The role of the pedagogue in young school children’s construction of information literacy

Anna Lundh, Doctoral studentLouise Limberg, Professor

Background

• Study of use of ICT and information seeking (Davidsson et. al., forthcoming): o The threat of ICT tools o Challenged their view of the concept of

childhoodo Copy-and-paste strategieso Information seeking process is shaped by the

discursive practice of the school

Research questions

• What characterizes a pedagogical discursive practice concerning pupils’ construction of information literacy in problem-centred teaching?

• What does it mean to be information literate in the social practice of problem- centred teaching organized by the pedagogues?

A sociocultural perspective on information literacy

• “A new emerging framework on information literacy”(Sundin, forthcoming)

• Information literacy as an integrated part of literacy

“… a literate person in late modern society is not someone with reading and writing skills only. He/she must also be in possession of information seeking skills as late modern society and its information structures demand this” (Andersen 2006, p. 217).

A sociocultural perspective on information literacy

• Information literacy as an integrated part of literacy

• Information literacy as situated in different social practices

• Tools or mediational means

“discourses of technology and the global market economy” (Kapitzke 2003, p. 41)

“Basically, information literacy must be grounded in an understanding of how the documents stored in the information system one uses are produced as a result of some generic communicative activities in society” (Andersen 2006, p. 225).

“communicative participation in different social practices” (Sundin & Johannisson 2005, p 37).

A sociocultural perspective on information literacy

• Information literacy as an integrated part of literacy

• Information literacy as situated in different social practices

• Tools or mediational means – offers a way to analyze the concept itself

Data collection

• Focus group with teachers• Interviews with librarian and ICT assistant• Documents• Observations of a theme, pre-school group

and first-formers• Observations of research, second-formers

Overall findings

• Literacy and information literacy separated

• Aesthetic activities – utilitarian information seeking

Findings – focus on literacy

• Development of literacy permeates all activities

• Copying texts “a goal in itself”• Focus on the reading of fiction

“Librarian: You should have the language, you should have the fantasy and the understanding and the empathy – you will get it all when you read.”

Findings – focus on information seeking

• Navigation on the web –ICT assistant• Different picture of the children’s

abilities

Findings – pre-school group and first grade

• Cooperation main aim - subject not important

• Aesthetic activities• Almost no self-initiated information

seeking

Findings – second grade

• “… where shall I seek my knowledge?”• Discussions of the social organization of

knowledge (cf. Andersen 2006) initially • Certain order

o Lack of support when problem area is defined

o Copying strategies

Conclusions

• Problems with a “information literacy procedure”.

• Implications for the information literacy concept?

The writing of this article has been conducted at The Linnaeus Centre for Research on Learning, Interaction and Mediated Communication in Contemporary Society (LinCS) and it was also made possible by funding from Södra Älvsborgs Forskningsstiftelse and NORSLIS (Nordic Research School in Library and Information Science).