A Student Perspective on Reading, Learning, and Knowing: Urban Literature and School Library Collections

• In Event: 34.078 - Roundtable Session 13
  In Roundtable Session: 34.078-6 - Surveying the Frontiers of Research on Young Adult Literature: Speculation, Representation, Emotion, and Action

Abstract

The objective of this research was to explore the impact of a school library’s use of urban literature and partnerships with classroom teachers designed to foster students agency and discovery of their own voices and identify. Using Fricker’s (1998, 2013) theory of epistemic injustice and testimonial injustice we sought to discover if and how a school library’s collection development and associated classroom collaboration initiative prompted greater epistemic agency. The study was grounded in qualitative research traditions that draw from the theoretical frameworks of dialogism, testimony, intersectionality, and epistemic justice. Findings revealed four primary themes, identity to early reading experiences, agency and self-identity, identity as readers 4) identity in epistemic and social injustices. Implications for the library sciences are discussed.

Authors

• Sabrina Carnesi, Old Dominion University

• Steve P. Myran, Old Dominion University