Increasing Faculty-Librarian Collaboration Through Critical Librarianship

Collaborative Librarianship Volume 11 Issue 2 Article 5 7-26-2019 Increasing Faculty-Librarian Collaboration through Critical Librarianship Adrienne Gosselin Cleveland State University, [email protected] Mandi Goodsett Cleveland State University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.du.edu/collaborativelibrarianship Recommended Citation Gosselin, Adrienne and Goodsett, Mandi (2019) "Increasing Faculty-Librarian Collaboration through Critical Librarianship," Collaborative Librarianship: Vol. 11 : Iss. 2 , Article 5. Available at: https://digitalcommons.du.edu/collaborativelibrarianship/vol11/iss2/5 This From the Field is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ DU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Collaborative Librarianship by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ DU. For more information, please contact [email protected],[email protected]. Gosselin & Goodsett: Increasing Faculty-Librarian Collaboration From the Field Increasing Faculty-Librarian Collaboration through Critical Librarianship Adrienne Gosselin ([email protected]) Associate Professor, English, Cleveland State University Mandi Goodsett ([email protected]) Performing Arts and Humanities Librarian, Michael Schwartz Library, Cleveland State University Abstract Through the lens of critical librarianship, librarians are becoming increasingly involved in social justice, civic engagement, and human rights issues. This paper examines the collaboration between a subject librarian and a faculty member in an assignment that engaged in Public Sphere Pedagogy (PSP), a teaching strategy with the goal of increasing students’ sense of civic agency and personal and social responsibility by connecting their classwork to public arenas; and project-based learning, wherein students develop a question to research and create projects that reflect their knowledge, which they share with a select audi- ence. Keywords: critical librarianship, civic engagement, social justice, project-based learning, public sphere pedagogy, library instruction, collaboration, information literacy Introduction project-based learning, a teacher-facilitated, student-driven approach to learning that incorpo- Through the lens of critical librarianship, librari- rates multiple group-learning strategies. Incor- ans are becoming increasingly involved in criti- porating Public Sphere Pedagogy and project- cal pedagogy, one aspect of which is increasing based learning, the authors worked together to civic engagement and student empowerment. engage students with a public issue: lead poi- This paper explores collaboration between a soning. Building on a literature assignment that subject librarian and a faculty member in an as- targeted lead poisoning in poor urban areas, stu- signment designed to examine social justice and dents created research projects that not only ex- human rights issues. The collaboration involved plored the ramifications of lead poisoning, but two relatively unexplored methods for civic en- also the ways in which their chosen disciplines gagement: Public Sphere Pedagogy, which in- addressed issues surrounding lead poisoning. creases students’ sense of civic agency by con- The final result was a formal presentation of stu- necting their classwork to public arenas, and dent-designed, discipline-specific posters held in Collaborative Librarianship 11(2): 100-109 (2019) 100 Gosselin & Goodsett: Increasing Faculty-Librarian Collaboration the Michael Schwartz Library at Cleveland State process of teaching students to undergo re- University (CSU). search. Rather than having students write an an- notated bibliography or research paper, the fac- Librarianship and Critical Pedagogy ulty member helped her students develop a product that reflected their own capacity to call Librarians have been promoting critical peda- out and shape the power structures in their gogy in library instruction for over a decade. fields of study. This approach both allowed and The combination of information literacy and encouraged the librarian collaborator to step critical pedagogy is often referred to as “critical outside the typical method of teaching infor- information literacy.” Tewell defines critical in- mation literacy and, instead, empower students formation literacy as “ways librarians may en- to direct their own learning and research pro- courage students to engage with and act upon cess. the power structures underpinning infor- 1 mation’s production and dissemination.” An Critical pedagogy informed the impact of the important aspect of critical information literacy collaboration, in addition to guiding the collabo- is its emphasis on student-centered learning, rative process. In this case, it gave the students and the encouragement of students to take an and collaborators the opportunity to see various 2 active role in their own education. Students are disciplines through the same lens—that of criti- asked to consider what is happening in their cal information literacy. It also helped the stu- world, ask questions, and take action to make dents see the role of research in questioning and necessary changes. While higher education is in- dismantling hegemonic social structures in their creasingly focused on producing students who own future professional communities. Finally, it will have specific job skills and be primed to en- allowed womanism (explained later in this pa- ter the workforce, critical information literacy per) to take center stage in the activities of the tries to promote education that has a purpose course. The result was a class project that was beyond the production of perfect workers. In more meaningful to students and more impact- critical information literacy, students are encour- ful to the campus community. aged to acknowledge problems in society and work for social change.3 For librarians, this Public Sphere Pedagogy means introducing dialogue and social issues into the information literacy session—a goal that Public Sphere Pedagogy (PSP) describes a aligns with both Public Sphere Pedagogy and method of teaching that adds a public compo- project-based learning. nent to instruction in an effort to address con- temporary public issues and help students gain Critical pedagogy, by definition, withdraws fo- a deeper sense of civic engagement and respon- cus from the individual and instead examines sibility.4 PSP uses critical theory by helping stu- the larger social context. For this reason, it dents question authority and take control of the makes an ideal platform for collaboration in democratic process for themselves.5 Rather than teaching information literacy. In this collabora- serving in the role of observers in the classroom, tive project, critical pedagogy provided a frame- PSP asks students to engage in their communi- work for shared understanding and purpose be- ties, take the initiative to learn about issues that tween the librarian and the English Department affect them, and take action based on what they faculty member. The collaborators hoped to have learned. This approach was first intro- question both the traditional content of an aca- duced by First-Year Writing instructors at Cali- demic research project, as well as the typical fornia State University-Chico (CSU-Chico), Collaborative Librarianship 11(2): 100-109 (2019) 101 Gosselin & Goodsett: Increasing Faculty-Librarian Collaboration where Thia Wolf, Sofie Burton, Chris Fosen, Jus- place in government buildings in the commu- tin Gonder, and Jill Swiencicki used PSP to help nity, students make speeches, give panel presen- students develop the dialogue and research tations, engage in debate, and conduct an skills necessary to be more civically engaged. “expo” of sorts with displays and activities to Their idea builds on the work of John Dewey, engage participants.11 The topics of the all-day who argued that students should be active par- event are usually controversial and relevant to ticipants in their learning, and that education the community, and they require students to should reflect the “life activities” in which stu- conduct research in preparation. Assessments of dents participate.6 It also builds on the idea of these events show that participants in the events “communities of practice” developed by Lave tend to be more academically engaged after- and Wenger in the 1990s. In communities of ward, and they often demonstrate (through their practice, student groups engage with shared is- reflections) changes in thinking habits and sues and are driven by a common purpose.7 higher levels of self-esteem.12 The success of Both of these theorists, while not explicitly refer- these events has inspired other instructors to encing the relationships between their ideas and begin adopting the principles of PSP in their the development of an active democratic com- own teaching. munity, support the premise of PSP: that students should be actively involved in their learn- At Cleveland State University, Adrienne ing with others in their communities such that Gosselin, Associate Professor in the Department they become informed participants in a democ- of English, is one of two faculty in the College of racy. Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS) to in- corporate PSP in classroom curriculum. Ed Hor- One PSP method introduced by CSU-Chico (first owitz, Associate Professor in the School of Com- in 2006 and continuing to this day) is called the munication, used PSP to help his journalism stu- “Town Hall Meeting.” As part of this event, stu-

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