Shaking Up the Sediment:

Re-energizing Pedagogical Practice while Avoiding Bottle Shock

The Innovative Library ClassroomRadford, Virginia

May 12, 2015

The Plan

Tensions

Transitions

Teaching

Trust

Toolkit

Takeaways

flickr: patricia m. – lexicor020

Keynote Have-Nots

•Best Practices

•Solutions

•Truths

Tensions

With all these big ideas floating around, I’m starting to feel conflicted.

My Comfort Zone

Me

ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education

The document that launched a thousand discussions, debates, and revisions until it was finally filed alongside the ACRL Information

Literacy Competency Standards as one of a “constellation” of documents guiding Information Literacy.

“Students have a greater role and responsibility in creating new knowledge, in understanding the contours and the changing dynamics of the world of

information, and in using information, data, and scholarship ethically.”

Beilin, Ian (2015). Beyond the Threshold: Conformity, Resistance, and the ACRL Information Literacy Framework for Higher Education. In the Library with the Lead Pipe.

Upholds Limited Perspective

Accepts Existing Power Structures

Threshold

Concepts Empowers

Students

Inspires Resistance among Librarians

Social Justice

“When we limit its potentials to outcomes and standards, we run the risk of

minimizing the complex situatedness of information literacy and diminishing – if

not negating – its inherent political nature.”

Jacobs, H. M. (2008). Information Literacy and Reflective Pedagogical Praxis. Journal Of Academic Librarianship, 34(3), 256-262.

SHOUT OUT

Paolo Freire

Would peer review be more valid if it allowed the power to shift from the privileged few to the masses,

including us?

Why are scholarly journals required for this assignment, if

they are fraught with errors and lies, just like other types of

sources?

Without access to these fancy databases, how would you gather

data and info to analyze and synthesize in response to your

research question?

Whose voices are we missing if we only pay attention to sources that come to us through established

scholarly communication channels?

Authority is Constructed & Contextual

or things I encourage students to consider that might conflict with the way their assignments are

worded, what instructors have told them, or what they already believe

to be true.

Student-

Focused

Service

-Provide

r

The System

flickr: Steven Depolo – Stand Out from the Crowd

No BacksiesThe struggle is real.

Transition

If I’m not teaching in a classroom, am I still a teacher?

Realities: Local Context

• Data & Evidence• National Trends• Local Studies

• Post-Renovation• More Partners in the Library• Fewer Library Classrooms

• Fewer First-Year Courses & Requests for One-Shot Sessions

• Prioritizing Student Workers as Front-Line Staff

• Increase in Incentives for Faculty/Librarian Collaborations

Cowan, S. M. (2013). Information Literacy: The Battle We Won That We Lost?. Portal: Libraries And The Academy, (1), 23.

“And yet, despite the social-cultural-technological currents that took

information literacy and made it a concept and practice that applies to twenty-first century life writ large,

information literacy is still written about, presented, and practiced within libraries and higher education institutions as if it still naturally falls within the purview of

libraries and as if librarians are still, somehow, best positioned to create and

implement it.”

Transitions

Instruction

• Direct student contact

• Everyday interactions with learners

• Limited involvement

• In the classroom

• Library service provider

Consulting

• Instructional design

• Librarians’ expertise

• Influence assignment design

• Engagement in course design

• Partner with Faculty

Teaching

The work of the heart: personal…vulnerable… artistic… reflective…

Here’s to trying not to box ourselves into one perspective, approach, or lens when it comes to

teaching.

Cheers!

flickr: Maria Morri – espiritu de argentina

Instruction As We Knew It

• Situated within a structured context/timeline• Credit hours• Semesters

• Reward systems beyond our control• Students’ grades• Course evaluations

• At the request of others

• With little prior knowledge of students, situation

• Pitfall of “library day”

“If you don’t like what people are saying, change the conversation.” –Don Draper

Teaching Learning

Pedagogy

Praxis

Passion

Information Literacy @ IU

Incentives for Faculty & Librarians

Integration & Assessment

Professional Developmen

t

Grant Opportunitie

s

Research Consultatio

ns

Instructional

Consultations

Assignment Design

Consultations

Information Literacy

in the Discipline

s

Library Services & Support

student-focused

consultant/

facilitator

Trust

You’ve got this.

Self Stakeholders

Leadership Outcomes

Do Mor

e

Do It

Better

Instructional Consultation

• Drop-in office hours in the library

• Scheduled in response to requests for library instruction

• Intended to support faculty and librarians in building information literacy into course assignments and assessments

• Focus on Backward Design principles

• Resources: internal and public

• Preparation, Consultation, Follow-up

Instructional Consultation

Sustainability

Teach the Teacher

Impact

Assignment Design

Efficiency

OpportunitiesLibrary

Instruction

Considerations

Request

Expertise

Elevate

Expectations

Experiment

Evidence

What Would You Need In Order to Fulfill Your Information Literacy Instructional Dreams?

Dream Think Say Make Chang

e

Relax: There is Room Here

Fail, Forgive, Repeat.

Toolkit

Doing the work of un-doing.

My Greatest Fear: Sediment

We may not notice sediment until it’s too late.

flickr: Toshiyuki IMAI – Sediment

Professional Renewal

• Find new meaning• Challenge Yourself• Challenge Your Thinking

• Begin again• Seek Out New Professional Opportunities

• Take on new expertise/role• Rekindle your own Learning

• Find another area of focus• Research• Creative Activity

Self-Care

Burnout

• Loss of control

• Overwhelming sense of stress

• Work begins to feel meaningless

• Inability to say “no”

• Feeling all of the feelings

Renewal

Larrivee, B. (2012). Cultivating teacher renewal: guarding against stress and burnout.

• Acknowledge your contribution

• Take time for yourself and your priorities

• Engage in daily rituals• Begin the day with a

wish for something positive

• Recap the day by remembering a kindness

Personal Rejuvenation

Takeaways

Let’s remember not to forget.

Instructional Consultation

Library Instruction

Rethinking how we “do” information literacy, with regard to our local context.

Information Literacy

Library Instructi

on

Librarian/Faculty

Collaboration

Instructional Design

Online Learni

ng Objects

Introductions to

Research & Libraries

Designing Research

Assignments

?

Indirectly Influencing Student Learning

Teaching Students In-Person or Online

In What Ways are Librarians Enacting an Education Role?

Librarians as

Educators

Teaching

Designing Instruction

& Assessmen

ts

Building Online

Learning Experienc

es

Partnering with

Faculty Mentoring Student Workers

Supporting Other

Librarians’ Teaching

?

Librarian

Teacher

Instructional Designer

Instructional Designer

Facilitator

Facilitator

Mentor

Mentor

Instructor

Instructor

Writer

Writer

Researcher

Researcher

Information Expert

Information Expert

Collaborator

Collaborator

How do we balance these multiple professional identities?

Focus, Find, Follow-Through

Yourself

• Authentic

• Personal

• Flexible

• Self-Care

• Student-Focused

• Meaning

• Renew

Your Institution

• Mission & Goals

• Students

• Learning Needs

• Stakeholders

• Accreditation

• Support & Trust

• Openings & Opportunities

Shake it up!

@carriedonovan::::

cdonovan@indiana.edu