Development and Evaluation of An Investigative Learning Support Program for Elementary School Students to Search and Understand Subjects in Social Studies from Multiple Dimensions

This study developed an investigative learning support program that had two steps with multiple features including pillars of investigation for searching and grasping subjects of learning from multiple dimensions and then evaluated the goal achievement of the program. We examined literature and included reference materials and image maps, both with and without clues, and incorporated the tasks of revising or adding pillars of investigation in the program. Although there are some issues such as the consideration of instructions and prior support methods for students who have little experience in investigative learning, some students met the achievement goals of the program.

Distance Education During the Covid-10 Epidemic as a Challenge and Opportunity for the Personal and Professional Development of a School Librarian

Due to the COVID-19 epidemic, all schools had to close their doors last year. Classes moved to a virtual environment, and students and teachers were left without the opportunity to visit school libraries overnight. Therefore, the school library of the Prva gimnazija Maribor has operated smoothly throughout the time of the epidemic and strives to facilitate the work of students, teachers, and other employees as much as possible, continue to promote reading, develop reading and information literacy, and at the same time enrich the educational process. The article presents how we found our way to our readers despite the difficult situation.

Walking a Mile in Their Shoes: Empowering Learners Through A Human Library!

Many different events and experiences shape our lives. Everyone has their own unique story. Just like a book, the stories inside people are fascinating! When personal stories are shared with others they can become extremely powerful resources. They provide our students with a wonderful opportunity to connect with diverse members of the school community and beyond, communicate with them, build relationships, empathise, explore, understand and learn. By participating in a ‘Human Library’ students acquire life skills, widening their understanding of others and the world. Your school library should have one! Students are hungry for real life experiences and ‘living books’ inspire them!

Promoting Ethnic and Religious Diversity for the Nigerian School Children: A Preliminary Study

The aim of this study is to provide evidence on the school library as an important medium for promoting ethnic and religious diversity among the Nigerian school children. Though the issue of diversity continues to evolve and expand in the 21st century to include dimensions of race, ethnicity, gender, culture, abilities, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age and religious preferences (Perrault & Mardis, 2015), the Nigerian nation is presently being troubled by the crisis related to ethnic and religious groups. The education system seems not to be doing much in encouraging coexistence among the citizens. The school library serves as a safe place for addressing these issues of ethnicity and religiosity among learners from diverse backgrounds in the Nigerian school system in which the school timetable is busy with a lot of passive learning activities. Even though ethnic and religious diversity should be addressed in a normal classroom environment, there is still a continuous rise in the lack of ethnic and religious coexistence in Nigerian community which has brought about religious rivalry and ethnic bigotry in the different communities of the nation (Akwanya, 2015; Ojo, 2016). This has continually led to a greater output of school children who are not ready to welcome other cultures and religious beliefs when they become adults; thus steering violence among other members of the community.

Weaving Diversity into LIS Instruction: Equity Behaviors to Create the Tapestry of Inclusive Library Practice

Libraries should be inclusive spaces for all patrons. It is imperative today’s librarians are equipped to infuse diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) theory with best practice when establishing policy and procedure. Library preparation programs must prepare the next generation of librarians to meet the needs of a diverse population, however, there are no established protocols in LIS education for training pre-service librarians in DEI. This exploratory study examines how one class used a culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP) framework to study issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion in library services. Findings suggest LIS students who interrogate their own bias and integrate thoughtful equity behaviors adopt greater empathy and DEI strategies

Enabling School Librarians to Serve as Instructional Leaders of Multiple Literacies

Research has demonstrated that school leaders have little to no understanding of the instructional leadership role of the school librarian and have received little to no training in how to lead this population (Lewis, 2018; 2019). Though the standards of the school library field state that school librarians should be equipped and able to serve as instructional leaders of multiple literacies in K-12 education, barriers exist that inhibit this from becoming a reality in many schools. One of these barriers is a lack of administrative support in the form of a district library supervisor to develop a vision for and provide support to the district’s school library program and its personnel. Very little research has been conducted to examine the support needs of in-service school librarians (Weeks et al., 2017), and no research has been conducted to explore how to equip existing leadership to effectively lead its population of school librarians in a school district that lacks an official district library supervisor. The purpose of this study is to explore how school district leaders can foster the development of an effective school library in which school librarians serve as instructional leaders of multiple literacies.

Commonwealth Caribbean Disability Access Policies: Access to Educational Institutions and Libraries

Disability Acts are aimed at providing disabled students with both physical and intellectual access to education. The research takes into account UNESCO’s mission and Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) that education as a fundamental human right lies at the heart of equal access. The document analysis approach was used to select six Caribbean countries’ disability Acts to examine the kind of access indicated for educational institutions and libraries. The roles of the stakeholders who are expected to implement the Acts were also examined. Additionally, document analysis was used to determine if what was seen in these Acts were actually being implemented. The disability Acts selected were those from a Commonwealth Caribbean country that developed national policies or acts on disability and that the Acts had specific articles on access to education for disabled persons. It was discovered that the clauses with regards to access and stakeholders’ role in implementing the Acts were very limited. There is also a significant gap between what is written in the Acts and what is actually taking place. One recommendation that was suggested was that each country treat their Act as a priority as equal access is a human right as emphasized by UNESCO.

Placement of Actor Network Theory in School Library Environment Research

Actor Network Theory (ANT) takes on the position that non-human objects which alter the behavior of people with which they share an environment are actors exerting force into the environment. While ANT has been used in education since the late twentieth century, it has not yet seen utilization in school library environments research. As a result, there remains a significant gap in the way school library environments are studied. This literature review seeks to make a case for the importance of including ANT in school library environments research. By taking a closer look at the design and inclusion of specific objects within the school library environment, we can better equip school library spaces for the needs and wants of the students to which the library belongs.

Multidimensional Approaches to Illustrate to Digital Divide among K-12 Students

In this paper, we share the initial findings from a multi-disciplinary project by Team D2IE (Digital Divide and Inclusion in Education), the recent first-place winner of the Global XPRIZE Education Open Data Challenge, where they investigated how digital infrastructure and internet connectivity varies among K-12 students at the county level across the United States. Two quantitative measures (Student Digital Opportunity and Benefit-Cost Ratio) and three interactive maps were developed from socio-technical and economic perspectives to support decision-making. The three interactive maps allow stakeholders to evaluate digital access, usage, cost, and economic benefits at the county level across the country.

Teachers' Perceptions of Students' News Literacy

People need to consciously and critically analyze and evaluate mass media messages, especially in the light of increasing fake news; they need to be news literate. The logical time to start teaching such literacy is in K-12 educational settings so that all individuals have the opportunity to learn and practice news literacy. To concretely ascertain California middle and high school students’ level of news literacy, their teacher librarians were surveyed. Not only did the respondents indicate a need for news literacy instruction, but they also indicated that little curriculum attention was given to that need. Moreover, teacher librarians and classroom teachers need training on news literacy. Fake news is a wake-up call to educators and the community at large to gain competency in critically analyzing fake news in particular, and information in general.