From Panic to Joy: The Socio-emotional Side of Information Literacy for First-Generation College Students

Experienced teachers of information literacy, particularly classroom instructors in writing studies who routinely teach research-based writing seminars, have an array of strategies to draw on to help advance students through the necessary stages of their information literacy journey. But instructors may need to add to and adapt their strategies when teaching diverse populations, especially students with two or more of the following marginalized identities: BIPOC students, multilingual writers, first-generation college students, and students who self-identify as low-income students. Working intensively with this population in college-level courses focusing on source-based writing, we have found that in addition to teaching the so-called hidden curriculum of writing courses and of information literacy, which were already part of many courses, we needed to introduce a focus explicitly on library use and habits and on the hidden curriculum of the university at large. Drawing on a robust metacognitive approach to the skills of information literacy, students supplemented classroom and library activities with skits, written reflections, and TikTok videos focusing on the emotional side of information literacy. Acknowledging and responding to students’ feelings of panic, overwhelm, surprise, and even joy helped students see themselves as researchers even if the identity may have felt foreign to them at first, and created a truly inclusive classroom. The presentation includes quotes from students’ reflections, many of which are striking in their emotional power