Wikipedia as Open Educational Practice: Experiential Learning, Critical Information Literacy, and Social Justice

Abstract

Building on previous research related to information literacy and learning with Wikipedia, this article interprets Wikipedia editing practices as fulfilling the Association of College and Research Libraries’ (ACRL) Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education to better understand Wikipedia pedagogy as an Open Educational Practice (OEP) that promotes critical information literacy and social justice. Drawing primarily on data from a large-scale study conducted with students and instructors engaged in Wikipedia-based assignments in the fall of 2016, the authors explore how Wikipedia-based pedagogies directly map on to knowledge practices and dispositions related to authority, information value and process, research, and scholarship as conversation, as presented in the ACRL’s Framework. Description and analysis of these “frames,” and the relevant policies and pedagogical practices engaged in Wikipedia-based assignments, ultimately underscore how viewing Wikipedia as enabling OEPs promotes social justice through improving knowledge equity, understanding and combating systemic biases, and supporting first-generation students’ success.