Realizing Information Literacy: A Philosophical Argument

• Abstract

Notable advancements in information literacy (IL) research and practice notwithstanding, fundamental concerns persist, including conceptual ambiguity, under-theorization, ill-defined boundaries, and a persistent theory-practice gap. This dissertation addresses these issues through three interrelated studies aimed at ‘realizing’ IL. Study 1, a critical review, provides a ‘reality check’ by examining key philosophical, theoretical, and practical conundrums through an ‘aporetic’ approach. The review reveals six enduring aporias in IL: truth; knowledge and data; information behavior; genericism versus contextuality; ideology and political economy; and illiteracy. Building on these findings, Study 2—comprising three sub-studies—develops a ‘realist’ IL framework by synthesizing three approaches: (1) the capability approach (CA) in political economy frames IL as ‘combined capabilities for informed beings and doings,’ highlighting informational well-being and agency beyond both skills and practices view; (2) social realism (SR) in the sociology of eduction foregrounds the primacy and internal logics of disciplinary structured knowledge domains and theoretical knowledge, locating IL in relation to these domains rather than as individual knowledge construction or knowing itself; and (3) critical realism (CR) in the philosophy of social science provides a stratified ontology and an account of causal mechanisms and emergence, clarifying how IL can be realized within information ecosystems and across knowledge domains. Study 3 applies this realist framework in higher education, outlining curriculum-design principles that help ‘realize’ IL’s aims in practice. Collectively, this dissertation argues that a realist approach can strengthen the IL field and offers a practical guide for researchers and practitioners.

• Author Keywords

Information literacy; philosophy of information; critical realism; social realism; capability.

• Poster Image

• References

Archer, M. S. (1995). Realist Social Theory: The Morphogenetic Approach. Cambridge University Press.

Archer, M. S., Bhaskar, R., Collier, A., Lawson, T., & Norrie, A. (Eds.). (1998). Critical Realism: Essential Readings. Routledge.

Balibar, É. (1995). The infinite contradiction. Yale French Studies(88), 142-164. https://doi.org/10.2307/2930105

Bernstein, B. (1971/2003). Class, Codes and Control: Vol I. Theoretical Studies towards a Sociology of Language. Routledge.

Bernstein, B. (1973/2003). Class, Codes and Control: Vol II. Applied Studies towards a Sociology of Language. Routledge.

Bernstein, B. (1975/2003). Class, Codes and Control: Vol. III. Towards a Theory of Educational Transmissions. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203011430

Bernstein, B. (1990/2003). Class, Codes and Control: Vol. IV. The Structuring of Pedagogic Discourse. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203011263

Bernstein, B. (1999). Vertical and Horizontal Discourse: An essay. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 20(2), 157-173. https://doi.org/10.1080/01425699995380

Bhaskar, R. (1978). A Realist Theory of Science (2nd ed.). Harvester Press.

Bhaskar, R. (1979). The Possibility of Naturalism: A Philosophical Critique of the Contemporary Human Sciences. Humanities Press.

Bhaskar, R. (2016). Enlightened Common Sense: The Philosophy of Critical Realism (M. Hartwig, Ed.). Routledge.

Haider, J., & Sundin, O. (2022). Paradoxes of Media and Information Literacy: The Crisis of Information. Routledge.

Hicks, A., Lloyd, A., & Pilerot, O. (Eds.). (2024). Information Literacy Through Theory. Facet Publishing.

Karamanolis, G., & Politis, V. (Eds.). (2018). The Aporetic Tradition in Ancient Philosophy. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316274293.

Maton, K. (2014). Knowledge and Knowers: Towards a Realist Sociology of Education. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203885734

McPhail, G., Pountney, R., & Wheelahan, L. (Eds.). (2024). Emerging Perspectives from Social Realism on Knowledge and Education: Curricula, Pedagogy, Identity, and Equity. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781032707051.

Muller, J., & Young, M. (2019). Knowledge, power and powerful knowledge re-visited. The Curriculum Journal, 30(2), 196-214. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585176.2019.1570292

Nussbaum, M. C. (2006). Education and Democratic Citizenship: Capabilities and Quality Education. Journal of Human Development, 7(3), 385-395. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649880600815974

Nussbaum, M. C. (2011). Creating Capabilities: The Human Development Approach. The Belknap Press.

Robeyns, I., & Byskov, M. F. (2025). The Capability Approach. In E. N. Zalta & U. Nodelman (Eds.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2025 ed.). Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2025/entries/capability-approach/

Sen, A. (1980). Equality of what? In S. M. McMurrin (Ed.), Tanner Lectures on Human Values (Vol. 1, pp. 197-220). Cambridge University Press.

Sen, A. (1985). Well-being, agency and freedom: The Dewey lectures 1984. Journal of Philosophy, 82(4), 169-221.

Sen, A. (1999). Development as Freedom. Alfred A. Knopf.

Todd, R. J. (2000, 3-5 December 1999). Information literacy: concept, conundrum and challenge. Concept, Challenge, Conundrum: From Library Skills to Information Literacy: Proceedings of the Fourth National Information Literacy Conference, Adelaide, Australia.

Todd, R. J. (2010). From information to knowledge: The information literacy conundrum. Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science, 44(4), 131-153. https://doi.org/10.4275/KSLIS.2010.44.4.131

Wheelahan, L. (2010). Why Knowledge Matters in Curriculum: A Social Realist argument. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203860236

Young, M. (2008). Bringing Knowledge Back In: From Social Constructivism to Social Realism in the Sociology of Education. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203073667

Young, M., & Muller, J. (2013). On the powers of powerful knowledge. Review of Education, 1(3), 229-250. https://doi.org/10.1002/rev3.3017