Ideology and critical self-reflection in information literacy instruction

Nicole Katz

IL

Critten, J. (2015). Ideology and critical self-reflection in information literacy instruction. Communications in Information Literacy. 9(1), 145-156.

Overview

The author, Jennifer Critten, is (at the time of this article) a student at the University of West Georgia. This article was created a reflection of a semester-long information literacy course. Critten focuses her article on the “neo-Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser’s figurations of ideology and ideological state apparatuses as a site of critical self-reflection for students and a method by which students could become empowered to recognize themselves as not just consumers, but shapers of discourse.” Critten discusses the concept of critical consciousness and critical pedagogy as well.

Review

I found this article to very thorough and interesting. The idea that it ultimately doesn’t matter (as much) what the author’s bias are, why they thought what they did when they wrote it, but the reader’s bias. What you (the reader) bring to the text will dictate what you take away from it and being able to see that, to critically self-assess your bias is just so valid.  Readers can easily allow their personal belief system to cloud over and interfere with what they’re reading and never really “see” what is in front of them. I rather enjoyed this article.