Six frames for information literacy education: a conceptual framework for interpreting the relationships between theory and practice

Information literacy educators are daily challenged by an environment in which colleagues and students bring very different perspectives to curriculum design, teaching and learning, and by the need to apply those theories of learning to information literacy education in coherent ways. The purpose of this paper is to propose a model, Six Frames for Information Literacy Education, as a tool for analysing, interpreting and understanding these challenges; and to explain the relational frame in more detail. In the first part of this paper we provide an overview of the different ways in which teaching, learning, and information literacy may be approached. We also introduce the Six Frames for Information Literacy education. In the second part, we explore some challenges and techniques of applying the relational frame for information literacy education in more detail. Finally, we suggest some ways in which using the sic frames may assist practice.