Re-attuning the information literacy classroom: A theoretical framework for promoting critical thinking in a post-truth era

Abstract

The indifference, anxiety, and stress felt by students and the invisibility of marks of quality and value in online information environments pose instructional challenges that can get in the way of students’ developing critical thinking skills. We suggest that current and future librarians consider the importance of three interrelated elements when designing information literacy environments: (i) students’ active engagement with one another as a way of forming a community of like-minded people, (ii) the materiality constitutive of the educational place, and (iii) the practices involving students’ embodied presence in the classroom. We describe an example of designing an information literacy instructional session based on these three elements.