Presenters: Jeremy McGinniss and Donna Witek PaLA CRD 2016 Spring Workshop, Scranton, PA, May 20, 2016 Abstract: We are two academic librarians who have been experimenting with critical pedagogical approaches to information literacy and library work, inside and outside of the classroom. Through this work, we have found it essential to approach our professional networks, both online and in-person, as opportunities to practice, question, and learn from these critical approaches. By engaging on multiple platforms with our peers and fellow learners, we have experienced greater success in developing our approach to and thinking about critical pedagogy.

1. Speaking Truth in Community
The Role of Networks in Critical Pedagogy Theory and Practice
#critnetworks
Jeremy McGinniss, Summit University of Pennsylvania, @jmymcginniss
Donna Witek, The University of Scranton, @donnarosemary
PaLA 2016 CRD Spring Workshop
Marywood University, Scranton, PA
May 20, 2016
CC BY-NC

2. Experience
Action
Reflection
#critnetworks
Context
Evaluation
From Ignatian Pedagogy: An Abridged Version, 2014.

3. TODAY’S ACTION
What are your expectations
and goals for today?
#critnetworks

4. TODAY’S ACTION
3 questions
WHAT IS TRUTH?
WHAT IS CRITICAL PEDAGOGY?
WHAT IS A NETWORK?
Experience-Reflection-Action cycle through each question
#critnetworks

5. #critnetworks
WHAT IS TRUTH?

6. “Truth is the engine that drives inquiry. The pursuit of the
truth involves a desire to understand what is real and
avoid what is false.” (Spears and Loomis, 2009)
FRAME
#critnetworks

7. • Social justice in the context of library work
• Human flourishing
• Introduce small tensions in pursuit of truth
EXPERIENCE
#critnetworks

8. • Truth’s relationship to power
• Information access and interaction: physical,
technological, cognitive, and social (Budd, 2012; Saunders, 2016)
What is at stake is our humanity.
REFLECTION
#critnetworks

9. External
• Engagement in dialogue
Internal
• Personal responsibility for own learning
Both require a commitment to this work, even as
we know we will mess it up and get it wrong along the way.
(Hathcock, 2016, April 13)
ACTION
#critnetworks

10. #critnetworks
WHAT IS CRITICAL
PEDAGOGY?

11. “Transformation is key for critical pedagogy, which
challenges foundational and universal truths that
construe knowledge and reality as static entities
transferable from those who understand it to those who
do not. . . . critical pedagogy instead positions students
and teachers as co-inquisitors in the practice of enacting
truth, not finding it.” (Grettano, 2006)
FRAME
#critnetworks

12. • Theory and practice → reflection and action
• An ethic of justice is an ethic of care (Accardi, 2015, 2016;
Hathcock, 2016, March 26)
• Listening as an act of justice
• Relationships as texts
EXPERIENCE
#critnetworks

13. Language as an “act with consequences”:
“Be it grand or slender, burrowing, blasting, or refusing to
sanctify; whether it laughs out loud or is a cry without an
alphabet, the choice word, the chosen silence, unmolested
language surges toward knowledge, not its destruction.”
(Morrison, 1993)
REFLECTION
#critnetworks

14. “An individual’s use of an object, experience, person or
event is what turns it into a transitional object. Transitional
objects become transitional for us when we use them to
creatively put ourselves in relation.” (Ellsworth, 2005)
ACTION
#critnetworks

15. #critnetworks
WHAT IS A NETWORK?

16. “Together [digital writing and information literacy] present
powerful ways to situate research, knowledge
production, and information sharing as ways to engage
not simply with isolated bits of information or abstracted
ideas, but also with relationships between sources, ideas,
and the individuals who create, exchange, and interact
with those ideas.” (Baer, 2014)
FRAME
#critnetworks

17. • #critlib (Twitter)
• #acrlilrevisions #critlib chat (July 2014)
• meeting via #critlib chat → NEPaLA 2015
• Hybrid Pedagogy
• #digped
• In the Library with the Lead Pipe
• Library Juice Press / Library Juice Academy
EXPERIENCE
#critnetworks

18. • What is the role of networks in human flourishing?
• Is a network the same as a community?
• How do networks provide a sense of proximity that
bridges time and space?
REFLECTION
#critnetworks

19. Think-Pair-Share:
What are your hopes for critical pedagogy’s role in your instructional practice?
What are your fears about critical pedagogy?
What are your frustrations with trying and using critical pedagogy in your
instruction (or elsewhere)?
What connections do you see between critical pedagogy’s goals and information
literacy’s goals for our students? How have you pursued them?
How does your positioning within your institutional community affect your
opportunities for practicing critical pedagogy?
ACTION
#critnetworks

20. QUESTIONS & DISCUSSION
What questions do you have?
What ideas are you forming?
What fears or struggles have you faced/are you facing?
Thank you for your attention.
“Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.” --Simone Weil (First and Last Notebooks, 1970)
#critnetworks

21. REFERENCES
Accardi, Maria T. “Coming out of the spiritual closet.” Librarian Burnout, November 30, 2015.
Accardi, Maria T. “Reflections on Minnesota Library Association ARLD Day.” Maria T. Accardi, May 12, 2016.
Baer, Andrea. “Keeping Up With... Digital Writing in the College Classroom.” Keeping Up With… Association of College & Research
Libraries, April 2014.
Baudrillard, Jean. The Transparency of Evil: Essays on Extreme Phenomena. London: Verso, 1993. [WorldCat]
Budd, John. “Informational Education: Creating an Understanding of Justice” [paywall]. Education, Citizenship and Social Justice
(2012): 1-12.
critlib - critlib.org.
Drabinski, Emily. “Toward a Kairos of Library Instruction” [paywall]. The Journal of Academic Librarianship 40.5 (2014): 480-485.
Ellsworth, Elizabeth Ann. Places of Learning: Media, Architecture, Pedagogy. New York: RoutledgeFalmer, 2005. [WorldCat]
#critnetworks

22. REFERENCES
Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Trans. Myra Bergman Ramos. New York: Continuum, [1970] 2000. [WorldCat]
Freire, Paulo, and Ana Maria Araújo Freire. Pedagogy of Hope: Reliving Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Trans. Robert R. Barr. New York:
Continuum, 1994. [WorldCat]
Giroux, Henry A. Theory and Resistance in Education: A Pedagogy for the Opposition. South Hadley, MA: Bergin & Garvey, 1983.
[WorldCat]
Giroux, Henry A. Border Crossings: Cultural Workers and the Politics of Education. New York: Routledge, 1992. [WorldCat]
Giroux, Henry A. On Critical Pedagogy. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2011. [WorldCat]
Grettano, Teresa. “Pedagogy Synthesis.” Submitted in partial fulfillment of qualifying exam for PhD program in English Studies, Illinois
State University, December 20, 2006.
Hathcock, April. “My Radicalism, My Faith.” At The Intersection, March 26, 2016.
#critnetworks

23. REFERENCES
Hathcock, April. “You’re Gonna Screw Up.” At The Intersection, April 13, 2016.
hooks, bell. Teaching to Transgress: Education As the Practice of Freedom. New York: Routledge, 1994. [WorldCat]
Ignatian Pedagogy: An Abridged Version [PDF]. Jesuit Institute, 2014.
“Jesuit Tradition.” The University of Scranton [Vision and Mission].
Kumbier, Alana. Ephemeral Material: Queering the Archive. Sacramento, CA: Litwin Books, 2014. [WorldCat]
Liston, Daniel Patrick, and James W. Garrison. Teaching, Learning, and Loving: Reclaiming Passion in Educational Practice. New York:
RoutledgeFalmer, 2004. [WorldCat]
McLaren, Peter. Life in Schools: An Introduction to Critical Pedagogy in the Foundations of Education. New York: Longman, 1989.
[WorldCat]
Morrison, Toni. “Toni Morrison - Nobel Lecture.” Nobelprize.org, December 7, 1993.
#critnetworks

24. REFERENCES
Saunders, Laura. “Re: [acrlframe] “Information has Value” Frame: A “Think About” for the Group.” Post on the acrlframe email listserv
via American Library Association, April 24, 2016.
Schroeder, Robert. Critical Journeys: How 14 Librarians Came to Embrace Critical Practice. Sacramento, CA: Library Juice Press, 2014.
[WorldCat]
Shor, Ira. Empowering Education: Critical Teaching for Social Change. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992. [WorldCat]
Spears, Paul D., and Steven R. Loomis. Education for Human Flourishing: A Christian Perspective. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic,
2009. [WorldCat]
Weil, Simone. First and Last Notebooks. London: Oxford University Press, 1970. [WorldCat]
Witek, Donna. “Making the Information Literacy ‘One-Shot’ Ignatian.” Information Constellation, August 18, 2015.
Witek, Donna. “Becoming #critlib.” Information Constellation, December 15, 2015.
#critnetworks

25. REFERENCES
Witek, Donna, and Teresa Grettano. “Revising for Metaliteracy: Flexible Course Design to Support Social Media Pedagogy.” In
Metaliteracy in Practice, eds. Trudi E. Jacobson and Thomas P. Mackey. Chicago: ALA Neal-Schuman, 2016. 1-22. [WorldCat]
Journals:
Hybrid Pedagogy
In the Library with the Lead Pipe
Publishers:
Library Juice Press
Hashtags via Twitter:
#critlib / #digped / #libleadgender / #radlibchat
#critnetworks