RGT and the ACRL Framework

For those of you either required or choose to connect your library lesson plans with the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy^[1], you’re likely wondering how RGT may fit. In my estimation, aspects of RGT both connect with and extend the Framework’s core principles. In this section I take the two frames for which I see the most explicit connections to RGT and discuss those associations along with possible ways RGT can help us further these ideas in the classroom.

The frame within the ACRL Framework most closely connected to the tenets of RGT is “authority is constructed and contextual” (henceforth referred to as authority). In addition to the information seeker, this frame concentrates on the various amounts and types of authority bestowed to the creator/writer of an information resource. According to authority, the amount and type of authority a creator/writer has is as much due to their own circumstances as it is the information seeker’s perspective and need. The Framework suggests it is our role as the librarian to encourage novice information seekers to develop awareness of, and perhaps even question, the constructed and contextual authority of an information resource.

As described in the previous sub-section, RGT asks us to explicitly recognize that our own historical and social context, in many cases learned from the (social, professional, familial) communities in which we reside, colors our perceptions of the quality and appropriateness of various communications. What is portrayed in the authority frame is based on a similar premise which recognizes how each community perceives authority differently. The theory of rhetorical genre further suggests that the way understanding is framed through community-specific genres acts as a type of gatekeeping in which those who want to enter a discipline must learn to understand, uphold, and replicate the particular community’s values. The premise provided by RGT becomes a useful addition to your approach to teaching students about scholarly information and database research because it demystifies the academic communities for which students are learning to become a part.

To a lesser but still significant degree, the frame “information creation as a process” (process) also intersects with the tenets of RGT. In this frame, an information creator is involved in a creation process which usually culminates in presenting or otherwise disseminating information in a format (or formats) connected to the creator’s current context and the context of the community for which the information is packaged. For the information seeker, the process frame recognizes the format in which a piece of information is presented does not directly equate to the quality or usefulness of its content. Accordingly, an expert seeker will examine the process in which a piece of information is created in addition to its final format before judging its usefulness for their particular context.

It is form, along with classification, that make up the formal aspects of genre. As described in the previous sub-section, RGT encourages information seekers to look beyond these formal aspects and also examine the situations surrounding the creation, dissemination, and location of this information. Paying attention to the context outside of an information’s “container” is present in RGT and the process frame.

One of our roles as an academic librarian is to encourage novice information seekers to learn how to find and read academic formats. The process frame adds that we can also teach beyond format to instill a recognition of the process that went into creating the form. According to RGT, that process involves the context of the writer/creator.