Critical reading as a strategy for developing women's information literacy

experience of conducting an extension course focusing on reading clubs

Abstract

Today's information and communication technologies predispose girls and women to acts of oppression, a situation that can be mitigated through empowerment developed through information literacy. Considering information literacy as a discipline, we advocate the construction of a strategy that contemplates the critical reading of fiction and romance texts as inputs for the development of knowledge, skills and attitudes in information. This is the extension course “Critical Reading as a Strategy for the Development of Women's Information Literacy”. This text presents a reflection by the authors as extension agents who led the extension course contemplating critical reading as a strategy for developing women's information literacy. It is based on a qualitative interpretation of the reports presented by the researchers who conducted the course, who discuss the results of the course in light of the basic principles: stimulating imagination and empowering women and girls. The results are promising: a suitable and equally “virtuous” learning space for people to develop searches, uses and communications in information; dynamics and programmatic content that enabled people to go beyond the understanding of the formalities of the text, seeking its reliability, overcoming misinformation and promoting a friendly dialogue, externalized in good coexistence, demonstrating a democratic and plural environment. This is a facilitating strategy for the development of women's Information Competence and serves as a basis for a revolutionary transformation towards liberation.