Month: January 2024

Reading about Critical Information Literacy 1

Paterson, S.F. and Gamtso, C.W. (2023) ‘Interrogating representations of transgressive women: Using critical information literacy and comic books in the Shakespeare classroom’, Art Libraries Journal, 48(3), pp. 80-89. doi: 10.1017/alj.2023.14. 

This was the first article I read on critical information literacy (CIL) for this project. I was intrigued by both the feminist perspective and use of unusual resources in the classroom.  

In the context of my research this text was relevant when the authors shared their experience of engaging the students in analysing the prejudices and power structures regarding women in a specific historical time. CIL perspective was applied by asking questions about the social, political and cultural context of the text and images. I think these techniques can be applied in my library sessions too. 

The information on CIL, its aims and purposes that this text provides was a good start for me to deepen my knowledge on the subject. The excerpts that especially ‘talked’ to me:  

  • Critical IL is grounded in the theory and praxis of critical pedagogy. 
  • Critical IL invites learners to interrogate the ways in which structural social inequities influence the creation, dissemination and consumption of information. 
  • It teaches analysis and critiquing skills; to recognise the relationships between texts,  language, and power. 
  • Critical IL calls for a de-centralisation of authority (p.80) 

The article presents a detailed planning and running of the session that authors worked on together. Most helpful for me was the part where they talked about using visual materials and discussion to generate questions about resources, and then involving the students in searching their online library for answers – I think it is a brilliant way of familiarising the users with the library search website and making it relevant to them. 

This article has also provided me with great references on Critical IL and two of the articles were available through our UAL Libraries. I reflect on reading them in my blog posts: 1 and 2. 

Reading ‘Interpreting the map: methods of evaluation and analysis’ chapter from “Visualizing Research” (for workshop 3)

I think this was one of the most helpful chapters on analysing data that I read for this project. However, when I’d first read it for our third workshop, I was at such an early stage of my research that I got quite overwhelmed with all the information that this chapter provides. I came back to it once I gathered my data and was getting ready for its analysis, and that was the moment that I was able to process it better. 

It intrigued me to learn that analysis can be playful, imaginative flexible and reflexive. I made me think ‘I can do it’. At the same time, it is important to remember that: “Qualitative analysis is ‘intellectual craftsmanship’ – playful but methodical and intellectually competent.” (p.132) 

Most important part of this text was the list considerations in the process of analysis. I have put the ones I thought are most relevant to my research into the kind of mind-map to help me internalise the information. 

This chapter also talks about multiple perspectives in analysis. It makes a very interesting point that: 

“The different views either come together to support your argument or make you question your original research proposition. Both outcomes are valuable in research terms. Obviously, it is satisfying to have arrived at some kind of consensus or broad agreement; however, it is equally interesting to have a range of different and possibly conflicting views. (…) An honest appraisal of the strengths and limitations of the analytical approach and methods used is an important part of a research report or dissertation.” (p.142) 

Finally, it describes various tools that you can use to visualise the data. Some of the tools I will not be able to apply to my research, however, it was still good to learn about them. I am drawn to try matrix (depending what data I will have, but I see a scope for using it with the questionnaire results combine with the focus group interview) and mind-maps (one of my go- to tools when learning – Padlet reminds me of them). I quite like dimensional analysis – I want to try that out if I think it can be applied to my data set. 

Reading ‘Focus group’ chapter and preparing for designing my focus group: 

Matthews, B. and Ross, L. (2010) Research methods: a practical guide for the social sciences. Harlow: Longman, Pearson Education. Extract pp.234-251. 

This chapter was very helpful when I was deciding between using individual interviews or focus groups for my project. It provided a very clear definition and purpose of focus groups that made it clear to me that it will be beneficial to use it as a research method. .  

It defined focus group as follow: 

“Essentially, a focus group is a qualitative data collection method which is an adaptation of the interview technique. The change is that the focus group (as the name implies) departs from the one-to-one interview and becomes a group interview. ” (p.235)

Focus group 

A data collection method that usually: 

  • brings together a group of between 5 and 13 people; 
  • who have something in common, which is connected to the research topic; 
  • to take part in a discussion on that topic, which is facilitated by the researcher.” (p.235) 

In my project, I will not have many people in my group. It is a small-scale local project, and the participants are my team colleagues. We are a small team, and I am planning to involve as many librarians as possible in the group, but it may be that there are only a few of us available at the time I carry out the focus group. In general, we have only two full-time and three part-time librarians, with one of us working in term time only. However, these are going to be people that we have a lot of things in common and their opinion will be crucial for continuing my research after finishing the PgCert course. 

What also convinced me that a focus group is suitable for what I am planning to do, was the following: 

“Focus groups are an appropriate method of data collection to use when the researcher is interested in gathering qualitative data about people’s experiences, ideas and understandings.” (p.236)  

This is exactly what I need for my research project. I want my colleagues’ opinions on what we do to support our students in learning about resources and how we can improve it. I think in our day-to-day work we do not have time to share our experience as well as I think we should. I work with amazing and experienced librarians, and their input will help us build a better learning environment for our students. Focus group will give us time to meet and discuss things in a bit more formal way and that can help us to generate new ideas and plan improvements to our teaching together. 

This chapter explains a number of different ways of how focus groups are used. This convinced me further that this is going to be a useful method to use in my research project. I am most interested in my focus group to be a consultation (to find out what my colleagues think about my research), an exploration (to generate ideas for sessions, student support in my area of research) and a ‘checking back’ tool (as a follow up to the questionnaires that I am also planning to use). 

This chapter had also helped me with planning the focus group. It gives advice on creating a topic guide (a set of questions, key points or prompts) that helps to ensure that the discussion stays focused on the research topic. That is something that I plan to do for my focus group.