#LILAC23 Embracing the bias: using theory to teach positional knowledge

Pam McKinney live blogging from #LILAC23: Melissa Johnson and Thomas Weekes from Augusta University, Georgia, USA, spoke about the different skill levels of their incoming undergraduates. They have preconceived notions of authority and bias, and some are reluctant to use peer reviewed journal articles because the authors are experts and therefore biased. Is all bias inherently bad? The position these presenters have is that students need to engage with bias in order to understand it. Many of us are familiar with the concept of bias in the media, particularly relating to political views. There is also bias in health science research, for example selection bias, or detection bias. In social science research there is an inherent bias between qualitative and quantitativ research, and bias generally in academia e.g. citation bias and publication bias.

As librarians, how do we help students navigate bias? Simplistic definitions of bias can be seen in models of information evaluation e.g. the CRAAP test. Unfortunately, bias is not well defined, so librarians could do more to help users navigate bias. Using theory is a better way to help students understand bias, for example epistemic injustice, which is defined as the wrong done to one in their capacity as a knower (Fricker 2007). We have to be aware of whether the academy marginalised non-scholarly voices because they experience the world in a different way. Students tend to think of bias simply, but it can lead them to define other people as biased due to their own prejudices.  

Examining one’s positionality is an important activity to address this. Positionality is linked to the ACRL Framework of information literacy dispositions, students as researchers need to understand their position. Students occupy a specific social position due to their gender, class, background etc, and have a limited vantage point from which to understand the world. Our position gives us certain ways of thinking that prejudice us towards certain ways of knowing and understanding. Teaching students about this is hard, as students find this challenging of their world view uncomfortable. We need to move beyond the checklist approach when teaching bias, and teach them to reflect on their own positionality when evaluating bias, however this is challenging in the context of the one shot library induction session. Using flipped learning can help, and building credit bearing library courses, and using continuous reinforcement.
Photo Pam McKinney, Cambridge Zoology Museum