Perspectives on the Framework

Robin Ewing, Alison Lehner-Quam, Amy James, Margaret Gregor, James Rosenzweig, and Jennifer Ditkoff

Teacher Education and Information Literacy

Introducing the Instruction for Educators Companion Document

Robin Ewing is the Collections Strategist Librarian at St. Cloud State University, email: rlewing@stcloudstate.edu. Alison Lehner-Quam is the Education Librarian at Lehman College, email: alison.lehnerquam@lehman.cuny.edu. Amy James is the Online Librarian for Education and Information Literacy at Baylor University, email: amy_b_james@baylor.edu. Margaret Gregor is the Instructional Materials Center Librarian at Appalachian State University, email: gregormn@appstate.edu. James Rosenzweig is the Education and Children’s Studies Librarian at Eastern Washington University, email: jrosenzweig@ewu.edu. Jennifer Ditkoff is the Head Librarian at the Dundalk location for the Community College of Baltimore County, email: jditkoff@ccbcmd.edu.

© 2024 Robin Ewing, Alison Lehner-Quam, Amy James, Margaret Gregor, James Rosenzweig, and Jennifer Ditkoff

The ACRL Education and Behavioral Sciences Section (EBSS) Instruction for Educators Committee (IFE Committee) is charged “to make distinctive contributions as education library specialists to the field of bibliographic instruction.”1 Beginning in fall 2020, members of the IFE Committee worked to create an ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education (Framework) companion document for the field of teacher education. The Companion Document to the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education: Instruction for Educators (Companion Document),2 approved by the ACRL Board of Directors in June 2023, is designed to provide support for teacher preparation programs to develop educator research skills and pedagogical praxis in the realm of information literacy. The EBSS IFE Committee examined key literature and professional standards and created a draft document within ACRL’s LibGuides,3 which was revised after receiving many rounds of feedback from librarians and educators in the field. This article shares the process involved in creating the Companion Document, a theoretical overview within a disciplinary context, practical ways to teach the content, and an exploration of next steps for the implementation of the Companion Document.

Background and Disciplinary Context

Librarians who teach information literacy to students studying to become educators are supporting students’ development in three areas: teacher preparation and education, teacher professional practice, and teacher pedagogy practice. Librarians design and prepare instruction to (1) support teacher education students’ coursework in their teacher education program, (2) prepare teachers for research skills needed in their careers, and (3) prepare teachers to support the information needs and practices of their students.4 The Framework for Information Literacy, along with inquiry and reflection practices, can deepen students’ understanding of research practice and knowledge within the disciplines.5 Librarians who work with education students and within social science fields offer research experiences that extend into professional practice, such as supporting research for evidence-based classroom practice6,7 and fostering and guiding K–12 students’ information literacy skills and dispositions.8 The connections between teacher education and information literacy highlight the need for a companion document.

The IFE Committee created the Information Literacy Standards for Teacher Education9 between 2006 and 2011 and linked that document to the 2000 ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education.10 In 2020, the IFE Committee considered revising the document to align with the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy. Communication with EBSS leadership and the ACRL Information Literacy Frameworks and Standards Committee, along with IFE Committee member discussion, reinforced a need to produce a new document focused on the Framework.

Companion Document Creation

After deciding a new document focused on the Framework was needed, the IFE Committee identified the steps needed to complete the Companion Document. They decided to work in small teams, which ensured no major task was assigned to a single person. The committee’s work started with a review of ACRL guidance on creating companion documents.11,12 They also consulted the chairs of the EBSS Social Work Committee and Communication Studies Committee on their processes for developing companion documents for social work and journalism. A committee team used this information to create a project plan for the Companion Document creation.

The first section of the project plan was an environmental scan. The committee wanted to know how librarians integrate the Framework as they work with teacher education students and education faculty. They hosted the discussion “Teaching the Teachers: A Collaborative Discussion on the Framework and Standards for Teacher Education Students”13 on November 13, 2020. After the discussion, a literature review on the intersection of teacher education and the Framework was conducted. As the committee reviewed the search results, they determined whether each resource aligned with specific frames. The committee also considered the reviewed literature through the lenses of social justice, metacognition, and digital/media literacy, key concepts in teacher education.

An essential feature of the project plan was multiple drafts based on feedback from education librarians. The committee used the feedback from the discussion and the literature review analysis to create the first draft of the Companion Document in LibGuides. The committee divided into three teams, with each team assigned two frames to draft. As part of this work, the teams reviewed the Interstate Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (InTASC) Model Core Teaching Standards14 and the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Standards for Educators15 to identify where those standards aligned with their assigned frames. The first draft of three frames was completed by June 2021. New committee members joined the teams in fall 2021. A polished draft of all frames was finished in time to share with participants before the discussion event “The ACRL Framework and Teacher Education: Shaping the Companion Document for Instruction for Education,”16 held on December 10, 2021. Participants provided essential feedback on each frame.

Based on that feedback, the IFE Committee substantially revised the Companion Document. In particular, discussion participants asked for more emphasis on how to integrate the frames and education standards into instruction. This suggestion prompted an overhaul of the sample objectives and activities sections of each frame. The next version of the document was shared more widely within EBSS. Additionally, the EBSS Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Task Force was asked to review the document with a social justice lens. These two rounds of feedback led to the next version. After review by the EBSS leadership, the Information Literacy Frameworks and Standards Committee, and the ACRL Standards Committee, the ACRL Board of Directors approved the Companion Document in June 2023.

Companion Document Example

The Companion Document is divided into sections corresponding to the six frames in the Framework for Information Literacy. Within each frame there is a section titled “In an Education Context.” This section articulates which information literacy knowledge practices and dispositions are relevant to each of the three teacher roles (as teacher education student, as professional, and as classroom teacher). The relationships between the three teacher roles and the frames are demonstrated in this example from Scholarship as Conversation:

In their course assignments, teacher education students need to be able to:

• demonstrate their ability to trace the history of a given scholarly conversation using citations; and
• summarize changes in educational scholarly perspectives over time on a particular topic.17

Scholarship as Conversation also applies to a teacher’s professional practice, where they need to be able to:

• inform themselves about new ideas and understandings in teaching and education through their reading, their use of digital tools (e.g., journal and search alerts), and their participation in learning networks; and
• use their newfound knowledge to improve their own professional teaching practice.18

Librarians working with teacher education students can prepare them for their work in PK–12 classrooms so that as teachers, they are ready to:

• invite students to respond to diverse perspectives by constructing their own arguments while crediting the authors and creators of the works to which they are responding; and
• encourage students to develop their own voice and to share their own knowledge, creative works, and inquiry findings with others.19

The Companion Document, as a whole, helps librarians working with teacher education students to provide support for lifelong learning for educators.

Next Steps

Now that the Companion Document has been approved by the ACRL Board of Directors and published, the IFE Committee can assist librarians with the application of the Framework and the challenge of relating the Companion Document to state education standards. The IFE Committee also understands any document of this length and complexity will remain a work in progress. Given the success of the IFE discussion forums in 2020 and 2021, as well as the 2022 event “Fulfilling the Framework: Strategies for Activating Information Literacy Skills for Pre-service Educators,”20 the IFE Committee anticipates continuing to facilitate online conversations with librarians and educators that will employ the document as a resource while also gathering feedback on the ways it can continue to improve. These discussions will inform future work to ensure the document serves the broadest possible array of potential users. Research into the Companion Document will also add to the limited literature available on teacher education, and the Framework will be used to inform future revisions of the document.

Based on conversations from the forums, the IFE Committee observed that librarians in this field expressed a greater need for instructional activities and assessments that implement the Framework successfully. A concerted effort to develop a larger collection of example lessons, whether by developing them in-house through the work of IFE Committee members or by soliciting and curating lessons from EBSS membership (or other ACRL sections), would benefit users of the Companion Document.

Conclusion

In reflecting on its work in recent years, the IFE Committee is delighted to see its goal reach fruition in sharing the Companion Document with the wider ACRL community. This could not have been accomplished without the generous contributions of the librarians and educators who participated in the discussion forums and feedback surveys. Their insights were critically important to the revision of the Companion Document. In engaging in this work, the IFE Committee learned much from the ACRL groups that had already developed companion documents for the Framework and is therefore ready to support others in the creation of companion documents. The Companion Document is a major contribution to the field of information literacy instruction in teacher education because it integrates the Framework into the work of educators at every level.

Notes

1. “EBSS Instruction for Educators Committee,” ACRL/EBSS, accessed December 20, 2023, https://www.ala.org/acrl/ebss/acr-ebsbie.
2. ACRL/EBSS Instruction for Educators Committee, “Companion Document to the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education: Instruction for Educators,” June 2023, https://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/standards/Framework_Companion_Instruction_Educators.pdf.
3. “Companion Document to the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education: Instruction for Educators,” ACRL/EBSS/IFE, accessed December 20, 2023, https://acrl.libguides.com/ed.
4. Alison Lehner-Quam and Wesley Pitts, “Exploring Innovative Ways to Incorporate the Association of College and Research Libraries Framework in Graduate Science Teacher Education ePortfolio Projects,” New Review of Academic Librarianship 25, no. 2–4 (2019): 357–80, https://doi.org/10.1080/13614533.2019.1621186.
5. Sara D. Miller, “Diving Deep: Reflective Questions for Identifying Tacit Disciplinary Information Literacy Knowledge Practices, Dispositions, and Values through the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy,” Journal of Academic Librarianship 44, no. 3 (2018): 412–18, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2018.02.014.
6. Andrej Šorgo and Jasmina Heric, “Motivational and Demotivational Factors Affecting a Teacher’s Decision on Whether to Do Research,” Center for Educational Policy Studies Journal 10, no. 3 (2020): 77–97, https://doi.org/10.26529/cepsj.869.
7. Tricia Bingham, Josie Wirjapranata, and Shirley-Ann Chinnery, “Merging Information Literacy and Evidence-Based Practice for Social Work Students,” New Library World 117, nos. 3–4 (2016): 201–13, https://doi.org/10.1108/NLW-09-2015-0067.
8. Di Wu, Chi Zhou, Yating Li, and Min Chen, “Factors Associated with Teachers’ Competence to Develop Students’ Information Literacy: A Multilevel Approach,” Computers & Education 176 (2022), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2021.104360.
9. “Information Literacy Standards for Teacher Education,” ACRL/EBSS, May 11, 2011, https://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/standards/ilstandards_te.pdf.
10. “Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education,” ACRL, January 18, 2000, https://alair.ala.org/bitstream/handle/11213/7668/ACRL%20Information%20Literacy%20Competency%20Standards%20for%20Higher%20Education.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y.
11. “Connecting Justice to Frameworks: Information Literacy in Social Work,” YouTube video, 1:00:31, posted by ACRL, May 26, 2020, https://youtu.be/Re0pU6HJxEg.
12. “Checklist for Developing and Reviewing Framework Companion Documents,” ACRL, revised February 2020, https://www.ala.org/acrl/resources/policies/checklist_ss_il.
13. “Teaching the Teachers: A Collaborative Discussion on the Framework and Standards for Teacher Education Students,” ACRL/EBSS Instruction for Educators Committee, November 13, 2020, https://sites.google.com/view/ebss-ife-virtualdiscussion/home.
14. “InTASC: Model Core Teaching Standards and Learning Progressions for Teachers 1.0,” Council of Chief State School Officers, accessed April 21, 2023, https://ccsso.org/sites/default/files/2017-12/2013_INTASC_Learning_Progressions_for_Teachers.pdf.
15. “ISTE Standards: Educators,” International Society for Technology in Education, accessed April 21, 2023, https://www.iste.org/standards/iste-standards-for-teachers.
16. “The ACRL Framework and Teacher Education: Shaping the Companion Document for Instruction for Education,” ACRL/EBSS Instruction for Educators Committee, accessed April 21, 2023, https://sites.google.com/view/ebssifedec2021workshop/home.
17. “Companion Document to the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education: Instruction for Educators,” ACRL/EBSS/IFE, June 2023, https://acrl.libguides.com/ed.
18. “Companion Document.”
19. “Companion Document.”
20. “Fulfilling the Framework: Strategies for Activating Information Literacy Skills for Pre-service Educators,” ACRL/EBSS Instruction for Educators Committee, December 9, 2022, https://sites.google.com/ewu.edu/ebssifefall22discussionsession/home.