Cultural Humility in the School Library: One Librarian’s Perspective from a Montreal Public School
by Annette MacIntyre
Cultural humility offers “a way to sit with your unknowing, to acknowledge the limits of your knowledge" (Hurley, Kosteleky & Townsend, 2022, p. 16). Annette MacIntyre humbly shares her exploration of cultural humility and many sensitive issues such as hierarchies in our schools. Her personal journey may open valuable perspective for other school library professionals.
Annette, thank you so much for sharing this paper, and the stories within this paper. I have a feeling I will need to re-read it and return to it several times, so I can soak in the message. (Just today, something happened at school and I had to separate my emotional knee-jerk reaction [and purge it from my mind] and a more rationale, less me-centered response to some feedback.) It's hard sometimes!
ReplyDeleteYour anecdote about the harvest festival reminds me of some of the things Dr. Debbie Reese has said in modifying Dr. Rudine Sims-Bishop's concept of mirrors, windows, and doors - the need for curtains, that not all experiences are meant to be shared. (More of Dr. Reese's work can be found at https://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/ ). I need to find the words to help explain why sometimes "we don't need or aren't entitled to know". I will try to refer to your phrase in your paper, the part that says: "the risk of failing to protect ceremonial knowledge, and the potential for that knowledge to be distorted, misrepresented, threatened, or destroyed, as has repeatedly happened in Canada for
hundreds of years."
Thanks again,
Diana Maliszewski