). Lyon, France: ENSSIB.
•Webber, S. (2010) La culture l’informationnelle: un domain d’etude international. In: Chapron, F. and Delamontte, E. (Eds) L’education a la culture informationnelle. (pp 102- 113) Villerbanne, France: ENSSIB.
Sheila Webber & Bill Johnston, 2014
References