Scholarship as (an inclusive) Conversation? | Thoughts On

"Recently, I’ve come across a lot of readings that have triggered thoughts on the ACRL Framework concepts, particularly Scholarship as Conversation. To get a less heady overview of what this concept means, check out this video ... As much as I’ve embraced the Framework in how I’ve let it inform my instruction and work with students, I’ve also questioned how these ideals play out in the real world, in the wild. I know that there are mixed feelings about resources that allow for participation and open dialog–Wikipedia comes to mind. The video makes it all sound so simple, and yes, it can be simple if you ignore the underlying issues involved with actually participating in scholarly dialog. One of the dispositions of this frame is that learners should 'recognize that systems privilege authorities and that not having a fluency in the language and process of a discipline disempowers their ability to participate and engage.' This brings us to the academic publishing model and why students aren’t making the immediate connection that they, too, can participate in scholarly conversations.  David Wiley recently published an article entitled Eminent Open Access: A Little Thought Experiment in which he discusses many issues (and possible solutions) with the academic publishing model, how this slows innovation and advancement, and how it excludes scholars from reading even their own peers’ work or having access to their work at a later date ..."