Accessing, analyzing, and engaging with information resources is fundamental to supporting students as they grow and nurture information literacy and critical thinking skills in higher education, however, not all students have the ability to freely access available resources or develop information literacy skills as a result of their confinement status as incarcerated students. This presentation compares pedagogical decisions within non-incarcerated and incarcerated classrooms in order to demonstrate how librarians may address concepts of information literacy instruction by going back to our roots as pedagogues and effectively teaching without relying on computer technology or internet access, and instead, focusing on human connection, communication, and information needs.
Participants will:
- Recognize the pedagogical challenges instructors teaching within incarcerated classrooms must negotiate in order to provide critical instruction that is equitable for students regardless of their carceral status
- Reflect on the (im)possibility of deploying critical pedagogical approaches within the incarcerated information literacy classroom as a result of carceral restrictions in order to demonstrate subtle forms of liberation through information access and engagement.
- Identify opportunities to incorporate critical, equitable information literacy practices through instructional design applicable for both incarcerated and non-incarcerated learning spaces.
