Information literacy conceptions in comprehensive school in Finland: curriculum, teacher and school librarian discourses

Information literacy skills are essential in an information-rich environment and constitute an important part of lifelong learning. The grounds for comprehensive information literacy skills are built in school. Finnish comprehensive school is undergoing a curriculum change. Libraries are named as both partners and learning environments. Thus, there is a prompt on collaboration between teachers and librarians, which would be based on activities from both sides. Consequently, understanding the related terminology is important, and explains the focus of the present research on terms information literacy, information management skills and multiliteracy. All these terms are relevant from the point of view of both professional fields. All comprehensive schools use the renewed core curriculum from 2014 autumn term onward.The research is based on three research questions: what kind of conception of information literacy can be found in the Finnish Language and Literature in 2004 and 2014 secondary school core curricula; what are the information literacy conceptions of 7th grade teachers in Finnish Language and Literature and school librarians; and what differences or similarities are there between teachers’ and school librarians’ conceptions of information literacy and those present in the core curriculum of 2014.Research material consisted of two text entities (the core curricula of 2004 and 2014) and of the interview data from five teachers of seventh-grade Finnish Language and Literature and five school librarians in five teacher training schools. The theoretical framework was based on information literacy. Both text and interview transcriptions were analysed in similar fashion, following discourse analytic approach and using both qualitative and quantitative methods. The results were first presented as separate units and then in a combined analysis, focusing on the 2014 core curriculum and the interviews. All data were divided into three sections inside the process: Planning, Activity and Reflection. These three process representations were then compared and the density of findings in every section was calculated, thus representing the emphasis on each particular section of the process.Results showed a change in the information literacy conception between the core curricula of 2004 and 2014. The 2004 core curriculum emphasised Activity phases such as Information Seeking and Critical Thinking, whereas the 2014 core curriculum emphasised Reflection phases, such as how to Work with Information. While teachers emphasised Planning phases with a penetrating focus on text and reading skills, school librarians’ emphasised Activity phases focusing on information seeking and critical thinking. Teachers were unfamiliar with the term information literacy, which was only vaguely known to school librarians as well. Furthermore, school librarians were hesitant concerning the meaning of the term multiliteracy. It can, therefore, be concluded that both professional groups emphasise different issues than the 2014 core curriculum.Thus, this research contributes to the study of information literacy in the context of cooperation between teachers and school librarians within the Finnish school system setting, with a focus on the problematic understanding of the relevant terminology.