An archaeology of information landscapes?

In its modern form, information literacy was named by Zurkowski (1974), but humans have been creating and using information landscapes since prehistory. Lloyd (2010, 9-10) describes these landscapes as “intersubjectively created spaces that have resulted from human interaction, in which information is created and shared and eventually sediments as knowledge.” It can be surmised that evidence of these landscapes, even from centuries ago, should be visible in the present, including the physical structures and associated graphical and discursive maps (Whitworth 2020) that help users navigate the space and communicate practices to others. This presentation discusses an archaeological study of information landscapes both ancient and modern, based on questions such as: •What is the form of the landscape? •What practices are evident within this landscape? How do these make learning possible? •How is authority distributed over these practices? •Who has stewarded the landscape? •What knowledge ‘sediments out’ of these landscapes as they have been deposited? •How have these landscapes been made sustainable? Two landscapes will be examined in detail. First, medieval world maps, including the Map Room at the Vatican and the Mappa Mundi at Hereford, UK. These maps are oriented to helping users navigate not only the geographical landscape but the landscape of ecclesiastical authority and power. Second, the landscape emerging from the Legacies of British Slavery project (https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/). This is an example of how research and mapping conducted in the present time has revealed landscapes that were significant, but obscured by politics and power, both 200 years ago and in the present. This study shows how archaeology, in its own right, is a significant expression of information literacy. In summary, investigating landscapes and maps in this way reveals how IL can be developed through a critical pedagogy of place (Gruenewald 2008).

A Critical Pedagogy of Place?: Te Ātiawa (Māori) and Pākehā (Non-Māori) History Teachers' Perspectives on the Teaching of Local, Māori and New Zealand Histories

This article describes the objectives and methodology of a doctoral research project (Manning, 2008). It then draws upon the key findings of that project to briefly describe how an envisioned critical pedagogy of place partnership model, involving nominated members of the Te Ātiawa iwi (tribe) and local history teachers, might enhance the quality of history teaching in the Port Nicholson Block area. This area is located in the Wellington district (south-western corner) of New Zealand's North Island. The discussion then explains, in more detail, why obstacles are likely to be encountered by any attempt by Te Ātiawa and/or the teacher participants to develop such a partnership model. Two related place-based metaphors help draw brief conclusions about how these obstacles relate to the New Zealand government's own (1989) principles for action on the Treaty of Waitangi and recount its obligations to uphold the Articles of the United Nations' (2007) Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.