Inglorious Pedagogy

Keren Dali, PhD, is an Associate Professor at the Department of Library & Information Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, The Catholic University of America, USA. Kim M. Thompson, PhD, is a Professor in the School of Information Science and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs for the College of Information and Communications at the University of South Carolina, USA.

Dali and Thompson took on the task of addressing difficult topics in higher education, specifically in the LIS classroom. The editors bring together international perspectives on what they term inglorious pedagogy. Some chapters focus on traditional pedagogical theory and assessment—engaging students through improvisational acting exercises and encouraging creativity in the classroom by framing discussions through the walls, doors, and fences model. Other chapters address the importance of building student cohort bonds while grappling with the transition to graduate-level learning and distance education. Dali and Thompson have expanded their definition of pedagogy to include other obstacles LIS faculty encounter. Among these are interdepartmental relationships, disability inequity among faculty, the convergence of disciplines within LIS, academic burnout, and tensions between academic faculty and practitioners in the field. Chapters also cover issues with academic capital in regard to collaborating with students and tracking how academic libraries responded to the COVID-19 pandemic in the US, Canada, and Australia. Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty, and professionals.

• AcknowledgementsIntroduction: The Glories and Inglories of Library and Information Science Pedagogy, Kim M. Thompson (University of South Carolina, USA) and Keren Dali (The Catholic University of America, USA)1. Performing Librarianship: Practicing the Reference Interview and Building Community through Improvisation, Sarah Beth Nelson (University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, USA) and Emily Vardell (Emporia State University, USA)2. Nice to Have, a Distraction from the Core Curriculum, or a Disruptive Element? A Teaching Journey through Three Common Perceptions of Social Justice in LIS Education, Briony Birdi (Information School, University of Sheffield, UK)3. We, Who Cannot Unlearn: (Un)Learning and Disabled Faculty in American (Post)Pandemic Academia, Keren Dali (The Catholic University of America, USA) and Paul T. Jaeger (University of Maryland, USA)4. “The Pandemic Has Forced Us All to Become Professionals Again”: Adjunct Faculty Advocacy at a Canadian ALA-Accredited iSchool, Max Dionisio (University of Toronto, Canada)5. Teaching for Intellectual Humility, Tim Gorichanaz (Drexel University, USA)6. The Difficulty of Training Students to Do Research in Tangles of Discourses: A Case of a Postgraduate Dissertation Project, Liangzhi Yu (Nankai University, China) and Xiaofei Yan (Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China)7. Overwhelmed or Overteaching? Humanism for Time Use and Pedagogy, Kim M. Thompson (University of South Carolina, USA)8. The Academia-Practice Gap: It Takes Two to Tango, Keren Dali (The Catholic University of America, USA)9. “I Feel Like an ATM Machine”: Mentoring, LIS Research, and Academic Capitalism, Jenny Bossaller (University of Missouri, USA)10. The Way of WalDorF: Fostering Creativity in LIS Programs, Keren Dali (The Catholic University of America, USA)11. Tales from Three Countries and One Academia: Academic Faculty in the Time of the Pandemic, Keren Dali (The Catholic University of America, USA), Nadia Caidi (University of Toronto iSchool, Canada), Kim M. Thompson (University of South Carolina, USA), and Jane Garner (Charles Sturt University, Australia)12. Transitioning to Postgraduate Distance Learning: Student Experiences of Change and Success, Anne Goulding (Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand) and Guanzheng Li (Qingdao, China)Epilogue: Concluding the (In)glorious Journey, Keren Dali (The Catholic University of America, USA) and Kim M. Thompson (University of South Carolina, USA)IndexAbout the Editors and Contributors