Date of Award

Summer 2025

Document Type

Open Access Dissertation

Department

School of Information Science

First Advisor

Jenna Spiering

Abstract

A strength of US charter schools is their opportunity to carve out an educational niche. Without the same regulation and district control present in traditional public schools, a charter school’s approach can seriously impact how the school addresses information literacy. In our current culture, we are saturated with media and technology, and students learn about navigating, evaluating, and using information responsibly and creatively at school. However, there is currently no published research on how charters do this critical work with their students, particularly with fewer libraries and librarians in the sector. This study uses institutional ethnography to map ruling relations around information literacy in charter schools. This is an exploratory study to observe information literacy in a few charter high schools and to understand systems of power that influence a school’s approach. Interviews, observations, and texts from participating charter schools in South Carolina revealed four aspects of school culture contributing to building and sustaining information literacy in these two schools: teacher leadership, individualized college and career preparation, social and emotional support, and support from libraries. The sector has opportunities to leverage the unique strengths of individual charter schools to improve information literacy. Charters have some advantages over traditional schools, but they also face challenges without the economies of scale available to districts. Building stronger information literacy in secondary charter schools and schools more widely will require more study on effective practices and interventions, but findings can help with advocacy and building partnerships.

Rights

© 2025, Katherine Klein

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