Critical Classroom Collections

Abstract

Academic libraries have long supported curricula for English studies, including children's literature, and education by collecting and maintaining children's books. The needs of these two majors can come into conflict. When is a book worth keeping as a subject of study despite containing content that misrepresents marginalized groups or serves no purpose as a teaching aid? In this exploratory chapter, the researchers describe work done in tandem with preservice teachers to analyze the existing children's literature collection at an academic library, employing critical literacy and library collection criteria for the expressed purpose of improving the collection with more diverse and inclusive texts. Students were assigned reading on the fundamentals of critical literacy and then tasked with applying what they learned to the library's children's literature collection. Detailed in this chapter are the results of applied learning exercises and reflective journals. Through this action research project, preservice teachers began to problematize traditional texts and question the status quo.