Monday, April 30, 2012

Advocacy and Radical Change Theory

SHANNON, D. (2012). Perceptions of school library programs and school librarians. Teacher Librarian, 39(3), 17.

This article focuses on the relationship between TLs and administrators and the fact that principals often do not understand what the TL does, especially in regards to collaboration and co-teaching.

"Administrators are critical to the success of school library programs. Therefore, it is important to develop ways to inform and educate them about (1) the potential positive impact of school library programs on student achievement, (2) the role of the school librarian in support of teaching and learning, and (3) what they can do to support school library programs and school librarians in their schools and districts. In order to accomplish these things, school librarians should be able to articulate their vision for the library program and to develop program goals and objectives based on that vision and on the principal's agenda. But regular communication with the principal by way of face-to-face meetings and written reports at established intervals will also be needed to provide a constant reminder of the important role of the library program."

Dresang, E. and Koh, K. (2009).  "Radical Change Theory, Youth Informaiton Behavior, and School Libraries."  Project Muse, 58(1), retrieved from http://muse.jhu.edu.libaccess.sjlibrary.org/journals/library_trends/v058/58.1.dresang.html.

This article has a lot of good information and is an interesting look at how today's youth interact with information and what we as TLs should be changing to keep up with them.

"“The Future of Reading,” a series of articles in the New York Times about how the Internet and other technological and social forces are changing the way people read, reports the information behavior of Nadia, a fifteen-year-old girl, who regularly reads and writes online: “Nadia said she preferred reading stories online because ‘you could add your own character and twist it the way you want it to be.’ ‘So like in the book somebody could die,’ she continued, ‘but you could make it so that person doesn’t die or make it so like somebody else dies who you don’t like’” (Rich, 2008). Nadia’s story demonstrates the ways digital media appeal to and engage young people by providing a forum for youth to speak for themselves."

Youth are creators of information (back to the REMIX thing).

"Digital age youth are “creator(s) of information in a larger social context” (Radford et al., 2008, p. 4). Young people who engage in virtual discourse using wikis, blogs, and social networking sites are not only expressing opinions for themselves but also shaping their identities. Their performances, such as the use of avatars, e-mail signatures, IM nicknames, and managing personal homepages and blogs can be considered as a process of identity formation and expression (Buckingham, 2008; Mazzarella, 2005b)."

Teaching digital citizenship--they are creating their online persona.  We must show them how to create a persona that will not hinder their future goals.

Another idea--participatory culture.  The internet has created a "participatory culture," and that is what today's youth expect.  For us as educators NOT to require them to carry out that participatory culture in the classroom is a real waste of opportunity.

This graphic from the article demonstrates how TLs could apply radical change theory to the school library:


"In the practical day-to-day world of K-12 education and school libraries, school librarians, and teachers must make choices about how to best help students to learn. It is essential to know what strengths twenty-first-century students bring with them, what information-seeking skills are already fairly well developed. The goal of the current research project discussed here is to provide librarians and teachers with a means to gain this knowledge."

Everything I read indicates a need to teach digital citizenship across the curriculum and throughout education, evolving as technology evolves to meet the needs of our students.  Teach them the 21st century skills/digital age principles above and more so that they are prepared for the changing world they will step into as adults.

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