Canadian School Libraries is pleased to announce the release of a new project inspired by the fifth Treasure Mountain Canada Research Symposium and Think Tank (Winnipeg, October 2017). The challenge of the symposium’s culminating Big Think was to establish a strategy to support schools in work to build culturally relevant and responsive school library learning commons.
For the past year a special work group led by Monica Berra, District VP Learning Innovations – Learning Commons SD57 Prince George British Columbia and Jennifer Brown, Teacher-Librarian, Castle Oaks Public School, Peel District School Board Ontario, have dedicated their energies and expertise to building content to support school library learning commons professionals and their schools as they work towards building inclusion, cultural relevance and responsive learning environments, resources and programs.
Themes explored in TMC5 Papers and Leading Learning: Standards of Practice for School Library Learning Commons in Canada have been knit together to provide the frames for reflective questions and tools to help schools move forward. Just like Leading Learning, the project team will continue to build on this content to support the growth of awareness and improving practice for the culturally relevant school library learning commons.
The Culturally Relevant and Responsive SLLC resource contains three sections:
Competencies and practices for cultural relevance and responsiveness are linked to Leading Learning, providing a framework for self-assessment and a plan for moving forward.
Here we position the project within Canada’s multicultural society and the greater ethics of librarianship, and demonstrate alignment with educational goals. You will also find an extremely useful annotated resource list to further your own explorations.
Here’s where you can put it all together, with practical assessment and planning tools, a wonderful poster free to download and print, and links to additional practical resources.
CSL proudly shares the rich resources developed by the TMC5 project team and invite school library learning commons professionals to lead the way to positive change in their schools.
In the near future the project committee will make a call out via social media and a CSL newsletter announcement inviting LLC professionals from across Canada to share examples of culturally relevant and responsive practices in the LLC (pictures with descriptions, videos, units of instruction, samples of student understanding etc). The committee will also welcome submissions regarding best resources, websites, and articles to support building a culturally relevant and responsive LLC.
Culturally Relevant and Responsive School Library Learning Commons
