Building a Critical Culture: How Critical Librarianship Falls Short in the Workplace

Ferretti, Jennifer A.

doi:10.15760/comminfolit.2020.14.1.10

Cited by 18 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 2 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…During our interviews, we noticed how frequently we reverted to talking about the challenges we currently face as BIPOC librarians and how we feel burdened with doing diversity work with little or virtually no support. This sentiment aligns with the observation that the “marginalized library worker is subject to inequities, while the White/heteronormative worker has the luxury of choosing whether or not to engage or interrogate inequities” (Ferretti, 2020, p. 142). Throughout our exercise, we struggled to “practice what we preached.”…”

Section: Themessupporting

confidence: 64%

Radical re-imagination: centering a BIPOC library workforce in an asset-based autoethnography

Shearer

Chiewphasa

2021

RSR

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

PurposeAcademic BIPOC librarians oftentime struggle to envision themselves and navigate in White-dominant spaces due to deficit thinking. To better understand how DEIA efforts can bolster structural change in academic libraries, the two BIPOC authors opted to lean on an asset-based exercise–imagining a positive work environment made possible through a library staffed entirely by BIPOC individuals.Design/methodology/approachThrough collaborative autoethnography, the two authors interviewed one another and centered their unstructured conversations around one question: “What does an academic library composed entirely of a BIPOC workforce look like?” Three emergent themes were agreed upon and finalized by the two authors.FindingsThe authors' imagined library is able to foster a supportive community and also function efficiently thanks to its shared purpose grounded in DEIA. Despite relying on an asset-based framework, the authors found themselves having to reckon with trials and tribulations currently faced by BIPOC librarians. Effectively envisioning the “ideal” library environment is not possible without also engaging with librarianship's legacy of racial injustices.Originality/valueRecognizing that confronting systems of oppression naturally invokes trauma, this paper encourages librarians to challenge deficit thinking and instead rely on asset-based models to candidly imagine an anti-racist academic library. The authors acknowledge that BIPOC voices and experiences add tremendous value to the library workplace. At the heart of this paper is the belief that reparations for past racial injustices should not only fix past wrongdoings, but also contribute to positive workplace cultures.

show abstract

Section: Themessupporting

confidence: 64%

Radical re-imagination: centering a BIPOC library workforce in an asset-based autoethnography

Shearer

Chiewphasa

2021

RSR

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…202 In our time, the most contentious feature of the library's positivist orientation has been its central commitment to neutrality. 203 In the last several years, library neutrality has been variously denounced as "polite oppression, " 204 "a kind of privilege, " 205 and a "form of moral relativism. " 206 But the greatest flaw of library neutrality is actually its impossibility.…”

Section: Annotated Bibliography ¶15mentioning

confidence: 99%

Legal Research and Its Discontents: A Bibliographic Essay on Critical Approaches to Legal Research

Mignanelli

2024

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…To just develop critical lesson plans without examining how our neutral-posing structures and policies harm library workers is hypocritical, and as Jennifer Ferretti points out, can be viewed as performative. 28 Alfie Kohn talks about how damaging a deficit mindset about students' abilities can be, and that when we believe students to be incapable we continue to do the same thing over and over (because they are the problem, not our teaching), and this lets us off the hook. 29 In thinking about policies that harm, I would argue the same idea can be turned back on ourselves.…”

Section: Power Structures and Edimentioning

confidence: 99%

The Contested One-Shot: Deconstructing Power Structures to Imagine New Futures

Pagowsky

2021

CRL

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

For so long the one-shot has been the dominating force of how we engage in library instruction. There is a lot of meaning and debate saturated in this faux-innocuous activity, yet there is not always consensus as to how we define a one-shot. Is it doing a library "spiel" to demo a database, present the library website, or give a tour? Is it visiting a class once without an explicit connection to an assignment? Is it even embedding a learning object in a class without assessment feedback or other interaction? To have a central, salient definition of the one-shot for the purpose of this editorial, I view it as a standalone session, superficially (or not at all) connected to course content, that is tacked onto a class. Within a curriculum, the one-shot has no memory of where information literacy has been and no vision of where it is going. It is ephemeral within cycles of ineffectiveness. I am writing this guest editorial to talk this through and share my thoughts, and then invite you to share yours in a special issue of C&RL on the contested one-shot (see the Call for Proposals at the end). We do not need consensus but sharing different perspectives and exploring what "effective" teaching means is important to support our instruction programs. This guest editorial will discuss one-shots in the context of effective teaching practices; assessment; and power structures related to care-work and Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI). The hope is to expand our pedagogical imagination through questioning what appear to be common-sense practices in order to create better systems and structures. 1 Effective TeachingWhat do we actually mean when we say "effective?" This is difficult to identify and measure. Learning is messy and doing more one-shots does not equate with more effective teaching or guarantee student learning. I started to think about what was problematic with the one-shot in my first library job at a community college where I would teach a large amount of these singular sessions each semester. The issue is less about them being "one" and more about them often being tacked on to the curriculum, regardless of how many there were. This idea has persisted in my mind and is expressed well in a 2006 article I assign to iSchool students in my LIS course. Dane Ward explains that, "Students do not achieve information literacy by attending more library sessions. Rather, students learn relevant information skills when they are systematically

show abstract

Building a Critical Culture: How Critical Librarianship Falls Short in the Workplace

Cited by 18 publications

References 2 publications

Radical re-imagination: centering a BIPOC library workforce in an asset-based autoethnography

Radical re-imagination: centering a BIPOC library workforce in an asset-based autoethnography

Legal Research and Its Discontents: A Bibliographic Essay on Critical Approaches to Legal Research

The Contested One-Shot: Deconstructing Power Structures to Imagine New Futures

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About