Our Journey to Decolonize our School Library: Then, Now and Tomorrow
by Megan Price and Rebekah Rustad
The authors describe the process of conducting a diversity audit of Prince George Secondary School Library Learning Commons in British Columbia. The school is located on the unceded, ancestral lands of the Lheidli T’enneh and is the largest high school in northern BC. Indigenous students number in the five hundreds and make up about 1/3 of the student population. Nine Lheidli students live on reserve, and many more live in the city. A large portion of the Indigenous students are Metis. The authors illustrate, relate, and reflect upon sensitivities, successes and challenges of collection and physical LLC development in the diversity auditing.
Megan Price ended up in the library at Prince George Secondary School by chance in the fall of 2020 and fell in love with the role. She was lucky enough to spend a second year in the library in 2021/22 and hopes to end up there permanently after this school year. Presently, she is Indigenous Grad Coaching half time, teaching art 8 rotation half time and really missing being a teacher librarian. In her own time, Megan loves going to the gym and fitness classes, spending time with her two sons, husband and 3 cats, and reading. She is passionate about Reconciliation and social justice.
Rebekah Rustad is a full-time teacher-librarian at Prince George Secondary School (PGSS) in Prince George, British Columbia. PGSS has approximately 1,500 students, making it one of the largest secondary schools in Northern B.C. This is Rebekah's third year as a teacher librarian and her focus for the 2022/23 school year is to continue working towards creating a diverse, inclusive, safe, and collaborative learning commons. Rebekah was born and raised in Prince George and outside of work she enjoys spending time with her husband and one year old son. Rebekah is also passionate about board games, cinema, and graphic novels.
Megan and Rebekah, thanks so much for sharing the efforts you, your school library, and your school are making to decolonize the SLLC. As you point out, it isn't easy. School itself is a colonial structure and there's a reason why the government(s) used residential schools as ways to suppress and destroy so many aspects of First Nations, Metis, and Inuit cultures. The diversity audit is a lot more complex and time-consuming than just counting books. I admire how you sourced out businesses and companies owned and operated by people of Indigenous heritage. One of the candidates I worked with in a TL Specialist course investigated how to promote Indigenous entrepreneurship in the SLLC - I hope she finds your article and reads it, as she would have a lot to add to the discussion. I never knew Ikea employed designers like Scott Wabano to create furniture! My question - how will you know you are successful, or which of your efforts were most beneficial? I know measuring in a quantitative way is another vestige of colonial mentality, but those indicators do tend to convince people in power (and with control of the purse-strings) to support efforts even more.
ReplyDeleteDiana M
Thanks for your thoughtful comment, Diana. For now, we have our own anecdotal evidence as to whom we see in the LLC from one year to the next. We make an effort to make connections with vulnerable students, "reluctant readers" and students who may not have seen themselves reflected in academic spaces previously. Whenever we get a new item, the first stop is the Eagle Centre to show and tell the Indigenous Education workers so they can help spread the word.
ReplyDeleteHi Megan and Rebekah,
ReplyDelete"Educators respect and value the history of First Nations, Inuit and Metis in Canada and the impact of the past on the present and the future. Educators contribute towards truth, reconciliation and healing. Educators foster a deeper understanding of ways of knowing and being, histories, and cultures of First Nations, Inuit and Metis." - The new Standard 9 of the BC Educator Standards
As we begin to work on growth plans around our own journey to develop standard 9 in BC, we are needing to think about what we do and articulate it in meaningful ways that can be easily communicated out so people can understand what our journeys are, and why. The work you two have been doing at PGSS around this has been phenomenal. I am proud of how you have taken a system and structure at PGSS that was still very colonial when I left and begun to make the necessary changes. It has helped me to watch you two work and think critically about what I could have done better when I was there, and what I need to do now.
Thank you!
Thanks so much, Joseph. We continually strive to reach the amazing precedent you set in this role and we always love when you come to visit!
DeleteHi Megan and Rebekah,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your insight about your past progress and future plans. Your thoughtfulness about identifying and locating products from Indigenous creators to enhance your spaces is inspiring. During our library renovation, we were encouraged to reuse as much as possible for budget reasons but I going forward I want to make a case for similar purchases. Your circular carpet is similar in shape and size to one we already have.
Prior to the physical move, I and the Head Librarian also audited our Indigenous materials which began with evaluating and relocating all Indigenous stories located in the "Fairy Tales" section and then extended to identifying all books in our collection by Indigenous authors. I continue to be very grateful that strongnations.com so carefully tracks the identities of their books' authors and illustrators. We deeply relate to your struggles with encountering politically incorrect materials and evaluating whether it was worth keeping them to preserve the historical context of bias and injustice. In our larger diversity audits, this frequently comes out in questions about terminology as this shifts frequently.
Could you explain a bit more about why your current strategy is to use the spreadsheet as a database tool instead of altering the existing catalogue? I am curious because as the primary cataloger, I add or alter existing subject headings to capture diverse identities (i.e. Indigenous author) or content. I can definitely see how your spreadsheet is more robust and flexible as well as clearly capturing how much of the collection may NOT reflect goals of diversity. How do you fit filling it out amongst your other duties? Thank you so much for your feedback!
I know this was directed at Megan and Rebekah, but in our district we have centralized cataloging. Their spreadsheet is a great tool that we will definitely be using to help us expand our catalog entries, but individual schools do not get to alter the catalog. Instead that will be passed to my department to create rules for consistency across the whole district.
DeleteHi Amanda,
DeleteAs Joseph mentioned we do not have access to our own cataloging so this spreadsheet gives us a more in depth look at our collection. The issue of time is definitely one we are still learning to navigate, and right now we are just trying to enter new books as we get them. We've found that staying on top of the new books is manageable, so once we find a way to audit the rest of the collection it will just be a matter of maintenance. Although we would eventually like to complete a more comprehensive audit, we are looking at the graphic novels as a sample indicator of our collection in terms of where we are at concerning diversity and inclusion and where we would like to go.
Based on my own purchasing habits while I was TL there I can guarantee that the Fantasy, Social Issue and Graphic Novels got the most attention in terms of diversification. Thrillers, mysteries and adventure needed the most work when I left.
DeleteCongratulations to all the adults working on this problem. However, let's just flip this idea. What are the learners doing to take charge of their present and future? Are they reading widely and helping build the collection based on what they want to read? Are they writing their own stories and publishing them on the OPAC? What are they doing to represent their culture in the physical space and the virtual learning commons? Do they feel empowered to change their own destiny? How could they make this happen in the learning commons alongside all the other cultures represented in the school? Has there been a student led design thinking project on this topic?
ReplyDeleteHi David,
DeleteThank you so much for your thoughtful post. You bring up a lot of important questions and food for thought for us. While our decolonization process is ongoing, it is also still in its early stages. We have far to go ourselves and with input from students.