Purdue Libraries and School of Information Studies News

Enriching community-based learning seed grant award

March 26th, 2025

By Rachel Fundator, clinical assistant professor and information literacy instructional designer, and Dr. Clarence Maybee, associate dean for learning and W. Wayne Booker Chair in Information Literacy

Information literacy professionals grapple with how to teach and prepare learners to navigate the significant challenges our current information environment poses. Renowned information literacy scholar, Dr. Nicole A. Cooke, developed the critical cultural literacy model (2023) as a direct response to mis-, dis-, and malinformation. The more holistic and layered literacy model enables learners to examine the intersections of information, race, politics, history, culture, and emotions as they learn. 

A team of researchers from the University of Louisville and University of South Carolina received an Institute for Information Literacy at Purdue seed grant to apply Dr. Cooke’s model to community-based learning courses, where the students often work with communities that are particularly harmed by the spread of misinformation. The researchers will investigate how critical cultural literacy is utilized in community-based learning courses and develop an online toolkit that facilitates classroom conversations.

The Institute is eager to see the outcomes of this work to support learning in community-based courses within and beyond libraries.

Institute Awardees for “Context & Connections: Applying the Critical Cultural Literacy Model to Community-Based Learning”: 

• Alexandra Howard, assistant professor and business librarian, University of Louisville
• Amber Willenborg, associate professor and instruction coordinator, University of Louisville

Dr. Nicole A. Cooke, Augusta Baker Endowed Chair and professor, School of Information Science, University of South Carolina