| Description: |
Introduction: This article addresses infoeducation and its importance to professionals in the area of information. Objective: In order to do so, it refers back to the origin and development of infoeducation at the School of Communication and Arts of University of São Paulo (ECA/USP), as a result of research and studies, which have been carried out by transdisciplinary teams and coordinated and led by Prof. Dr. Edmir Perrotti, since the late 1980s. Infoeducation is defined as a field of studies and sociocultural actions concerning the formative dimension of information, aiming at processes of mediation and the pursue of informational knowledge. Methodology: Infoeducation is presented here based on theoretical and methodological assumptions that differ from functionalist and merely procedural perspectives leveraged by the educationally restricted notion of information competency. Those assumptions, however, have guided much of the work concerning information literacy in Brazil and also abroad. Results: The formulation of the concept of info-education, based on theoretical and practical research, redefines historical and asymmetric relations between information and education, articulating them in a dynamic and non-hierarchical way. It is an epistemological and practical rupture, which, besides developing a body of theoretical and methodological distinctions, opens up paths for overcoming restricted approaches that only focus on procedural and adaptive perspectives, which, as in the past, subordinate the field of information to the field of education, an attitude that does not correspond to the contemporary cultural reality. Conclusions: In conclusion, infoeducation is a step beyond science and professionalism. Its transdisciplinary and sociocultural methodology, allows not only to approach fundamental epistemic dimensions involved in the relationship between information and education but also to provide foundation for librarians, museum curators, archivists and the places where they work, so that they can gain ... |