Every year a large portion of my time as a TL is dedicated to teaching students the evaluation of resources. How to analyze websites, how to ask questions about information, why Wikipedia cannot be used as a solo source, why the Tree Octopus is such an illusive animal, how google sorts its results and overall how to think critically about everything they use as a resource. Interestingly enough, as adults and even more specifically as TL's, for whom this is of the utmost importance, we often do not engage in the same skills we are teaching.
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https://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/p/think-critically-and-question-everything/
I think I have decided to do my inquiry unit on BC's Aboriginal peoples as it has become a prominent topic in BC's new curriculum, woven through almost all subjects and grade levels. Tentatively, I think I would like to focus on Residential Schools (should that be capitalized? I will inquire!) as it seems a subject that students could really connect with on a personal level, and the effects of doing inquiry research rather than anything teacher driven would be so much more profound. This is a subject where the selection of resources must be done very carefully and thoughtfully in order to accurately and respectfully represent an era, a peoples, a culture and not just a series of events.
As mentioned above, this thoughtfulness and critical assessment of resources does not always happen. We as teachers are busy people, we rely on colleagues for materials, we are often not supplied with substantive resources from the Ministry, we are left on our own to search for curricular support. And many teachers are from an era where the wealth of digital information simply did not exist and therefore may have limited knowledge themselves about how to sort and analyze information. As a TL I sometimes forget to ask the bigger picture questions, which is why the ERAC document provides some great starting points.
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Is this resource representative of our students culturally?
Our school has a very diverse population, however almost 70% of our students are of South-East Asian background. After doing this week's readings on the selection of resources, I can guarantee this in not reflected in our library collection, particularly in any fiction sections. This will definitely be an ongoing thought while doing purchasing from now on. Likewise, while our Aboriginal content has been growing it's still not representative of the many Aboriginal students B.C. is home to. Something that struck me in a previous course was the absence of multicultural relationships in most resources in general. For example, while we have many books with Aboriginal or diverse characters, how many actually illustrate harmonious relationships with other cultures?
Who wrote it and is it an authentic account?
I think this will be particularly imperative with regard to Residential Schools and my inquiry project, I know there are many works and authors about the subject but not all are authored or created by Aboriginal people. In order to do the topic justice and with the utmost respect it is important to know which accounts are authentic and which are fictional and/or not penned by an Aboriginal member. I must admit I often rely on the recommendations of colleagues when purchasing resources, which is something I'll maybe need to revisit when I return to work. Perhaps contacting our VSB Aboriginal Consultant would be a good place to start for this. I also reviewed this Ministry's Aboriginal Education link posted in the ERAC document which I hadn't looked through before, so interested to dig deeper there as well.
Is the promotion of culture and language infused into regular curricula (and library collections)?
This is mentioned in both BC's and PEI's Evaluation and Selection of Resources documents with specific reference to Aboriginal Education and is now a prominent feature of our new BC curriculum. In the CLEAR GOALS acronym presented by Stripling and Harada in "Designing Learning for Deeper Understanding", the L for Learner questions if students have the skills and experience to achieve the learning goals. As we learned in the previous modules, students background knowledge often lacks a connection to the subjects we need to teach them and by introducing topics in a cross curricular fashion, we can help to scaffold student learning for specific inquiry projects. Perhaps an inquiry project such as the one I will plan, would best be implemented in the second half of a school year, so the topic immersion could take place in the Fall and Winter.
Likewise, I firmly believe all resources need to be infused into our regular library collections. A few years back I can recall a fellow TL creating a great resource list of Aborginal books in their library. They then proceeded to pull all the books and had a separate shelving unit for the resources to be permanently located on. At first I thought this was a great idea and a great way of showcasing for both teachers and students the materials at hand, but I soon began to think about it more critically. Not only are libraries reliant on order and organization and the cataloging system, but a deeper social consideration is that Aboriginal works should be represented throughout a library collection, just as it is in the curriculum, just as it should be in life. It should not be a section we go to when we specifically want to learn about the topic but available for other stumblings on as well, for example in the innovations and inventions section, biographies, religion, history etc. Similar to the Chaddock and Beaudry grievance, although not nearly as egregious, I had received pressure from my admin to create such a section for the convenience of our teachers. I unfortunately moved on from that position before any further talks or actions could take place but take that lesson with me.
Overall, I think these will be some of the more important questions I will need to consider when selecting my resources for assignment two, in addition to them being much more a part of the selection process for our school collection as well.
Beaudry, R. and G. Chaddock-Costello. (2016). Challenging Practices: Podcast with 2016 Recipients of the Canadian Library Association's 2016 Winners of the Award for Advancement of Intellectual Freedom in Canada. UBC.
Educational Resource Acquisition Consortium (ERAC). (2008). Evaluating, selecting and acquiring learning resources: A guide. Vancouver, BC: ERAC.
Prince Edward Island Department of Education. (2009). Evaluation and selection of learning resources: A guide. Charlottetown, PE: Dept of Education.
Stripling, B., & Harada, V. (2012). Designing Learning Experiences for Deeper Understanding. School Library Monthly, 29(3), 5-12.
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