Efficacy of Tacit Knowledge in Support of Pedagogies in LIS Curriculum

Building on Polanyi's (1983; 1966:4) study of tacit knowledge, a type of knowledge embedded in the human brain or mind based on the acquired experiences of the individual, showing that the individual carrier can know more than they can articulate. This type of knowledge comprises 95% of what we know, derived from individual skills, expertise, education, experience, insights, ideas, intuition, observation, cultural beliefs, values, attitudes, and mental models (Davenport & Prusak, 1998). Recent studies speak to the roles of the tacit type of knowledge in teaching and learning and organisational productivity (Enakrire & Smuts, 2022; 2023), yet there is still a paucity of literature towards decolonising pedagogies in the LIS curriculum. Keeping pace with the constantly evolving pedagogies in the library and information science field, tacit knowledge has become fundamental in reshaping how the LIS curriculum could be decolonised based on diverse ideologies of LIS expertise used in teaching, various cultural backgrounds for best practices and value placed on the profession by trained students globally. Tacit knowledge is believed to create an adaptive space through which rethinking the LIS curriculum could be collectively reviewed, consolidated and strengthened for an enhanced workforce. This results in the need for LIS students to have a problem-solving initiative for socio-economic development. Between 2014 and 2024, the author reviewed LIS papers about the topic that were taken from the LIS Ebscohost database. Based on certain criteria, 90 relevant papers were found. The scoping review's results will be visualized and displayed on the poster.