Critical Consciousness and LIS Education

1
Critical Consciousness and LIS Education

• Education for a Global Perspective

2
Why critical consciousness?

• Useful
• Promotes skills
• Relates topics and themes
• Integrates ideas, concepts and resources
• Opens minds (de-centering students expectations)
• Educates for the practice

3
Teaching global perspectives

• International and Comparative librarianship (LIS
  490)
• Global Diversity (IDIV 501)
• Challenges
• Opportunities
• The classroom as a space for change

4
Why do we need a global perspective in LIS?

• We do not live in a vacuum (other disciplines
  have already understood that)
• To explore issues of transferability
• To take advantage of students interest
• To explore social and political dimensions of
  information

5
IDIV-501
6
Global Diversity (IDIV 501)

• (LIS Health Studies Management Economics
  Social Work) / Katrina ?
• Katrina Hurricane ( looking for the best and more
  relevant and critical pedagogical examples).
• Future librarians developing working skills on
  cultural competence (Health Studies).
• Future librarians developing critical thinking
  skills on leadership (Management)

7
LIS 490 International and Comparative
Librarianship
8
International and Comparative Librarianship (LIS
490)

• Students perceptions and misperceptions
• Pure comparison takes you nowhere
• We are not the only ones
• History, Geography, Sociology, Anthropology,
  Cinema Studies, Cultural Studies, etc.

9
The role of the instructor (perhaps)

• Challenge and dialogue
• De-center yourself
• Be political
• Integrate themes through a common thread
  (Katrina)
• Propose outside readings
• Make and effort to identify students
  consciousness.

10
Premises from where to start

• The world is a problem to be worked on and
  solved
• Every student is capable of looking critically
  a the world
• Place the status quo in question
• You know more than I do.

11
Some Bibliography

• Freire, P. Pedagogy of the oppressed. Seabury
  Press New York, 1970.
• Pawley, C. (2005). History in the library and
  information science curriculum outline of a
  debate. Libraries Culture, 40 (3) 223-238.
• Winston, M. Communication and difficult topics in
  LIS education Teaching and learning about
  diversity in the classroom. In Wheeler, M. (ed)
  Unfinished business Race , equity, and diversity
  in library and information science
  education.Scarecrow Press Lanham, 2005.