This content was published: October 17, 2018. Phone numbers, email addresses, and other information may have changed.
Author and educator Max Macias honored with creative teaching award
Posted by amcmahon
Would information written by a conqueror about a conquered people be biased? Does culture impact information, and the knowledge we create with this information? Educator, librarian, and social justice advocate Max Macias asks these compelling questions in his video on Culture & Information Literacy, part of a lesson selected for the 2018 Creative Teaching Award by PCC’s Cascade Campus Teaching Learning Center (TLC) Advisory. Macias wanted to reach a wide audience about a subject that impacts many groups of people when it comes to the validity of information and the production of knowledge.
Every year, the Cascade TLC Creative Teaching Award recognizes outstanding teaching activities by part-time faculty. “This year the TLC honored Max for his culturally responsive and inclusive activity called Culture and Information Literacy. Max’s approach to this lesson is so wonderful because it teaches information literacy while taking into account the potential for varying cultures present in the classroom,” said Lisa George, Cascade TLC coordinator. (For more on the award, and how to apply for recognition this year, contact Lisa at tlc.ca@pcc.edu.)
By day Macias serves as a training developer for the College’s Information Technology department. In his role as an instructional librarian he works to develop students’ capacity to view media through a critical lens, to understand the influence of bias, censorship, and power on information and knowledge, and ethnocentrism in library science. “My background is in philosophy and I always want my students to reflect and to think deeply (beyond the surface) about any information they encounter. Power, knowledge creation, truth, inclusion, the vitality of diversity and history are all themes in this lesson. Who is left out of the story and their possible contributions are some things I want my students to ponder. How do these absent voices impact information and knowledge creation? Do they leave gaps? Are we missing vital pieces of the story by their being absent? These are key questions I try to ask about everything.”
Inspiration to present his ideas in a video came from a colleague. “PCC Video Camp had a call and I applied. Michael Annus and his video production crew helped me shape my ideas and voice in to a coherent and visually stimulating piece of work.”
The Information Technology staff and leadership join in congratulating Max on this award!