Weekly Reading #5

1. What does the term "discursive practices" mean?

• Discursive practice addresses the processes by which cultural meanings are produced and understood. It is the specific set of rules for organizing and producing different forms of knowledge.

2. What does "discourse" mean?

• Discourse is the use of spoken or written language in a social context and generally used as a form of representation of language, or discussion of cultural and historic meanings. 

3. What is the "rock" and what is the "hard place"?

• The rock is the current conceptions of information literacy that represent information literacy as a skill or competency that is confined to information access and use, and associated with tools such as text or technology (Lloyd, 2011). 

• The hard place refers to attempts to translate this conception from the formal learning regimes of education and academic libraries to other sectors where learning is less structured or systematized, but is just as important (i.e., workplaces) (Lloyd, 2011.)

4. What are the differences between the skills prescribed for information searching in academic and workplace settings?

• The skills prescribed in searching for information, accessing and using it are formalized by particular rules, regulations, and curriculum that are underpinned by an instrumental rationality. This allows the acquisition of knowledge and ways of knowing to be measured against formalized sets of criteria. In this setting, primacy is awarded to knowledge that is canonical, objective, and explicit, and there is a focus on individual performance and the development of self-sufficiency through independent learning (Lloyd, 2011). 

• Workplaces offer another type of social setting, where the information landscape is often described as messy, complex, and distributed through a range of practices that entwine to contribute to the collective performance of work.  The creation of workplace knowledge and of knowing about the performance of work-its production, distribution, and circulation- is therefore reflective of the ongoing process of collaboration between people. It is also mediated by the material and social conditions of their practice settings, as they engage with learning that is sometimes formal and sanctioned through training, but more often is informal, embodied, and occurring at the moment of practice (Sawchuck, 2003).

5. How do academic notions of information literacy undermine workplace notions information literacy?

• Academic notions of information literacy undermines important workplace concepts of teamwork, social practices, and group problem solving aimed at building collective knowledge, where information skills are spread across a team rather than being centered on an individual (Lloyd, 2011).

6. How are information needs identified in work place setting like nursing and emergency workers?

• In the emergency services studies (Lloyd, 2009; Lloyd-Zantiotis, 2004) problem solving is a group activity, where members cross-reference the problem or issue at hand, against a range of experiences drawn from situated practice and expertise within the group.

• Nurses must reconcile their own informed understanding of patient care with the dominant and codified knowledge of the medical profession, which acts as the knowledge authority in relation to medical need, practice, and procedure (Lloyd, 2011). 

• They must make rational judgments about the information and recognize the importance of social information as a critical source of learning.

• Firefighters, ambulance officers, and nurses come to understand their information landscape, agreeing on what type of information is useful in the performance of their specific practices (Lloyd, 2010).

7. Why do issues of plagiarism not resonate in workplace settings?

• The notion that workers are aware of information presentation or issues such as plagiarism does not resonate in workplaces that are often driven by technical and embodied knowledge. This type of knowledge is considered to be a collective possession and disseminated and circulated throughout the workplace, by storytelling, and extended through the distributed networks of professional practice (Lloyd, 2011).

• Lloyd (2004, 2009) demonstrated in the emergency services research that the need to develop a shared understanding about practice and profession rested on the group working collectively to share information, which in turn allowed for common understandings about how practice and performance should proceed to develop. This then suggests that eventually the provenance of information (critical in an academic context) is often lost over time in the workplace, where it becomes incorporated into collective dialogue and wisdom (Lloyd, 2011).

8. Are information literacy skills transferable across contexts and settings? Why or Why not?

• Evidence from Hartmann (2001), Ellis and Salisbury (2004), and Herring (2010) indicate that information literacy skills do not appear to successfully transfer, either within a school-based setting (e.g., from classroom to classroom), across education settings (from school to university), or into the workplace (Lloyd-Zantiotis, 2004). Palmer and Tucker (2004) have noted that while information literacy may be referred to as a generic skill, it is not a "global, context free attribute." Consequently, explorations of transfer require an understanding of the setting and the way the setting functions to operationalize its knowledge base through the development and application of specific suites of information skills. The research to date raises questions in relation to the learning of information skills and their operationalization as part of the learning process. Therefore, the issue of transfer appears critical, particularly as we continue to develop information literacy pedagogy (Lloyd, 2011).

9. What is "practice theory"?

• Practice theories emphasize the analysis of ways of engaging with the world. These social theories are concerned with exploring human activity, subjectivity, inter-subjectivity, embodiment, language, and power in relation to the "organization, reproduction and transformation of social life" (Schatzki, 2001, p. 1).

• Practice theories have the ability to produce accounts of how different types of information and knowledge are produced and sanctioned and therefore offer a more holistic approach to understanding the conditions and features of information literacy. Put another way, these theories enable us to understand how information literacy happens (Lloyd, 2011). 

• The focus of practice theory is on the arrays of human activity (cognitive and embodied) that produce among members engaged in practices a shared account of "know-how" or practical understanding (Lloyd, 2011).

10. How does the author of this article define information literacy?

• The author defines information literacy as constituted through the connections that exist between people, artifacts, texts and bodily experiences that enable individuals to develop both subjective and inter-subjective positions. Information literacy is a way of knowing the many environments that constitute an individual being in the world. (Lloyd, 2010, p. 26)

• Being information literate is a way of knowing and as an outcome of participation, knowing is informed by the sayings, doings, and relating specific to the environment (Lloyd, 2010).

11. How do educators need to change their understanding of information literacy in order to prepare student for the information literacy practices they will encounter in workplace settings?

• Understanding this practice requires that we focus on the social conditions that enable information literacy to happen in ways that allow access to information and knowledge that are specific to the practice setting (Lloyd, 2011). 

• Educators need to know about how information sources are located within an information landscape, and how these sources reflect the conditions through which information and knowledge are agreed upon and legitimized (Lloyd, 2011).

• Information literacy should be seen as a dispersed practice that is inherent in all other practices (Lloyd, 2011). 

• Information literacy should be understood as collaborative practice produced by a range of social activities that interweave together to produce a way of knowing that is particular and localized (Lloyd, 2011). 

• We must recognize the social architectures through which the flow of information (including information about how to access and use it) is afforded or constrained, in turn enabling the construction of a narrative that resonates between members and is used to align newcomers (Lloyd, 2011).

• It is critical that we acknowledge the role of the community as central to the enactment of information literacy, and acknowledge that information literacy is not a skill but a practice that is constituted through a range of social activities that need to be studied, understood, and ultimately represented as part of our theorizing of information literacy (Lloyd, 2011).

• Students need to engage with the social architectures, which structure and guide their engagement with workplace information and knowledge (Lloyd, 2011).

12. What do the terms "ontological" and "epistemological" mean?

• Ontology and epistemology is the study of knowledge and being and their relationships. They authorize the types of information and ways of knowing that are used to shape and maintain the character and culture of the setting (Lloyd, 2011). 

13. The After reading this article, how useful is the traditional research paper we expect students to produce in school in preparing them for workplace settings? What are traditional research papers useful for? Should we still assign traditional research papers?

• Workers must draw information from the verbal, the material, and physical sources that constitute the information landscape, in order to learn about the internal and external performance of work (Gherardi, 2009; Orlikowski, 2007).

• It becomes the intersection between epistemic information, information drawn from actual performance, and information drawn from interaction with the community (Lloyd, 2011).

• Traditional research papers are a part of the learning process that helps contribute to the overall aspect of fundamental knowledge needed in the workplace. 

14. What is one of the biggest challenges to changing the way information literacy is conceptualized in school settings?

• The challenge now is to transcend existing understandings of information literacy and broaden our research practices to understand how information literacy is experienced in other contexts (Lloyd, 2011).

15. What attributes of the 21st century make it essential that educators change their approaches toward information literacy?

• A result of fast capitalism in the twenty-first century is a workforce that is able to adapt and adopt their information practices to suit ever-changing environments. After all, information is a valuable commodity-the most traded resource of the knowledge economy. Consequently, it is more important than ever that we focus our research efforts toward understanding information literacy in this sector and that we use this knowledge to inform our own practices as educators. Doing so allows us to be able to better inform our own pedagogic practice to account for the sociocultural and sociotechnical practices of the workplace, and this provides a platform to more effectively advocate for information literacy at government policy levels (Lloyd, 2011).

16. What changes can teachers make to their classroom activities to engage students in the information literacy practices they will encounter in 21st century workplace settings?

• Classroom activities need to involve teamwork, social practices, and group problem solving aimed at building collective knowledge, where information skills are spread across a team rather than being centered on an individual. 

• Activities that consist of information sharing and negotiation of set goals that result in a collective creation. These activities will help to understand how information literacy is constituted in a workplace setting, and to consider the dialogic processes that influence its development.

References

Lloyd, A. (2011). Trapped between a Rock and a Hard Place: What Counts as Information Literacy in the Workplace and How Is It Conceptualized? Library Trends, 60 (2) pp. 277-296.

Sawchuck, P. (2003). Adult learning and technology in working-class life. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Lloyd, A. (2010). Information literacy landscapes: Information literacy in education, workplace and everyday contexts. Oxford: Chandos.

Lloyd, A. (2009). Informing practice: Information experiences of ambulance officers in training and on-road practice. Journal of Documentation, 65(3), 396-419.

Lloyd-Zantiotis, A. (2004). Working information: A grounded theory of information literacy in the workplace. Unpublished doctoral thesis, University of New England, Armidale, NSW.

Lloyd, A. (2004). Working (in)formation: Conceptualizing information literacy in the workplace. In P. A. Danaher, C. Macpherson, F. Nouwens, & D. Orr (Eds.), Lifelong learning: Whose responsibility and what is your contribution? Proceedings of the 3rd International Lifelong Learning Conference (pp. 218-24). Yeppoon, Queensland Australia, June 13-16. Rockhampton: Central Queensland University Press.

Hartmann, E. (2001). Understanding of information literacy; The perceptions of first year undergraduate students at the University of Ballarat. Australian Academic Research Libraries, 32(2), 110-122.

Ellis, J., & Salisbury, F. (2004). Information literacy milestones: Building upon the prior knowledge of first-year students. The Australian Library Journal, 53(4), 383-394.

Herring, J. (2010). School students, information retreival and transfer. Library and Information Research, 34(107). Retreived November 10, 2010, from http://www.lirg.org.uk.ezproxy.fairmontstate.edu/lir/ojs/ index.php/lir/article/viewFile/242/301

Palmer, S., & Tucker, B. (2004). Planning, delivery and evaluation of information literacy training for engineering and technology students. Australian Academic and Research Libraries, 35(1), 13-33.

Orlikowski, W. J. (2007). Sociomaterial practices: Exploring technology at work. Organization Studies, 28(9), 1435-1438.

Gherardi, S. (2009a). Community of practice or practices of a community? In S. Armstrong & C. Fukami (Eds.), (pp. 514-530). Sage Handbook of Management Learning, Education and Development. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

Gherardi, S. (2009b). Introduction: The critical power of the "practice lens." Management Learning, 40(2), 115-128.