Article Highlight: Cultivating Imagination: A Case for Teaching Information Ethics with Works of Fiction

This Article Highlight features work by Iulian Vamanu published in the Journal of Education for Library and Information Science.

Citation

Vamanu, I. (2021). Cultivating imagination: a case for teaching information ethics with works of fiction. Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, e20200035. https://doi.org/10.3138/jelis-2020-0035

Abstract

This article argues that the MLIS curriculum should offer information ethics courses that enable future information professionals to develop their imaginative powers through close study and discussion of fiction. LIS students reading ethical theory and fiction bring the two into conversation and as a result reach a better understanding of both. Crucially, this process presupposes the exercise of empathetic imagination, a mental capacity that helps us inhabit other perspectives and modes of being in the world. The paper supports this discussion with evidence from an instructional intervention implemented during an information ethics course within an LIS program at a large public research university.

Access

This paper was published in a closed access format here.

Kyle M. L. Jones

Dr. Kyle M. L. Jones is an associate professor in the Department of Library and Information Science within the School of Informatics and Computing at Indiana University-Indianapolis (IUPUI). Get in touch with Dr. Jones here.