Given the prominence of standards-based education and measurable outcomes in current educational practice throughout K-12 and higher education, librarians involved in information literacy instruction have an opportunity to examine the utility of such banking practices and to use the new instruction framework to insist upon a new model that destabilizes traditional assessment. Using Paulo Freire’s work as a guidepost, this presentation will attempt to reconsider assessment, and those who are assessed, through a critical pedagogy lens. Using problem-posing, this presentation will be a guided dialogue directed at the following questions: What are the goals of assessment? What happens to the role of the educator in a rigid assessment model? What is the impact on the learning of those who are assessed? What would libraries stand to gain from practicing resistance to standards and measures and instead inviting divergent, imperfect and non-standard knowledge practices into our teaching spaces? (And, of course, what would be perceived as lost?) In this session, we will use the ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education and the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education to explore and discuss the fundamental goal of library instruction, assessment, and the possibility of creating more authentic pedagogical practices. 1. Discuss the persistence of national standards in information literacy instruction. 2. Examine the benefits and detriments of national standards for library instruction. 3. Discuss ACRL guidelines as an opportunity to increase awareness of more authentic assessment.
