​#claps2016​                             February 25-26, 2016 

The Critical Librarianship & Pedagogy Symposium is a two-day conference held in Tucson, AZ open to librarians within and outside of The University of Arizona, as well as faculty, instructors, staff, and students at The UA.

 

This symposium will bring together the ongoing, but parallel discourse surrounding critical pedagogy among academic librarians, critical pedagogy scholars, and teaching faculty. Because of the intersection between information literacy and critical pedagogy, and because the teaching of information literacy is such a highly collaborative process, involving both librarians and disciplinary faculty, it seemed natural to structure this symposium as a shared conversation between these groups. 

 

What is critical pedagogy?

Critical pedagogy recognizes that education is shaped by outside political and economic forces, often to the detriment of politically and culturally marginalized students. Those who practice critical pedagogy teach students how to recognize and critique the oppressive power structures inherent in educational systems.

 

What, then, is critical library pedagogy?

Librarians have historically practiced information literacy instruction, which teaches students how to find, evaluate, and use information. Critical library pedagogy recognizes that “all knowledge is created within a historical context”1 and teaches students how to identify and understand the contextual drivers behind the creation and dissemination of information.

 

What will attendees get from the conference?

We hope attendees will leave with ideas for incorporating critical pedagogy theory into their practice as educators – both within the library and in higher education in general.

 

1. Adkins, T. (2014). Critical pedagogy. In D. Coghlan, & M. Brydon-Miller (Eds.), The SAGE encyclopedia of action research. (Vol. 3, pp. 212-216). London: SAGE Publications Ltd.