Unpacking White Language Supremacy in the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy

Abstract

Who is the model information literate individual? Taking its cue from Critical Discourse Analysis, Antiracist Black Language Pedagogy, and Habits of White Language (HOWL) Supremacy, this presentation questions the foundational image of the information literate individual lying at the heart of the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy. The audience will gain an understanding of how the ACRL Framework operates within the norms of white supremacy culture, reinforces whiteness as a neutral background, and codes the idealized information literate individual as white. Participants will have opportunities to ask questions and engage in interrogating the implied standards in the Framework throughout the session. After this session, participants will be able to begin to identify ways in which White Supremacy Culture infuses how the Framework conceives of information literacy and problematize foundational practices which assert that one must “become” information literate in a particular way.