July 27, 2022
Bright and Gallagher publish articles on DEI, evaluation of social studies resources
Kawanna Bright
Dr. Kawanna Bright, assistant professor in library science, published “Incorporating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) into Research,” which proposes ways in which researchers and educators can incorporate more DEI into research, especially y making racial and ethnic minorities more visible in it.
The abstract reads:
Despite demographic changes which indicate larger numbers of racial and ethnic minorities make up most of American society, library and information science (LIS) research remains focused on majority groups. This work proposes ways in which researchers and LIS educators can incorporate more diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) into their research, especially by making racial and ethnic minorities more visible in it. The main ideas discussed in this regard deal with self-awareness, positionality, and sampling methods. While not exhaustive, the suggestions offered here are straightforward ways in which researchers can become more intentional in their inclusion of historically excluded populations into their research. The ideas shared in this work are aimed at aiding those who are considering the incorporation of DEI topics into their existing research agendas, as well as helping LIS educators set the foundation of sound research which values DEI when guiding students’ research endeavors.
Dr. Jenni Gallagher, assistant professor in English and history education, published a new study titled “An Emerging Critical Lens: Elementary Teacher Candidates’ Developing Evaluation of Social Studies Resources on Online Sites of Curriculum Sharing.”
The abstract reads:
This article shares findings from a qualitative inquiry that explores preservice teachers’ evaluation of social studies curriculum resources found on Pinterest and Teachers Pay Teachers. Both at the beginning and the end of their elementary social studies methods course at a large university in the southeastern United States, the teacher candidates were asked to identify good and bad examples of social studies resources and justify their choices. Their choices and the justification they provided were analyzed using qualitative coding. Findings indicate that while teacher candidates’ choices and justifications were sometimes further developed by the end of their social studies methods course, their critical evaluation of shared online curriculum resources was incomplete or limited to near-exact examples from the class. The author poses a number of on-going considerations regarding teacher candidate equity literacy skills as they relate to evaluation and usage of online curriculum sharing sites.