The last session I'm attending final session today at the LILAC information literacy conference is Reframing Information Literacy Instruction through a Lens of Knowledge Justice presented by Heather Campbell and Ashley McKeown (Western University, Canada). The abstract is here This is a liveblog, so this is just my rushed impression of this rich session.
The presenters started by recognising the traditional holders of the lands that their university stands on, and identifying themselves as white settlers in Canada, and they shared aspects of their identity and positionality. They talked about the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the responsibilities it brings for decolonisation. They cited "We must make space to balance generate and enable diverse knowledge systems to thrive". They talked about the work being done in the nursing profession (as Ashley is a nurse educator) to decolonise and critique figures such as Florence Nightingale. The coauthor Lea Sansom also introduced herself via video.
The went on to talk about how Ashley and Heather collaborated on teaching and learning, following on from Ashley discovering the university's Library Curriculum https://www.lib.uwo.ca/teaching/curriculum.html. This collaboration has resulted in the Knowledge Justice in the Helping Professions learning resource, currently an open resource, https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/epistemicjusticeoer/
They defined epistemic injustice [if I can find this definition in their book I will insert it later] and talked further on how there can be epistemic injustice even within that field of study, encouraging us to think about who we cite, who isn't being cited, whose voice is being promoted or supressed. When teaching undergraduates they use AI and social media as teaching tools, and they gave an example of 2 videos that show how gen AI is biased when prompted for images of people with autism. This leads into debates e.g. of where are people's stories being shared, what are the sources that are contributing to the bias within a specific discipline. The presenters then shared a clip from a video on Epistemic injustice in health and medicine. This video provides a stimulus for learners to share examples of epistemic injustice.
Following on from that, the presenters talked about the importance of questioning who conducts academic research, whose voices are represented in the academy (e.g. on editorial boards) and who has power in authorising knowledge and knowers.
Then they talked about how they do talk about the words epistemology, ontology and axiology (particularly with faculty). Heather said that she spends more of her time teaching faculty, in addition to teaching students. Prompt questions for faculty include - what is the origin of your discipline, what does knowledge mean in your discipline, who is seen in the field. The presenters showed a list of types of knowledge (including ancestral knowledge, letters, ceremony, plants, water, as well as journals etc.) and ask people to reflect on which type of knowledge is acknowledged in their field. This leads on to asking people to reflect on the edges of their discipline's knowledge and their relationship with multiple ways of knowing and knowledge justice. The presenters also teach people about approaching knowledge seeking with humility.
Ashley talked about how she asks her students to interrogate what is meant by "best evidence" (troubling both words - best and evidence), and use case studies (each of which has an ethical conundrum). For an assignment she asks students to pick a case study and then generate a diverse list of references that could guide practice for this case. They encourage people to look for "voices" not "sources", focusing on (in their search) balancing lived experience, academic research and "arms length observers".
Something there wasn't time for in the presentation was talking about searching (e.g. adjusting your language to find a wider range of voices). Then they played a clip from a video from Lea about evaluating material critically using a knowledge justice lens, using a "framework of harms" (do they have potential for harm embedded in them). This is applied to all types of information. Lea also gave an example of when a faculty member had said she didn't want Lea to take a knowledge justice approach in a teaching session. However, Lea was still was able to introduce relevant questions into the teaching and bring in discussion of the different types of online harm. She noted that the students were in this case prepared for this type of discussion (e.g. they felt safe to share thoughts), which might not always be the case, also the faculty member felt that the teaching goals had been met.
The presenters finished by presenting some of the feedback from learners.
Photo by Sheila Webber: magnolia tree, Sheffield Botanic Gardens, March 2026
