A remedy for epistemic pollution? Public and professional reactions to fact-checking with Wikipedia in Australian classrooms.

Any attempt to increase the information literacy of citizens must incorporate the need to restore trust in our public institutions. To that end, we propose three principles for an effective information literacy strategy: non-partisanship, speed, and transparency. These principles were put into practice during an information literacy program trialled in four Canberra (Australian Capital Territory) primary schools in 2022. This program innovated in three respects: first, because of the age of the students, since information literacy is typically researched in high schools or universities; second, because we challenged conventional understandings of critical thinking by recommending that students “read laterally”; and third, because we used Wikipedia as a fact-checking resource - for the most part, Wikipedia’s auditable and distributed peer review neutralises misinformation. In this paper, we outline why the current crisis of trust in public institutions necessitates adopting such innovative approaches, and analyse the reactions we encountered when presenting our program in public and professional arenas. These reactions centered around the use of Wikipedia. Classroom teachers sometimes reacted adversely, though teacher-librarians were highly supportive, leading us to conclude that there is a need to reform teacher education. Finally, we review issues which still affect Wikipedia, such as manipulation attempts and systemic imbalances.