Mapping Information Landscapes: New Methods for Exploring the Development and Teaching of Information Literacy

Power is not only wielded from "the top" (governments, senior managers in organizations, etc.) and used to oppress. The idea that information literacy education can be empowering, giving those at "the bottom" the power to investigate information practices and change them if necessary, is supported by the models of power emerging from the work of Michel Foucault. This view of power insists that learners can change their world and the practices that shape it.
This is the first book to study how the political content of information literacy (IL) arises from the way it has become defined and is taught. It introduces new methods for research into the development of information literacy in learners and explores the implications of this research for the design of IL teaching, both in formal education settings and in workplaces.
This book also draws on the original research to provide a detailed account of how information practices emerge from communities of learners in different settings and how learners can be taught how to respond to and resist institutionalized power.