ERIC Number: EJ1479031
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025
Pages: 18
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-None
EISSN: EISSN-1933-5954
Available Date: 0000-00-00
Exploring Positional Knowledge: Using Theory to Teach Bias
Thomas C. Weeks; Melissa E. Johnson
Communications in Information Literacy, v19 n1 Article 8 p131-147 2025
In this article, the authors explain how librarians can use positionality theory to understand how students produce value judgments around questions of bias, authority, and credibility. Librarians can help guide students to recognize the student's own positionality when approaching issues of bias. Students are often instructed to choose credible sources for their research, which they often interpret as sources that avoid bias. Source evaluation tools and checklists, such as the CRAAP test and SIFT, also tell students to watch out for biased language. Unfortunately, many people, students and librarians alike, misunderstand bias and fail to recognize its significance in the information search process. Positionality theory, which locates individuals within their social context, offers librarians a way to conceptualize bias's function in information literacy as a social construct in order to teach students about the complexity of bias.
Descriptors: Librarians, Theories, Value Judgment, Bias, Credibility, Power Structure, Information Sources, Information Literacy, Language Usage, Evaluation, Library Instruction, Undergraduate Students
Communications in Information Literacy. e-mail: editors@comminfolit.org; Web site: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/comminfolit/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A