There has been quite a lot of fascinating discussion on Cole's blog lately about the current state of K-12 education, and how we can effectively reach out to K-12 educators. I've loved reading the ideas shared, the frustrations, and the overall impressions of the K-12 landscape.
Having worked in a private school in New York City, of course, I am completely spoiled in my vision of what education can and should be. Because of that experience, however, I also feel realistic in my expectations of public schools. My local K-12 counterparts are not working in resource-rich, moneyed private schools with demanding parents who can be demanding and force more rapid change because they are paying over $20K per kid. (There were good and bad sides to that last part.) My local K-12 friends are dealing with more limited resources, mandated curriculum, standards and assessment, a unionized environment, and a much more intellectually diverse student body.
All of this was a long way toward introducing the topic for this post--strategies for connecting with our K-12 partners. When I moved here eight years ago, I hoped to find a way to connect school, public and academic librarians. As a school and public librarian myself, I wondered often about academic libraries---What were they teaching their students? What were the challenges in the academic environment? Unfortunately, I never encountered an easy framework for shared discussions with academic librarians. Once I started work at Penn State, I knew I could help effect change in that area.
Five years ago, my wonderful colleague Lesley Moyo and I co-founded the Central Pennsylvania K-16 Information Literacy Network. The Network really exists because of Lesley's persistence in making it happen. Along with me, Emily Rimland has continued to develop the Network to this day. Because there are so many challenges in every educational environment (including those that I've just listed above) we envisioned our Network as a place for librarians at all educational levels to come together, share ideas and connect. We were careful not to construct our initial workshops as, "come and let us teach you", but rather, "let us learn from your experience."
I think this approach has been successful. We have established a positive, thriving community of librarians who get together at least once a year to explore topics, and who email each other frequently in between. We've discussed and strategized around important issues in schools, including the Pennsylvania State System of Assessment, and its (negative) impact on curricular inclusion of library research skills. Personally, I've engaged my capacity to learn as much as I can about the challenges faced by my K-12 friends.
I have close colleagues now in our area schools and in our downtown public library. Most importantly, I've learned from the insights, challenges and ideas of our local K-12 librarians. I understand the advantages and limitations of their environment much more now. I hope that they understand the challenges of an academic environment a bit more too. Have we changed the face of school librarianship in the state of Pennsylvania? Of course not. But we have enabled a supportive community who can rally together and advocate for shared issues when needed.
If we want to reach out to K-12 teachers, it also needs to be a shared discussion. And much as we have done with our area librarians, we need to go into it with an open mind. What can we learn from them? The librarians in our Network have consistently communicated their amazement that, in their words, "Penn State was interested in them and what they had to share."
Showing interest and acceptance is a first step towards developing a symbiotic K-16 community, where perhaps, together we can effect and implement real educational change.
Having worked in a private school in New York City, of course, I am completely spoiled in my vision of what education can and should be. Because of that experience, however, I also feel realistic in my expectations of public schools. My local K-12 counterparts are not working in resource-rich, moneyed private schools with demanding parents who can be demanding and force more rapid change because they are paying over $20K per kid. (There were good and bad sides to that last part.) My local K-12 friends are dealing with more limited resources, mandated curriculum, standards and assessment, a unionized environment, and a much more intellectually diverse student body.
All of this was a long way toward introducing the topic for this post--strategies for connecting with our K-12 partners. When I moved here eight years ago, I hoped to find a way to connect school, public and academic librarians. As a school and public librarian myself, I wondered often about academic libraries---What were they teaching their students? What were the challenges in the academic environment? Unfortunately, I never encountered an easy framework for shared discussions with academic librarians. Once I started work at Penn State, I knew I could help effect change in that area.
Five years ago, my wonderful colleague Lesley Moyo and I co-founded the Central Pennsylvania K-16 Information Literacy Network. The Network really exists because of Lesley's persistence in making it happen. Along with me, Emily Rimland has continued to develop the Network to this day. Because there are so many challenges in every educational environment (including those that I've just listed above) we envisioned our Network as a place for librarians at all educational levels to come together, share ideas and connect. We were careful not to construct our initial workshops as, "come and let us teach you", but rather, "let us learn from your experience."
I think this approach has been successful. We have established a positive, thriving community of librarians who get together at least once a year to explore topics, and who email each other frequently in between. We've discussed and strategized around important issues in schools, including the Pennsylvania State System of Assessment, and its (negative) impact on curricular inclusion of library research skills. Personally, I've engaged my capacity to learn as much as I can about the challenges faced by my K-12 friends.
I have close colleagues now in our area schools and in our downtown public library. Most importantly, I've learned from the insights, challenges and ideas of our local K-12 librarians. I understand the advantages and limitations of their environment much more now. I hope that they understand the challenges of an academic environment a bit more too. Have we changed the face of school librarianship in the state of Pennsylvania? Of course not. But we have enabled a supportive community who can rally together and advocate for shared issues when needed.
If we want to reach out to K-12 teachers, it also needs to be a shared discussion. And much as we have done with our area librarians, we need to go into it with an open mind. What can we learn from them? The librarians in our Network have consistently communicated their amazement that, in their words, "Penn State was interested in them and what they had to share."
Showing interest and acceptance is a first step towards developing a symbiotic K-16 community, where perhaps, together we can effect and implement real educational change.
There is a lot we can learn from your post, Ellysa. The most important takeaway, I think, is that your approach really made the difference between successful and unsuccessful outreach. We can all learn a lesson from that and apply the philosophy, "what can we learn" more often. Thanks for sharing.
Nicely said!