Over the last decade, information literacy has passed through the developmental stages of technology and library skills training; from the Texas Information Literacy Tutorial, to embedded course integrated instruction and stand alone courses which focus on the overarching research processes, the relation of research to writing, and critical thinking. In terms of its theoretical underpinnings, a number of scholar practitioners (Heidi Jacobs, James Elmborg, Cushla Kapitzke, Maria T. Accardi, Emily Drabinski, and Alana Kumbier, and Maura Seale) have asked us to consider that IL is inherently political, cultural and social as well as educational. However, aside from our usual rhetoric relating to support for students’ academic achievements, there has been very little discussion in the Canadian context as to our overarching pedagogical role and purpose. Do librarians have pedagogical goals, independent from faculty? If so, what are the political, institutional, and labour implications of taking a more critical approach to information literacy? How does such an approach affect the professional practice, research and service balance of academic librarians’ work? This session will consider the question from the perspective of for-credit courses (Mount St. Vincent), course-integrated instruction (UNB) and from inside a collaborative faculty/librarian research project (York). This session will pose and address the following questions: Is our pedagogical purpose to produce useful servants of the state? Or to grow engaged citizens? How can we make intentional connections between our professional ethics (privacy, intellectual freedom etc) and curriculum and pedagogy? How is information literacy situated with curricular goals around critical thinking?
