This session will explore our experience in designing and delivering a month-long critical information literacy course in the Street Humanities program, a local program designed to introduce adults currently accessing social support services to the post-secondary education experience.
Founded in 2005, the Street Humanities program is administered jointly by the College of New Caledonia and the Association Advocating for Women and Communities in Prince George, BC. This program provides a free, supportive introduction to higher education for adults who have historically faced barriers in our community. This program presented a unique opportunity to reach students who have been unable to access academia and bring the concepts and critical skills of information literacy outside the bounds of our university and into the community.
We explicitly designed this course to empower students to become both creators and stewards of their own information through an understanding of the existing systems of information creation and dissemination, and the structures of power informing these systems. This session will provide an overview of our curriculum, a reflection on our experiences teaching in this program, and lessons learned moving forward into our next iteration of this course. We will also discuss the challenges we faced, both personally and pedagogically, in designing this course to be mindful of the wide diversity of lived experiences of the participants in this program.
