‘They burn so bright whilst you can only wonder why’: Stories at the intersection of social class, capital and critical information literacy —a collaborative autoethnography.

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Flynn, Darren, Crew, Teresa, Hare, Rosie, Maroo, Krishna and Preater, Andrew (2023) ‘They burn so bright whilst you can only wonder why’: Stories at the intersection of social class, capital and critical information literacy —a collaborative autoethnography. Journal of Information Literacy, 17 (1). pp. 162-185.

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Official URL: https://journals.cilip.org.uk/jil/article/view/20

Abstract

In this article we connect critical librarianship and its practices of information literacy (IL) with working-class experiences of higher education(HE). Although the research literature and professional body of knowledge of critical information literacy (CIL), is one of the most theoretically-developed areas of wider critical librarianship (Critlib) movement, working-class knowledge and experiences remain underrepresented.One reason for this is that the values, behaviour and assumptions of library and HEworkers are shaped by a HEsystem which inculcates middle-class values and cultural capitals within students, and stigmatises working-class students as lacking or in deficit. Hegemonic, or non-critical, IL proselytises middle-class values and assumptions about academic practices and skills development including the notion of an ideal student with behaviour and markers of identity which reflect those most privileged by wider society. In contrast CIL, framed as thesocially-just practice of IL is theoretically well-placed to support working-class library workers in destabilising this alongside middle-class accomplices.Employing Yosso’s (2005) concept of community and cultural wealth (CCW), we analyse how library workers can recognise working-class cultural wealth within the context of CIL and wider working practices. As such narrative accounts are lacking in the literature, we utilise collaborative autoethnography (CAE) (Chang et al., 2013) to consider and interpretour own experiences of libraries when we were university students ourselves, and more recently as HEworkers of working-class heritage.

Item Type:	Article
Identifier:	10.11645/17.1.3361
Subjects:	Library and information sciences Social sciences
Depositing User:	Users 627 not found.
Date Deposited:	04 Mar 2024 10:47
Last Modified:	04 Nov 2024 11:05
URI:	https://repository.uwl.ac.uk/id/eprint/11244