An English translation of: Webber, S., Boon, S. and Johnston, B. (2006) "Comparaison des conceptions pédagogiques de la maîtrise de l’information chez des universitaires britanniques de différentes disciplines." Actes des 5èmes Rencontres Formist: Lyon: 2005. Lyon: ENSSIB.

1. To be published in the Proceedings of the Rencontres FORMIST (2005)
British academics from different disciplines: comparing their
conceptions of pedagogy for information literacy
Authors
Sheila Webber (Senior Lecturer in the Department of Information Studies, University of Sheffield) Email:
s.webber@sheffield.ac.uk
Stuart Boon (Lecturer in the Centre for Academic Practice and Learning Enhancement, University of
Strathclyde, Glasgow) Email: s.boon@strath.ac.uk
Bill Johnston (Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Academic Practice and Learning Enhancement, University of
Strathclyde, Glasgow) Email: b.johnston@strath.ac.uk
Abstract
The authors describe and compare results from a phenomenographic investigation into conceptions of
pedagogy for information literacy in two populations: academics in English and Marketing disciplines teaching
at British universities. These were chosen as examples of, respectively, soft-pure and soft-applied disciplines.
We begin by briefly describing the British Higher Education context for the research. We explain the nature
phenomenographic approach, and describe our sample and methods. We present firstly, the conceptions of
information literacy held by the English and Marketing academics, and then conceptions of pedagogy for
information literacy held by the English and Marketing academics. Differences between the conceptions held in
the two disciplines are discussed. The authors conclude by identifying some implications for librarians.
Introduction
This paper describes and compares results from an investigation into British academics’ conceptions of
pedagogy for information literacy in two disciplines: Marketing and English. This is part of a larger study into
the conceptions of academics in four disciplines. We have defined Information Literacy as:
the adoption of appropriate information behaviour to identify, through whatever channel or medium,
information well fitted to information needs, leading to wise and ethical use of information in society.
(Johnston and Webber, 2004, 13)
As we have noted (Johnston and Webber, 2003), although there is a considerable literature on information
literacy, it is primarily written by librarians. The standards and models for information literacy (e.g. SCONUL
Task Force on Information Skills, 1999) which are put forward as frameworks for teaching information literacy
have also been developed by librarians. Our research aims to illuminate the issue of information literacy by
focusing on academics’ perspectives. There has been no large-scale study of UK academics’ conceptions of
information literacy, nor of their conceptions of pedagogy for information literacy.
The Higher Education (HE) context in the United Kingdom (UK)
We will highlight a few of the trends in HE in the UK, since this is the environment in which our interviewees
work. Firstly, there has been a significant growth in the percentage of people going to university over the past
25 years (from about 5% to about 37% of the population going into post-school education). The number of
academics has certainly not grown proportionally, so there is more pressure on academics to spend time on
teaching and administration. Additionally, the UK Government encourages students to think of themselves as
consumers of education, and (except in Scotland) most students (or, more often, their parents) have to pay their
own fees, so students and parents are more concerned about value for money. In terms of the university
curriculum, there has been an increasing emphasis on universities developing their students’ employability
skills. For each course of study, the skills which are going to be developed through the course have to be
identified.
There are two exercises which also have a big impact on academics: the Research Assessment Exercise and the
assessment of teaching quality. These assessments have taken place several times, and summative assessments
are made. These exercises are taken seriously, because the amount of money which the university receives from

2. To be published in the Proceedings of the Rencontres FORMIST (2005)
Government wil depend on what “marks” the university gets for teaching and research. The teaching quality
assessment exercises have meant that every UK academic has been exposed to material on the quality of
teaching, and even research-led universities have paid more attention to it.
The research project
Johnston and Webber were awarded funding of £130,000 by the Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
for a three year project (November 2002- October 2005). The key research questions are:
1. What conceptions of information literacy are held by UK academics?
2. What are academics’ conceptions and reported practice in educating students for information literacy?
3. Do differences in conception correspond to differences in discipline?
The project uses the phenomenographic approach to investigate academics’ conceptions. Phenomenography is
a qualitative approach, which has been most used in educational research (Marton and Booth, 1997). It was
appropriate for this study because of its focus on variation (as opposed to commonality) in conception. This
research approach has also been used in numerous investigations into conceptions of teaching held by
academics (see e.g. Trigwell et al., 1994), and notably in the study by Bruce (1997) of Australian university
staff’s conceptions of information literacy.
Marton describes phenomenography as “The empirical study of the differing ways in which people experience,
perceive, apprehend, understand, conceptualise various phenomena in and aspects of the world around us.”
(Marton 1994, 4425 ). As Figure 1 indicates, the researcher is not concentrating centrally on the phenomenon
(in our case information literacy, and the teaching of information literacy) nor on the interviewee (in our case,
the academic). Instead, the investigator aims to get a picture of how the interviewee conceives of, or
experiences, the phenomenon.
Figure 1: The nature of the investigation
Information Literacy
?
IntervieweeResearcher
What is key focus of
interviewee’s
conception of IL?
In the interview process it is important that the investigator puts to one side their preconceptions about the
phenomenon under investigation (Ashworth and Lucas, 2000), so that the interviewee is not influenced by
them. Thus in our own research we designed open questions which did not point to a particular answer (e.g. we
asked “what is your conception of information literacy” rather than “do you think that X is part of information
literacy”).
A further characteristic of phenomenography is that, when analysing the data, the investigator does not focus on
the individual, but rather pools all the data collected (in our case, transcriptions of individual interviews) and
analyses it as a whole (as indicated in Figure 2 )

3. To be published in the Proceedings of the Rencontres FORMIST (2005)
Figure 2: From transcript pool to analysis
Categories
Pool of interview
transcripts
Analysis
e.g. categories describing
different ways of experiencing
information literacy
The investigator identifies categories describing the different ways of experiencing the phenomenon. In
particular the researcher wants to identify the factors that are in “focal awareness” (i.e. centrally important).
The investigator draws on the data (the interview transcripts) to build “categories of description”, which
describe each qualitatively different conception of the phenomenon. The three investigators in this study (Boon,
Johnston and Webber) analysed the transcripts collaboratively.
The categories of description provide a snapshot of the conceptions of a particular population at a particular
time: in our case academics in the UK in 2003/4. The description of each category includes quotations from
interview transcripts. In phenomenography, quotations are an integral part of the categories of description and
are “not just presented as interesting comments introduced almost incidentally, [but rather] they exemplify the
defining features of the categories identified.” (Entwistle and Marton, 1984, 226).
For this study, 20 academics were interviewed in each of our four disciplines. We used Biglan’s typology of
disciplines (as amended by Becher, 1989) which divides them into hard and soft, and pure and applied. Within
this typology, the disciplines we chose were: Chemistry (hard pure discipline), Civil engineering (hard applied);
English (soft pure) and Marketing (soft applied). One of the characteristics of a soft discipline is that there
tends to be less consensus as regards what constitutes an important contribution to knowledge. It is also less
clear what are the next important research questions for soft disciplines, in comparison with hard disciplines.
Within an applied discipline the aim of research may be explicitly focused on enhancing personal and social
life. The outcomes of applied research often include procedures or protocols which are judged in pragmatic
terms .
In our project, we sought a heterogeneous sample of our population. We aimed to include variation in factors
which might affect the academics’ conceptions of information literacy and their approach to teaching it. Key
characteristics for the English and Marketing samples are shown in Table 1.
Table 1: Characteristics of the Marketing and English samples
Marketing English
Gender 8 female, 12 male 11 female, 9 male
Ages ranging between 21-30 to 51-60 years 21-30 to 61+ years
Years of teaching ranging
between
0-5 to 26-30 years 0-5 to 31+ years
Research quality of Department
(RAE rating in 2001 exercise)
2 to 5* 3a to 5*
Teaching quality of Department
(score in last subject review)
Satisfactory to Excellent Satisfactory to Excellent
Type of university 4 post- 1992 and 8 pre-1992 (i.e.
12 different universities)
5 post-1992 and 8 pre-1992 (i.e.
13 different universities)

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The interviews were carried out and recorded by Boon between March 2003 and February 2004, and
transcribed verbatim. The interviews averaged 45 minutes each and were based around three fundamental
questions:
- What is your conception of IL?
- How do you engage your students in IL?
- What is your conception of the Information Literate University?
The first two questions prompted reflections and descriptions of the interviewee’s behaviour and practice. The
third question encouraged interviewees to think beyond the day-to-day constraints and reveal their hopes
regarding information literacy. Each main question had a number of follow-up questions.
For each discipline, analysis was carried out to identify both conceptions of information literacy and
conceptions of pedagogy for information literacy. We will first describe the information literacy conceptions of
the English academics and Marketing academics very briefly. We will then describe the pedagogy for
information literacy conceptions. We will finally compare their conceptions of pedagogy for information
literacy and draw some conclusions for librarians.
Conceptions of information literacy
The following describe the key focus and features of each conception. Four conceptions of information literacy
were discovered for the English academics.
• English academics’ category 1. Accessing and retrieving textual information. The focus is on being
able to access and retrieve textual information quickly and easily, most often printed matter. This is in
the context of a particular, immediate research need (e.g. student essay or journal article)
• English academics’ category 2. Using IT to access and retrieve information. The focus here is on
being able to use information technology (IT) to access and retrieve textual and non-textual information
quickly and easily. This is in the context of a current project, assignment or course.
• English academics’ category 3. Possessing basic research skills and knowing how and when to use
them. The focus of this conception of information literacy is on possessing a set of basic research skills
and being able to use and apply those skills when required (e.g. in writing an essay, constructing a
presentation). These basic research skills are often likened to, or described as ‘library skills’ etc. The
contextual focus is not solely the university, but may extend to life outside the university.
• English academics’ category 4. Becoming confident, autonomous learners and critical thinkers.
The focus here is on personal growth and development and the acquisition of higher order information
skills in order to become confident autonomous learners and critical thinkers. These skills are needed
through life and the emphasis is not on achieving success in one’s career, but rather on successfully
becoming an information literate citizen.
Six conceptions of information literacy were discovered for the Marketing academics.
• Marketing academics’ category 1. Accessing information quickly and easily to be aware of what’s
going on. The focus is on being able to get access to a wide variety of information quickly and easily.
The key purpose is keeping in touch with, and drawing on, what is going on in the outside world.
• Marketing academics’ category 2. Using IT to work with information. The focus here is on using
information technology (IT) tools efficiently and effectively to work with information. Software
applications, such as SPSS, and communications networks are emphasised. The ability to manipulate
numeric as well as textual data is important in this conception.
• Marketing academics’ category 3. Possessing a set of information skills and applying them to the
task in hand. The focus is on developing a set of information skills and being able to apply the
relevant skills to a particular task (e.g. writing an article, producing an assignment).
• Marketing academics’ category 4. Using information literacy to solve real-world problems. This
focuses on understanding a problem, often a “real world” problem, and understanding how information
can be used to solve the problem. The central focus is on the problem, and working with information in
relation to the problem, rather than on skills.
• Marketing academics’ category 5. Becoming critical thinkers. The central focus is on becoming a
critical thinker. Most important to this development are higher order information skills such as
understanding and interpreting information..

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• Marketing academics’ category 6. Becoming a confident, independent practitioner. The focus is
on the use of information literacy as an important part of becoming a confident practitioner. Thus there
is a focus on personal development to become this practitioner, who will have to make sense of
information and apply skills in a real world context.
Note that both samples of academics have a conception focusing on information sources, and another focusing
on using IT. However, there are differences between these similar conceptions. Differences correlate with
varying ideas of what the academics think “information” is. With the English academics there is an emphasis
on the text (particularly books). In contrast, a variety of sources (e.g. news, market reports, journals, numerical
datasets, company websites, organisations and people, including observation of people in real-life situations) is
mentioned by all marketing academics in our study. Electronic sources were more an accepted part of this mix
for marketing academics. These differences correlate with previous research on information behaviour in
different disciplines.
There are also differences in the extent to which the outside world is important, with Marketing academics
focusing on the world outside university much more. Some Marketing interviewees referred to their work
outside the university, as part of their explanation of why information was important to them: “Information is
very significant to my profession. Being able to find information quickly and easily is very, very important.
Then to be able to use the information, to apply it and make it work for you, or your client. Consultancy is all
about gathering and manipulating information. » (Marketing Interviewee 09) This difference between English
and Marketing academics’ conceptions correlates with the difference between a pure discipline (English) an
applied discipline (Marketing)
Conceptions of pedgagogy for information literacy
The English academics’ held four conceptions of pedagogy for information literacy. Key factors were: 1)
Relationship between information literacy and the discipline 2) Their approach to pedagogy & student learning
Table 2: UK English academics’ pedagogy for information literacy
Pedagogy for information literacy
as…
Pedagogic focus & relationship
with information literacy
Student learning focus
Someone else’s job (e.g.
colleagues, other staff, students,
student’s peers)
The focus is squarely on teaching
the subject or a particular course of
study within the subject and does
not allow for information literacy
as a component of study. Views
expressed towards information
literacy often externalise it, placing
it outside the subject or discipline,
and distancing it from their current
practice.
Students are not expected to learn
information literacy; they are
expected to learn the subject.
Students’ information skills and use
of information are often viewed as
deficient. Change, if any, is the
result of some other teaching or
experience.
An add-on or side-effect of
teaching the subject
The focus of pedagogy is found in
fulfilling course requirements and
information literacy is clearly
expressed as something that
students should ‘pick-up’ or learn
as a result of completing
assignments and learning the
subject. Information literacy is,
thus, not actively taught, but rather
is viewed as being a side-effect of
subject lessons (e.g. bibliography,
close reading, research methods,
avoiding plagiarism, etc.)
Students are expected to learn
information literacy for themselves,
picking it up as they go along.
Change results from working
through and within the subject.

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Introducing students to sources of
information
The focus is on preparing students
for their course of study, giving
them (or upgrading) the skills that
they will need to use throughout
their academic careers, and to a
certain extent beyond. Awareness
and use of information sources is
viewed here as a predictor of
academic success. Information
literacy is often viewed in terms of
research skills and transferable
skills.
Students learn information literacy
from introduction to information
sources. Change results from
exposure to, and experience with,
different sources of information.
Engaging with students to show
them the value of information and
information literacy
The focus is on engaging with
students (often described in
personal terms, e.g. ‘connecting’)
and developing an awareness and
understanding of information and
information literacy. Teaching
focuses on the students’ personal
development, on making them self-
sufficient and self-aware, and
encompasses active participation,
reflexivity, serendipity, and self-
discovery.
Students learn information literacy
through developing an
understanding of the value of
information and information
literacy in the context of their own
information needs. Change results
from engaging with educators,
peers, information sources, and the
wider information society; through
active participation and problem-
solving; and through critical
reflection and self-discovery.
English academics’ category 1: Someone else's job
The focus is clearly on teaching the subject, not information liteacy. If information literacy education is taking
place, then it is being undertaken by someone else within the department (e.g. another member of staff) or
within the wider university (e.g. librarians and library staff) or by the students themselves : « [Concerning
information literacy education] I tell them to go and find out! This is part of their education… I say, 'You are
getting zero instructions from me. This is just part of your learning skills…’ » (English Interviewee 16).
Information literacy is outside the academics’ world: « …notions of information literacy are completely off the
practitioners radar—completely off their radar. But when it comes onto their radar, it will be seen as a job for
somebody else » (English Interviewee 06).
English academics’ category 2: An add-on or side-effect of teaching the subject
The focus of pedagogy is on fulfilling course requirements and information literacy is clearly expressed as
something that students should ‘pick-up’ or learn as a result of completing assignments and learning the
subject. Information literacy is, thus, not actively taught, but rather is viewed as being a side-effect of subject
lessons and learning the discipline.
“Well, it's a process of thinking about the literature and looking at things critically. I don't think I teach
[information literacy] explicitly as such, rather they absorb it through the readings, through what we're saying,
and in the whole experience. “ (English Interviewee 20)
English academics’ category 3: Introducing the students to sources of information
The focus is on introducing students to sources of information which they will be able to use for papers,
assignments and presentations in the short term, and which they will be able to use for other classes and
situations in the longer term. Emphasis is on preparing students for their course of study, giving them (or
upgrading) the skills that they will need to use throughout their academic careers, and to a certain extent
beyond.
« [Referring to information literacy] …it's often a case of referring them on to other sources that are out there. »
(English Interviewee 08)
Awareness and use of information sources is viewed here as a predictor of academic success. Information
literacy is often viewed in terms of research skills and transferable skills.

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English academics’ category 4: Engaging with students to show them the value of information and
information literacy
The focus is on engaging with students (often described in personal terms, e.g. ‘connecting’) and developing
awareness and understanding of information and information literacy. Teaching focuses on the students’
personal development, on making them self-sufficient and self-aware, and encompasses active participation,
reflexivity, serendipity, and self-discovery.
“…when you actually talk about [information literacy] specifically then they realise that this is really useful… I
think it encourages and fosters a kind of ambition, I think, in a sense of their work is independent and
interesting and significant… just kind of opens things up, I think, and makes them feel… well, they can become
expert…. That is a quite important moment, I think” (English Interviewee 13).
Students learn information literacy through developing an understanding of the value of information and
information literacy in the context of their own information needs. Change results from engaging with
educators, peers, information sources, and the wider information society; through active participation and
problem-solving; and through critical reflection and self-discovery.
“[Information literacy] is something you use through your life. Um, it implies to me, I mean to me information
literacy is a part of civic engagement and civic participation, um, without even at least even a passing
understanding of how information is produced, how it is constructed, how it's presented, um, how it is—if one
can say this—intended to be understood and interpreted, then one cannot make sense of the world.” (English
Interviewee 06)
The Marketing academics held five conceptions of pedagogy for information literacy. The key factors for
variation in their conceptions were: conceptions of information literacy (as described above) and pedagogic
focus. The relationship between the factors is illustrated in Table 1, and the description of the four categories
follows.
Table 3: UK Marketing academics’ pedagogy for information literacy
1.
Someone
else’s job
2. Upgrading
students’
information
toolbox
3.
Facilitating
access to a
variety of
resources
4. Showing
students how
& when to
use
information
skills
5. Helping students
understand how
information literacy is
critical to them
Conception of
information
literacy
Toolbox
Accessing
information
Toolbox Accessing
information
Using IT
Accessing
information
Using IT
Problem solving
Critical thinker
Independent
practitioner
Focus of
pedagogy
The subject
(marketing)
+
assumptions
made by the
academic
about
students
The particular
course of
study +
assumptions
made by the
academic
about students
The academic
him/herself
and his/her
teaching +
expectations
of the
students
The particular
course of
study +
expectations
of the students
Facilitating student
understanding
Marketing academics’ category 1. Someone else’s job
The conception of information literacy is 1 or 3. The subject (marketing) is in focal awareness; the role of
teaching information literacy is rejected.
“It’s my job in a two hour lecture to lecture to them on the subject area for two hours.” “Uh, when I go to a
lecture I teach in a lecture. I don’t teach them how to use the library. I don’t teach them how to use the internet.
I don’t teach them how to do electronic searches.” (Marketing Interviewee 3).
Assumptions are made about the students and the skills and knowledge they may or may not possess.
“Um, my students are third years so I am making the generally, probably wholesome, assumption that over the
previous two years they probably have learned these skills to some degree ” (Marketing Interviewee 08)

8. To be published in the Proceedings of the Rencontres FORMIST (2005)
Marketing academics’ category 2. Upgrading students’ information toolbox at an appropriate point
The focal awareness is on the interaction between a toolbox of information skills and a given course of study.
The conception of information literacy is Possessing a set of information skills and applying them to the task in
hand. Pedagogy for information literacy is experienced as giving teaching or classes to meet the course
requirements, driven by their expectations of what students need at that point.
“Well, it means having a, uh, a kind of toolbox of skills that I can show the students how to use. But I should
point out that I don’t teach a lot of information literacy, not as it would be called information literacy, but there
are important bits or specific tools that I do bring out for different classes.” (Marketing Interviewee14)
Marketing academics’ category 3. Facilitating access to a variety of resources
In this conception the focus is on the lecturer’s role in facilitating access to information. There is a focus on
being aware of what the students’ expectations are, and tailoring the pedagogic approach to those expectations.
The conception of information literacy is of Accessing information quickly and easily to be aware of what’s
going on or Using IT to work with information efficiently and effectively. The focal awareness is on the lecturer
making information accessible at a point that fits in with his or her own teaching, and on the students being able
to access the information.
Marketing academics’ category 4. Showing students how and when to use information skills
The focus for those with this conception is on introducing information literacy skills when the students need
them. When talking about changes in teaching, academics often talk about adapting to student expectations and
preferences, or reacting to observations of student behaviour. The academics also aim to persuade students that
the skills will be useful in their life, and not just for study.
“Aside from all the stuff they have to learn about what this topic is, I like them to learn, um, how to find things
out to use for essays and the resources that are available on the computer and in the library. I like them to learn,
um, a more practical side of things like communication and discussion and things like that, but I don’t know if
you’d class that as information skills or not. But I think that the learning experience is about, um, can you go
out and work at the end of the degree and not just can you recite who wrote this particular journal article in
1978? “ (Marketing Interviewee 03)
Marketing academics’ category 5. Helping students understand how information literacy is critical to
them, for marketing and life
The focus is on students’ understanding of the role and importance of information literacy in the discipline of
marketing and/or in students’ life outside formal education. “People really know how important it is and how
increasingly important those skills are in terms of doing things in the real world, whether they are going to be
academics or practitioners, it doesn’t matter. You know, the world is about information and we are breeding a
generation of knowledge workers. The better they are when they leave us.” (Marketing Interviewee 10)
The intention is that student understanding comes about variously through participation, questioning, problem
solving, case study work etc as well as demonstration and facilitating access to resources.
Discussion
There has been a good deal of research into academics’ conceptions of teaching: a significant amount using the
same phenomenographic approach as our own research. Samuelowitz and Bain (2001) review key studies and
note that the studies generally identify a range of conceptions falling into three categories:
• Knowledge conveying categories (e.g. transferring knowledge, explaining curriculum)
• Intermediate categories (e.g. focus on student-teacher interaction)
• Facilitation of learning categories (e.g. facilitating conceptual change & understanding)
There is correlation between the categories we have identified, and the categories above. For example, the
Marketing academics’ categories Upgrading the students’ information toolbox and Facilitating access to
information resources could be categorised as Knowledge Conveying, Showing students how and when to use
information skills can be categorised as Intermediate, and Helping students understand how information
literacy is critical to them, for marketing & life as Facilitating Learning.
The most notable difference from previous “Conceptions of teaching” research is our discovery of the Someone
else’s job category. This has presumably not been identified because in other studies the teachers were,
implicitly or explicitly, being asked to reflect on their experience of teaching their own subject. Given the

9. To be published in the Proceedings of the Rencontres FORMIST (2005)
increasing emphasis on development of study- and life-skills through the curriculum, this category could be
seen as a cause for concern. However, librarians might also see it as an opportunity for them to take on a job
that the academics’ themselves are reluctant to own.
Key similarities between the conceptions of pedagogy for information literacy of the English and Marketing
academics are as follows:
1. The emergence of Someone else’s job conceptions for both disciplines.
2. The importance of the academic’s approach to pedagogy in determining their conception of pedagogy for
information literacy. Whilst the importance of pedagogic approach may seem a factor that could have been
predicted, it can be noted that, in the library and information literature, academics’ failures in teaching
information literacy are often blamed on their lack of information literacy, rather than their approach to
teaching.
3. There is also similarity between the two “sources” approaches to teaching, though in the Marketing
conception there is more focus on the academic taking steps to facilitate access to information (including their
own lecture notes etc) and seeing this as part of their teaching practice.
One key difference between the conceptions of academics in the two disciplines is that it is not the conception
of information literacy itself which is a key factor in English academics’ conceptions of pedagogy for
information literacy. It is, rather, the relationship perceived between information literacy and the discipline.
This finding could be related to the fact that information is perceived more unproblematically important in
practice of the Marketing discipline.
This is revealed in quotations from Marketing interviewees, e.g. “So information is vital. And being up to date
with the information you are gathering is vital—being on top of events.” (Marketing Interviewee 9) “You
know, the world is about information and we are breeding a generation of knowledge workers.” (Marketing
Interviewee 10) It is also evident in marketing textbooks, where the need to gather, analyse and manage
information is stressed. Textbooks tend to be a focus for at least early undergraduate marketing teaching. Thus,
whilst these textbooks do not describe “information literacy”, the students are presented a view of the discipline
in which information skills and information handling are necessary as part of the discipline’s practice.
In contrast, the teaching of English relies much less on a textbook approach. Higher order elements of
information literacy, such as critical engagement with information, may be framed as part of the discipline of
English (and thus not information literacy). This could help to account for our English academics’ Side-effect
conception of teaching information literacy, which did not have a parallel with the Marketing academics.
Implications for librarians
As has been noted above, one of the findings from our research is that the academics’ conception of pedagogy
is key for the way they teach (or do not teach) information literacy. Even if an academic were to improve, for
example, their ability to search electronic sources, it does not necessarily mean that they would be any better at
facilitating their students’ learning of information literacy. However, an academic might become better at
helping students improve their information literacy because the academic had changed their conception of
pedagogy (e.g. moving away from a transmissive approach). Whilst this might seem frustrating for librarians
(since librarians might have more chance of improving academics’ searching skills than of changing
academics’ approach to teaching), it can help to focus attention on the options available. For example, if
working with an academic with a Upgrading the students’ information toolbox approach to information
literacy, a librarian could present evidence to challenge the assumptions that the academic is making about
students. The librarian also might attempt to complement the course-focused instruction given by the academic.
The librarian could provide complementary teaching which deepens the student’s understanding of the specific
aspect of information literacy being addressed by the academic, and the librarian could make connections with
applications of information literacy outside the course.
It can also be noted that some academics have "Higher-order" conceptions of information literacy, for example
focusing on critical thinking, and that some academics also have higher-order conceptions of teaching i.e.
focusing on facilitating understanding and conceptual change. Academics with these conceptions all spoke
positively about the library, and were aware that librarians were working to improve students’ information
literacy. However, these academics were not necessarily working closely with librarians to teach information
literacy. One reason for this could be that some librarians were demonstrating a more “Knowledge Conveying”
approach to teaching: for example, stressing access to sources, or acquisition of a toolbox of skills, rather than

10. To be published in the Proceedings of the Rencontres FORMIST (2005)
engaging with students to facilitate understanding. This could be off-putting for academics with a more
developed pedagogic approach.
From that perspective it makes sense for librarians to reflect on their own conception of information literacy,
and pedagogy for information literacy, and be aware of the variety of approaches. This might trigger change in
their own teaching practice. It also might make librarians more sensitive to the academics’ varying approaches,
to determine how to work with them, and to decide what impact they want to have on their students’ learning.
Finally, our research has certainly uncovered diferences between disciplines in the ways in which they conceive
of, and teach, information literacy. It provides more evidence that providing a « one size fits all » approach to
information literacy is unlikely to be truly successful in engaging academics and students. Exploring the nature
and meaning of “information” and of information literacy within a discipline will be a more fruitful path. There
are already clues in previous information behaviour research, as well as our own research, that can help
librarians in this exploration. We feel that our research is a call for empathy and dialogue between librarians
and academics, to collaborate on finding an authentic and relevant pedagogy for the students in their care.
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