Marginalized Knowledge: An Agenda for Indigenous Knowledge Development and Integration with Other Forms of Knowledge

The Content

Carbo (2005:28) observes that the topic of information ethics is far too complex to suggest what should be taught. According to the author, some of the areas or questions to be considered in selecting the appropriate content for an information ethics course include the following: How much of the course should be devoted to ethical foundations? How should practical and theoretical knowledge be balanced? What key issues should be discussed? What multicultural content should be included? And how many materials should be included for each course?
The Information Ethics Special Interest Group (2007:5) states that the content of an information ethics course should enable students to: recognize and articulate ethical conflicts in the information field; inculcate a sense of responsibility with regard to the consequences of individual and collective interactions in the information field; provide the foundations for intercultural dialogue through the recognition of different kinds of information cultures and values; provide basic knowledge about ethical theories and concepts and about their relevance to everyday information work; and learn to reflect ethically and think critically and carry these abilities into their professional life.
With regard to the actual content or areas to be covered in the course, The Information Ethics Special Interest Group (2007:5) notes that the content should encompass areas such as: intellectual freedom; intellectual property; open access; preservation; balance in collections; fair use; surveillance; cultural destruction; censorship; cognitive capitalism; imposed technologies; public access to government information; privatization; information rights; academic freedom; workplace speech; systemic racism; international relations; impermanent access to purchased electronic records; general agreements on trade and services (GATS) and trade related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPS); serving the poor, homeless, and people living on fixed incomes; anonymity, privacy, and confidentiality; human security; national security policies; the global tightening of information and border controls; trans-border data flow; and information poverty.

Laudon and Laudon, and O’Brien in Lee and Chen (2005:2) suggest that an information ethics course should cover the following broad areas: relationship between ethics, social, and political issues in information society; moral dimensions of the information age; basic concepts of responsibility, accountability, and liability; professional codes of conduct; ethical guidelines, information rights and privacy; property rights - intellectual property, accountability, liability, and control systems quality, legal issues in ethics; privacy laws; technology ethics; and computer crime. What is noted from these content areas is that they all fall within the broad areas of information already highlighted i.e. privacy, access, accuracy and intellectual property However, the inclusion of ethical theories in the content of the course raises interesting questions, such as who should, in fact, teach the course.