Date of Award

Summer 8-8-2020

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Educational Leadership

Committee Chair

Dr. Ghislaine Lewis

Committee Member

Ms. Jenny Horton

Committee Member

Dr. Deanna Cash

Abstract

Rapid development in the information landscape (IL) has placed increased pressure on educational institutions to ensure that students are equipped with the skills needed to succeed. In order to overcome these challenges and transfer the necessary IL skills to students, faculty instructors must model the required skills in their own information dissemination practices, and adopt instructional methods that reinforce those skills and increase students’ opportunities to practice them. To achieve this goal, we must first understand the perspectives of the faculty, and the contexts in which information seeking and teaching occurs.

This study aims to learn what approaches teaching faculty already use in order to address information literacy in their classrooms across various disciplinary contexts, and how those approaches may be informed by the respective information-seeking habits. This understanding helps us to identify the ways in which an effective IL instruction program might be developed intentionally to fit within the curricular and cultural fabric of an institution of higher education.

Based upon the findings from the survey and interview portions of the study, both the information seeking and pedagogical practices of teaching faculty are a product of the broader context in which they exist. Those practices also change over time as the faculty member moves through the phases of their career, integrates into the professional network, and builds their pedagogical knowledge base. That accumulation of knowledge; however, is placed under the pressures of rapid change in the information landscape; which challenges all to continue to learn and adapt. The library can support this by offering developmental opportunities through trusted channels. However, the library must ensure that librarian instructors maintain the confidence of teaching faculty by remaining current in the field, and utilizing effective pedagogies themselves.

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