What Should Diversity Look Like in the Media Center?
The Council for Exceptional Children states that doing justice to the word diversity means "understanding and valuing the
characteristics and beliefs of those who demonstrate a wide range of
characteristics. This includes ethnic and racial backgrounds, age, physical and
cognitive abilities, family status, sexual orientation, socioeconomic
status, religious and spiritual values, and geographic location. What implications does this call for justice to an admittedly vast range of diversities have for the modern media center? Where do we begin, as media specialists and educators, to meet the needs of these diversities?The first step is to educate ourselves.
Amanda Credaro, in School Libraries: Catering to the Special Needs of Children, lists five challenges faced by media specialists in ensuring that the special needs of students are met.
They are the diversity of individuals, the heterogeneity of groups, the difficulty in identifying student groups, the instability of those groups, and budgetary restrictions (Credaro. 2006).
Diversity can mean many things. We can begin with the obvious things such as race, age, and physical abilities. These diversities are outwardly apparent and, therefore, easily identified. But what about cognitive ability, socioeconomic status, or motivational attitudes? How will these diversities affect a student's ability to learn? Consider the use of technology. A student from a middle class family has probably grown up with at least one if not more computers in his/her home. That students ability to assimilate new technology and to utilize it to further his/her learning will be far greater than a student from a family of low economic status or a student with cognitive/physical challenges. Technology also holds a potential for grabbing the attention of that low motivated bright student.
Media specialists must also be aware of the fact that students may fall into more than one diversity group. The racial identity of a student should not be overlooked because he/she is cognitively challenged. Conversely, a student's high ability, low motivation challenge should not be secondary to his/her racial/ social identity.
After identifying the diversities presented in a population, the next step would be to identify individuals. Many of the students with cognitive/physical challenges will be identified by the special education professionals in a school. However, the media specialist has a unique opportunity to observe students outside the classroom and potentially recognize students who are struggling. Regarding race/ethnicity, media specialists have a responsibility to provide representation for all races/ethnicities within the media center collection. We live in a global world and the media center should reflect that fact. Similarly, a high school media center serves students from 14 to 18 and the collection should provide appropriate material for that broad span of maturity.
Over the years the diversity of a school population changes creating the need for the media specialist to continually update the collection and stay abreast of changing technology. Situations may arise within a population based on one or more of the diversities, bullying, for instance, or an influx of tranisitory students. The media specialist needs to be prepared to aid in dealing with the situation.
And, finally, there are budgetary concerns. Meeting the needs of all these diversities comes at a cost. These costs may include physical changes in providing access by widening doors, adding additional wheelchair-accessible shelving, and collections for the hearing or sight impaired. Additions to the collection to provide adequate resources for racial/ethnic and age diversity is also costly. Many of the diversities will require additional man hours. The media specialist is then faced with a juggling act trying to balance myriad needs within a limited budget.
All of these challenges and more face the modern media specialist on a daily basis. However, it would be unethical and immoral to pretend these diversities do not exist in our schools today. Just as in the classroom, the media specialist has a responsibility to meet each student where he/she is and maximize his/her educational experience. What will diversity look like in your media center?
How Does CEC Define Diversity. Council for Exceptional Children.
Kelly you have done a great job covering all the issues facing a media specialist in dealing with diversity in the media center. I agree that the media specialist has a responsibility to meet each student where he/she is and maximize his/her educational experience. I know my own media center has recently added many new technologies to address the needs of a select part of the student population who have reading difficulties. I can see where budget cuts are really playing a key role in meeting all the diverse populations that utilize a media center. Good job!
ReplyDeleteYou did an excellent job of posting about the issues media specialists face when dealing with diversity. I like this statement that you made...”Technology also holds a potential for grabbing the attention of that low motivated bright student.” We, as the media specialists in our schools, must be aware and up to date on technology trends and issues to help meet the needs of our diverse population of students. I also agree that the media specialist has a unique opportunity to observe student outside of the regular classroom and recognize those with needs. All in all, media specialists have a great responsibility to help identify and meet the needs of our diverse group of learners.
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