CritLib Chat - April 1
Some promotional tweets, introductions and RTs/MTs without added content have been removed. Other tweets have been rearranged loosely by question - I've tried to group convos as much as possible. The Storify search definitely did not pull all tweets tagged #critlib - apologies to anything left out!
- Plenty of buzz leading up to the inaugural critical library pedagogy chat:
First in what will be an epic flood of tweets about #critlib, Tuesdays, 9-10pm EST, twitter convo about critical pedagogies in libraries!
Interested in critical pedagogy in libraries? Join us tomorrow 8-9pm Central! Use #critlib & check our cheat sheet: http://tinyurl.com/critlibx
@pumpedlibrarian Lk wht GDocs told me:) "Wow, this file is really popular! Some tools might be unavailable until the crowd clears." #critlib
For #critlib, you might read the introduction to Information Literacy and Social Justice by Gregory and Higgins: http://libraryjuicepress.com/ILSJ-front.pdf
@zyrnia @pumpedlibrarian Reading Gregory & Higgins ILSJ Intro #critlib chat tonight! 8-9pm Central: http://tinyurl.com/critlibx- A few people have told me they're planning to lurk on #critlib -- remember, participation is critical! (Sorry/not sorry for the pun...)
Wrapped up a 30 min reference transaction on fish and gender as #eveninglibrarian, just in time for #critlib chat- Chat started out with introductions [omitted for length]
- Aw yeah, it's time for #critlib #1! Welcome! Let's get started by introducing ourselves
Thanks for proposing this #critlib chat & moderating @pumpedlibrarian!
I love that lots of #critlib librarians are checking in from the front lines. That's dedication.- Agreed! RT @librarianliss I love that lots of #critlib librarians are checking in from the front lines. That's dedication.
- Nice to see so many twitter colleagues tuning in to #critlib too
- Introductions continued to trickle in while we moved on to Question 1: How would you define critical pedagogy?
- Ok Q1: How would you define critical pedagogy? - your own def or discuss from rdg linked in cheat sheet http://tinyurl.com/critlibx #critlib
Q1 - crit pedagogy blurs student/teacher lines, encourages critical thinking, collaboration, participation #critlib- @beccakatharine no that's good! got to start somewhere! #critlib
@beccakatharine Agree but need something about how the crit thinking deals with privilege/inequality/oppression IMHO #critlib- @CarlSHess Mm, agreed - by blurring teacher/student lines, you are challenging all sorts of hierarchies #critlib
- @beccakatharine Def agree though I think you can blur lines between teacher/student and leave other power structures unquestioned #critlib
@beccakatharine agree, I would also add creation/production of new knowledge owned by students #critlib
Q1. Demos & interaction on how ideas become reality, ie relationship bw systemic racism, environmental justice n the food I eat. #critlib- @CCIBoston Totally agree w you on this. Libraries are a great place to do this work, so material, so political. #critlib
- @catladylib @edrabinski I can't think critical abt the world but might not mean much if I don't connect it to my world. #critlib
- @CCIBoston @catladylib For me, my #critlib awakening was personal--not seeing queer stuff in the library, or in wrong places.
- @edrabinski Ideas do come from somewhere, much like opinions. #critlib
- Q1 It's also about confronting the myth of neutrality, acknowledging that we all have a point of view. #critlib
- @pumpedlibrarian Yeah I'm definitely the opposite of an expert on this #critlib
- Q1: I see critical pedagogy as empowering learners, esp. questioning information and making content relevant #critlib
Q1 To me critical pedagogy involves humility, creativity, student empowerment, collaborating to build a more just society #critlib- @aszingarelli love humility! #critlib
- @pumpedlibrarian Thanks! And I don't mean humility in the OCLC "librarians-should-defer-to-professors" sense, FTR... #critlib
- Crit lib is definitely NOT just adding active learning - it has to be intentional, related to power #critlib
@beccakatharine and the classroom itself is one of those trad power structures that usu goes unchallenged #critlib- @beccakatharine @kyledenlinger some of the young folk I know consistently challenge those structures, whether we listen... #critlib
- @beccakatharine @kyledenlinger lord knows there are tons of books abt young ppl authored by extremely few young ppl. #critlib
- @CCIBoston @beccakatharine @kyledenlinger Hence my devotion to youth-authored zines in libraries. :) #critlib
- @catladylib @edrabinski would argue that it is not just abt access 2info, also the info we validate &the info that won't b there. #critlib
- @CCIBoston @catladylib What forms of knowledge can be produced at all, and what knowledge we value. #critlib
- @catladylib @edrabinski for many ppl who come to this work, the work stems from the injustice they see and experience. #critlib
- Question 2 moves on to the specific context of the library: What does critical *library* pedagogy mean to you?
- You can continue with Q1 if you so desire, but adding in Q2 now: What does critical *library* pedagogy mean to you? #critlib
Q1/2 I try to get my students to look more in depth at why some studies are cited more often than others. #critlib
Q2 Reinforcing that the library is not the gatekeeper of knowledge. Exploring questions TOGETHER. #critlib
Q2: Gah, I'm such a library student that I automatically answered Q1 with the library in mind! #librarydork #critlib- I like the focus on engagement. MT @elliot_dw "teachings the skills to engage in broader world" #critlib
- Q2: Critical *library* pedagogy: structures of knowledge, power. We're the nexus of that, I take the responsibility really srsly. #critlib
- Q2: So a combo of showing students how to navigate structures of power so they can pass classes, encouraging their resistance. #critlib
- @edrabinski How do you feel about having to teach students how to navigate it for grades? #critlib
- @beccakatharine I want the students I teach to pass their classes, that's baseline for me. #critlib
- @pumpedlibrarian we're probably going to talk about info privilege explicitly--might as well start now. #critlib
Q2 Personally, it was helpful for me to realize that libraries and librarians are not neutral. It's our duty to be info activists. #critlib- Question 3: How do you bring discussions of race, gender, and class privilege into your teaching?
- It's time for Q3 (omg time is flying): How do you bring discussions of race, gender, and class privilege into your teaching? #critlib
@Meghan_Dowell what can't/don't you have/do? #critlib
@beccakatharine Interesting, I'll have to think about how to tie that in during a concept mapping activity #critlib- @pumpedlibrarian Ineffectively #critlib
- @edrabinski You can't. But if we are only doing this in class & not at desk, in research guides, etc. it's a problem #critlib
- @CarlSHess Easier to discuss one on one, I think. Classrooms are not ideal spaces. #critlib
- Q3 Sometimes it's unavoidable. Students are researching feminist WOC, the subject terms are racist or inadequate. #critlib
- @JessicaCritten I would like to take that class, please #critlib
- @kyledenlinger @pumpedlibrarian so the assumption that information will be white supremacist? #critlib
- Q3: You can point to the insidiousness of white supremacy by noting that it isn't even named in our systems. Just 'normal.' #critlib
- @edrabinski can both coexist? #critlib
- @CCIBoston @pumpedlibrarian part of it. getting students to recognize their level of access, who else has access & who doesn't #critlib
- Q3 sometimes being deliberate in showing examples that highlight racism in results. Ex. searching "testimonio" vs. "oral history" #critlib
- @edrabinski if systemic oppression is foundational to critical pedagogy, can we afford not to? #critlib
@siuhongyu My students write on an -ism of times they were a perpetrator, bystander, victim, & upstander. I share on bystander. #critlib- A3: I ease students into discussions of privilege by recognizing we're all privileged-whether by race, gender, SES,(dis)ability,etc #critlib
#critlib Q3: Maybe difficulty of doing this in a one-shot speaks to why it's a problematic format. Need moar epistemology.
@jacobsberg I just did this in an advanced historiography class! It was a great discussion on "neutrality" and source crit #critlib
@librarybell Classes like that are wonderful. #critlib
@librarybell @jacobsberg trying to use it head on with a class on women & computer music this semester;writing/researching articles #critlib- @EamonTewell How can we pre-select topics and still learner-centered? #critlib
- @CarlSHess True! I choose a subject to demo/get students started and later in the session move to their own topics #critlib
- @EamonTewell Then next step is how to add the #critlib to working with their topics. It's hard and has few easy answers.
- Q3 Also, I don't do canned searches in info lit session, I take suggestions from the audience. Where I work, that's primarily WOC. #critlib
- @jacobsberg See, I'm at a heavily white institution, though a near even men/women split #critlib
- @kyledenlinger Yes. Like in many other places, power on Wikipedia is "path dependent," and self-reinforcing. #critlib
- @CCIBoston Right. W/o shared political understanding & vocab, where do we hang critical action. It's like trying to climb an egg. #critlib
- @siuhongyu I find sharing a bystander story shows vulnerability&humility w/out misinterpretion that can accompany perpetrator story #critlib
- @CCIBoston yes, agreed. Do you think shared vocab can be developed on something like twitter? #critlib
@edrabinski #critlib is there a shared political vocabulary in crit ped and should there be? What are the consequences?- @edrabinski critical axn needs 2happen everyday. But I guess I have to ask what the goal? #critlib
- @CCIBoston Surveying the hashtag, looks like the goal really varies. #critlib
- @edrabinski my experience is nope. Ppl still have to show up. #critlib
- @CCIBoston Agree. Those shared vocabs are built in context, through diff kinds of work together than chat, in my experience. #critlib
- Question 4: How else have you used critical library pedagogy in your work, including outside of instruction? How might you?
- Q4 How else have you used critical library pedagogy in your work, including outside of instruction? How might you? #critlib
- Q4: I don't know yet! But I do know that everytime I have to talk about what makes a source scholarly i need pnts in the karma bank #critlib
- @catladylib This is good stuff. I'm glad y'all are here for the *library* part of this discussion. Learning a lot. ;) #critlib
- Q4 I am always trying to learn about #critlib and find ways to incorporate it in my daily life. Info is part of everything we read/see.
- Q4 recent convos abt #cancelcolbert got me thinking about privilege, satire, and race. How do we have constructive convos abt this? #critlib
- @catladylib That would be a really interesting convo starter on authority! #critlib
- @catladylib Maybe by recognizing up front there's not one right answer. Then we can proceed to talk about privilege & perspective. #critlib
- @dankrutka oh exactly!! That's so major. Ppl see issues in black+white, but many SJ issues are intersectional. #critlib
- @catladylib I work with a lot of classes on "mapping controversy" -- talking about the value of satire vs "facts" #critlib
- @catladylib That would be a great sample topic for a rhetoric class! #critlib
- @librarybell It would be important to have the convo when discussing assignments, readings, etc. with teaching faculty #critlib
- @librarybell I'm preparing for this conversation with our critical identity studies department. We should trade notes. #critlib
- Q4 think a big part of #critlib is also inspiring action in students so getting them to have a stake and move beyond classroom is important
- @elliot_dw What kinds of things do you do? #critlib
- Q4 It is imperative to demonstrate as a librarian that we take action, too. #critlib
- If ppl were to call us racist, sexist, ableist, classist, homophobic, would they be wrong? Do we have the tools to self reflect? #critlib
- @catladylib Not always necessary to convey exp, IMO -- can be more important to hint at the Qs/complications. #critlib
- .@hrheingold talks about "crap detection" w ex of MLK site run by racist group that shows in search results: http://graemeboxwell.co.uk/?tag=howard-rheingold … #critlib
- @dankrutka @hrheingold that one's (too?) well-known in our library circles. most of their hits prob come from us teaching it. #critlib
- .@dankrutka @hrheingold was using that site as an example too, but started to worry about triggers, trying to be more cognizant of #critlib
- Q4 another outside the classroom approach to critical pedagogy is hiring: POC, parents returning to workforce, etc. #critlib
- Question 5: What are some resources you'd recommend for future readings? Or resources in general?
- Keep convo going! But adding in Q5 as a side note: What are some resources you'd recommend for future readings? Or resources in gen #critlib
Q5: Seale, M. (2013). The Neoliberal Library. Information Literacy and Social Justice: Radical Professional Praxis, 39–61. #critlib- And also this one http://qub.me/aPg6vc #critlib
- Love #HipHopEd, inspired me to suggest #critlib! RT @edrabinski #critlib tweeters might also be interested in @chrisemdin's #HipHopEd convos
- Q5 This article by @walkyouhome is really great: http://jil.lboro.ac.uk/ojs/index.php/JIL/article/view/LLC-V7-I2-2013-2 … #critlib
- Q5 FYI, I'll be collecting these recs into the Zotero group #critlib
- Wrapping up with some pitches and a round of thanks:
- #critlib #librarians: submit to Radical Teacher, open access jrl of socialist, feminist, and anti-racist teaching! http://radicalteacher.library.pitt.edu/
- Also, keep eye on our cheat sheet for future updates http://tinyurl.com/critlibx + next chat = next week, then ev oth week from now on! #critlib
- Thanks so much for chatting/participating, or even lurking this hour! Great convos, we will see you next week! #critlib
- #critlib was ok, i guess.
- Props to @pumpedlibrarian for facilitating, and @edrabinski @barnlib @catladylib for planning! #critlib
- & @kellymce too! RT @kellymce Props to @pumpedlibrarian for facilitating, and @edrabinski @barnlib @catladylib for planning! #critlib
- And Community Change Boston concluded with some important food for thought:
- Q6: does anyone ever have 2b accountable 2 the ppl most affected by the work? #critlib
- My quarrel with twitter for nuanced convos: Built for assertions, not inquiry. Character limit encourages me to STATE FIRMLY. #critlib
- @CCIBoston I want to increase access to structures of power by sharing knowledge about how those structures work. I think. #critlib
- It is important to remember: you don’t have to dismantle white supremacy in a single one shot. But you can find ways to critique. #critlib
so @CCIBoston is talking critical librarianship. Might the homie @SeerGenius be behind some of this awesomeness? #critlib- @kellymce It's fun to imagine dismantling white supremacy with a one-shot library instruction, though. :) #critlib #mightylibrarians
