Following the introduction of the Association of College and Research Libraries’ (ACRL, 2016) Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education, efforts to meaningfully promote and enact the more conceptually oriented form of post-secondary information literacy instruction (ILI) evinced by the document have spread. However, perceptions of the Framework as elitist or inaccessible; the persistence of one-shot sessions as the dominant ILI format; and the difficulty of teaching and learning broader information literacy (IL) concepts within those limitations continue to present challenges. For researchers and IL instructors, this begs the question of what types of pedagogical or systemic adjustments can inspire students to connect with IL concepts – and, as a result, behaviours -- in ways that will empower and resonate with them beyond a single session, course, or program.

Although the Framework aims to support ILI that can be customized to meet the unique needs of diverse learners in higher education, the six threshold concepts embodied by its frames (“authority is constructed and contextual,” “information creation as a process,” “information has value,” “research as inquiry,” “scholarship as conversation,” and “searching as strategic exploration”), and associated understandings and practices, are established as important for all. Thus, better understanding the perspectives of post-secondary students on the content expressed by these frames can serve as a basis through which to meaningfully improve post-secondary ILI.

Research concerning post-secondary students’ perspectives on the Framework is still emerging, and tends to examine specific student populations (e.g., in one institution, major, course, or year of study) who have received a particular type of ILI, usually via qualitative methods. To build upon the existing literature while still centering student voices, this research project aims to investigate Canadian post-secondary students’ perspectives on key Framework concepts using mixed methods across diverse areas/years of study and ILI experience at two different institutions: a major research university and a polytechnic college.

A predominantly quantitative questionnaire based around Robertson et al.’s (2022) Information Literacy Reflection Tool (ILRT), a Framework-centered instrument, has been administered at both McGill University (Montreal, QC) and Northwestern Polytechnic (Grande Prairie, AB). The questionnaire asks respondents to self-reflect on the extent to which they employ key IL concepts/skills from the Framework in their own academic information behaviour, as well as how interesting and relevant they find each frame’s knowledge practices and dispositions to their experience in school. A qualitative component was also included via optional comment boxes at the end of each frame-focused section. The comment boxes will provide a more holistic voice to students’ responses, and also inform the quantitative analysis, which will explore potential relationships between respondents’ answers and various demographic/academic factors. My presentation for this forum will focus on the initial findings and implications for practice derived from these data. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first study to directly interrogate student perspectives on the Framework in Canada quantitatively, and the first use of the ILRT as a data collection tool in research beyond that of its initial development.