Advocacy
Curriculum standards are a good way to identify a measurable learning need within lessons and programs, and can be used to gain support from the administration for lessons and programs.
Beyond standards, effective advocacy can take many forms, including:
- Inclusive policy
- Representation/visibility in the collection
- Safe space identification
- An action plan to help the library build toward a more inclusive community.
This website contains many of the resources needed to create and implement an action plan to advocate for queer youth in the library. Here is one example of the steps you could take in your action plan:
- Determine your mission and values statements
- Define your policy and rules of conduct
- Develop a timeline for successful completion of the plan
- Identify and curate community resources
- Create and implement programs and lessons
- Assess, revise, repeat
American Library Association (ALA) Policy
The ALA has several policies in place that protect schools' and minors' rights to access and their intellectual freedom. These polices can be used to develop and support individual policies in your own library. Including policy that defends and advocates for minors' rights to access information means that queer students will be able to seek out the resources they need in a safe space. Many queer identities have been hyper-sexualized by our society and as a result, resources for those identities are conflated with content that is considered inappropriate or harmful to minors. With these resources sealed behind firewalls, students may believe that the content they need, and as an extension, their identities, are considered inappropriate or harmful. This belief can negatively impact their mental health and wellbeing, which is why minors' rights to access and intellectual freedom are important parts of an inclusive policy.
Standards for Social Emotional Learning
Social emotional learning is becoming one of the main topics of conversation among educators across the country. It is defined as "the process through which children and adults understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions" (CASEL).
American Association of School Librarians (AASL) Standards
AASL is a division of ALA that "empowers leaders to transform teaching and learning." The AASL standards can be used when lesson planning and advocating within the school library. Recently, the 2018 ALA Emerging Leaders team created a guide for AASL to support school librarians in addressing challenges related to censorship and patron privacy issues, particularly with LGBTQ+ materials. This work uses the AASL Standards framework as scaffolding to help users explore LGBTQ+ materials and needs in their own communities.
International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Standards
ISTE standards cover topics relating to technology integration in education, including global collaboration, communication, and digital citizenship. These sections of the standards, among others, can be used for lesson planning and advocating within the school library.
Digital Citizenship Standards
Much like the world of education, ideas for how to approach and teach digital citizenship, as well as what it means to be a digital citizen, are ever-changing. However, looking at the original competencies of digital citizenship can help provide a framework for educators and librarians to draft policy and plan lessons in their spaces.
