Engaging Communities in Equity-Centered Research: Librarians as Partners in the Science of Reading (Poster 3)

• In Event: Centering Equity in Research-Practice Partnerships

Abstract

This poster will describe how a university-community partnership leveraged diverse expertise and experiences of speech language pathologists, librarians, university faculty, and doctoral students to co-develop professional learning focused on the science of reading for young children and their families. Equity was centered in both the process of partnering as well as outcomes, as the children and families of focus live is historically marginalized communities and tend to demonstrate lower performance on school readiness measures at kindergarten entry. Three shared assumptions drove development of the project: (a) all children can learn; (b) early language and literacy is important for later school achievement; and (c) when provided with evidence-based resources in encouraging and interactive environments, families and communities can help ensure that children enter school ready to read and ready to succeed.

Educational disparities between subgroups of students have been observed at school entry (e.g., Burchinal et al., 2018; Duncan et al., 2007). Thus, increased access to high quality early childhood education has become a critical component of strategies designed to support children’s early social and academic outcomes, alleviate the emergence of opportunity gaps, and prevent later challenges in school. However, many children, especially children from historically and systemically marginalized communities, experience early childhood systems that are limited in scope and quality, further contributing to disparities (Nores & Barnett, 2014; Ewen & Herzfeldt-Kamprath, 2016; Yoshikawa et al., 2013). Consequentially, programs that provide support outside of formal preschool environments may be particularly valuable.

Libraries are uniquely positioned to support early language and literacy development in their communities, as they provide free access to books, media, and other resources and services across the lifespan. In particular, many libraries have story-time programming that is specifically targeted towards young children and their families. Ample research evidence demonstrates positive predictive relations between shared storybook reading and various language and literacy outcomes, including vocabulary, print and alphabet knowledge, oral syntax, phonological awareness, word reading, and reading comprehension (e.g., Senechal, Whissell, & Bildfell, 2017). Thus, inoculating this programming with evidence-based practices for supporting early language and literacy achievement could prove to be a particularly potent strategy for promoting school readiness.

In this context, the Florida Center for Reading Research at Florida State University has partnered with the Leroy Collins Leon County Public Library to support its annual plan goals around increasing librarians’ knowledge of evidence-based practices to supporting young children’s language and literacy development. In this on-going partnership, youth services librarians are participating in a series of professional development workshops designed to equip and empower them with the tools needed to facilitate high-quality language interactions during story time programming and to understand the connection to early literacy skills. Data collection is ongoing, with librarians completing knowledge and efficacy measures and participating in observations of their use of targeted strategies during story time programming. It is hypothesized that librarians’ knowledge, efficacy, and use of high-quality, evidence-based practices for supporting language and literacy during story time programming will increase after participating in the professional development sessions.

Authors

• Lakeisha Johnson, Florida State University
  Presenting Author

• Janae D Duclos, Florida State University
  Presenting Author

• Shaylyn King-St. Remy, Florida State University
  Presenting Author

• Catherine Christine Timm Fulkerson, Florida State University
  Presenting Author

• Jasmine Smith, Florida State University
  Presenting Author