The terminological-conceptual debate around the use of the terms competência em informação, competência informacional e letramento informacional in the first decade of the 2000s in Brazil

Abstract

The objective of this article is to present an excerpt of the debate around three translations of information literacy in the field of Library Science and Information Science in Brazil, namely, competência em informação, competência informacional and letramento informacional, in the first decade of the 2000s. The intention is to understand which elements sustain this debate and how Pierre Bourdieu's notions (1976) about the scientific field and Gustavo Caponi’s notions about epistemic biases (2023) can be materialized in the arguments presented by the authors to justify the choice of terms. This research has an exploratory-descriptive nature; in terms of purposes and means, it is characterized as a bibliographic research. As a collection procedure, we carried out a systematic survey of the three terms in question in the following databases: Portal de Periódicos Capes; BENANCIB collection; BRAPCI; BDTD; CTDC. We identified that the existence of different epistemic positions around the proposition of these terms evidences the fact that these are not neutral words but represent a certain discursive and methodological arrangement coined by their authors. These authors, in turn, are situated historically and culturally in determined conditions. This makes it possible for them to trace specific discursive paths in order to imprint in their choices the fundamentals originating from their academic and professional experiences. We conclude that studies of this nature are relevant to the area, since the terminological-conceptual appropriations made based on the authors presented cannot disregard factors such as habitus, strategies, scientific capital, and the epistemic biases involved in the approaches of each author