all in this together now, eternally toward empowerment!

Certainly through my limited research thus far, I have recognized the importance of both self and adult led empowerment for our youth, the importance for all youth service professionals to acknowledge the capacities of youth in advocating for their own needs. Seems to me that the best services respond to youth, don’t force their own agenda. The research methods of all of my four articles were mostly literature reviews.

In the articles I selected from the 1980’s (Flum, 1988) and (Hodges, 1988) both give examples of how library youth services need to delegate roles, network with all other local/community youth services, and above all else cater specifically to local youth needs.

Flum talks about the plight of youth in the 1980’s in away that is engaging and strongly progressively politically charged. Taking away some of the agency, or personal powers of the youth that Flum should be advocating for. She puts the bull’s-eye of the brunt of the burden and blame sharply on the shoulders of YA professions especially YA librarians, without giving enough blame to the young adults themselves in terms of their own advocacy. If adults must keep acting as gatekeepers, how will, how can that ever be considered full empowerment?

Hodges (1988) stresses that no single solitary library can be all things to all people at all times. No library can sufficiently fulfill equanimity of satisfaction even to any one particular customer base, such as young adults or children. No library is perfect, Can any library ever possibly be good enough to all people given strict human and budget limitations? According to Hodges the lack of perfection means, the role of decision making for young adults must be “as meaningful for their needs as can be achieved.” (p. 112)

The articles we read in this weeks reading talk about how to best make those decisions. One example being the Participant Action Research (PAR) method discussed in Raby’s 2007 article in Best’s book. PAR is a research method in qich the researcher engages with the youth being impacted by the services on equal footing as supposed to doing research on them, it is a collaborative research approach. Allowing the youth to feel and be as fully capable and able to construct and use their own thoughts producing meaningful and perhaps even practical actions and thoughts, and produce such awareness that is best made through, as Raby quotes Freire, “self inquiry and reflection.”  (pg. 53) The idea is to create spaces and dialogues that permit free expression and careful reflection with these shared ideas, the researcher gains information and the youth can be at least slightly empowered as a result of the research.

My articles from the 1990’s also spoke of how the voices of children and youth need to be eternally empowered by youth and children librarians.

Walter’s 1997 article discussed the need for policies and reforms in the area of digital libraries accessibility to children and youth and having policies that enable the libraries to provide better service.

In Hannigan there is a focus on the feminist perspective on six women and their contributions to young adult services in public libraries.

As sociology was my undergrad major I really enjoyed the Dimitradis (2008) chapters. These chapters were great reviews for some of the foundational ideas that started sociology as a legitimate academic avenue.  I enjoyed a lot of the vocabulary and the ideas of urban culture and I now question whether I live in an urban place or a suburban space.

I think that what I learned from these articles and chapters will remind me to work with the people I serve and not keep myself in a place of authority, I will do this to best as I am able at least to the extent this is possible.

problem solving and cognitive dissonance

Sorry for the late post I’ve been doing lots of research for my final paper (as I’m sure we all have) I picked the problem solving info-graphic. I have to say I was very confused by some of the infographics. So I will be trying to figure out the problem solving graphics as I explain a cultural difference.

As Chametria said, some cultures are more direct then others, and some are more individualistic. To add to Chametria’s excellent observations, I will add that as this graphic shows, that it might well be a fundamental attribution error to assume that it is some ones personality or behavior rather than giving some blame to cultural influences particularly when solving a problem.

Another thing Arasaratnam  (2011) points out selective exposure, selective attention and selective interpretation as a part of combatting cognitive dissonance, as part of communication. Cognitive dissonance is the idea that we desire balance in our thoughts and where there is inconsistency or conflict, or a problem, we do what we can to get back to balance or baseline (“normal”). Selective exposure is where as Arasaratnam (2011) writes that we try to gather the data that will support our perspectives, for example subscribing to only the liberal or only the conservative media, with out seeking a balanced news medium.  These types of behaviors reinforce and can protect us while further immerging ourselves our own biases. Any one approach to problem solving is a type of selective exposure.

Selective attention is when we are presented with information that counters our norms, or our biases, we tend to only give attention to things that confirm our beleifs, and we “tune out any information that might cause dissonance.” (Arasarantham, 2011) For example not accepting alternative solutions to solving the problem while ignoring other perspectives on the problem itself.

Selective interpretation

Interpreting ambiguous information in a way that serves our biases is called selective interpretation. For example if there is a fact or condition in the problem that needs to be solved, that could alter the approach to problem solving.

All in all, we as westerners need to not sweat the small problems so much, as we tend to exaggerate our problems and we need to see the wisdom in not addressing every problem immediately and head on, directly.

I wish there was some middle way that was taught by some wise man thousands of years ago that could show us the way.

Thanks for a great class y’all!

third book talk

enjoy!!

http://quietube6.com/v.php/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mS4VNWv6b6A&feature=youtu.be

top 10 (all #1) concepts for cultural exchange

Drew Durham’s top ten intercultural concepts for cultural integration and immersion.

  

1. Awareness and open mindedness!

Open your mind! educate yourself on the cultures of people you interact with.

1. Open your heart!

 Avoid using or believing in stereotypes of all kinds, and welcome all opportunities to interact with any culture.

1. Openness!

Be open to new experiences and communications with people who are unfamiliar with and maybe even talk to people you might be hesitant or uncomfortable to interact with.

1. Listen and be sensitive!

Ask active questions when listening, be aware of non-verbal communication cues, cultural communication norms and physical gestures.

1. Carefully Respond!

   React to communication styles effectively, talk and listen in rations that respect the commination styles of the culture you are interacting with! Like proximity! Understand context of the communication and the context of what is being discussed.

1. Celebrate commonalities!

Find commonalities with all people you meet, there is common ground between any two people, our common humanity and inter dependence if nothing else.

1. Culture shock!

Cultures can make an instant impact on you. Small Culture shock or at least some shockwaves are possible even after just a few interactions with a different culture. I have been moved greatly by talking to migrant farm workers after just two hours my perspective shifted.

1. Exchange

Do what is needed to ensure balance and respect between people in each intercultural communication!

1. Progress not perfection

Adapt new knowledge and implement new strategies to increase effectiveness of communication and getting your messages across the cultural divide.

10. Together we can build cultural bridges!

Work together with different organizations in your chose field to increase effectiveness and diversity of communication in intercultural communications!

increasing the cultural dynamic in SLIS programs

I profoundly agree with what Brian said about internships. There is no better teacher than the learner teaching after his or her experiences. Especially in terms of travel and intercultural learning. I would say that perhaps the best two organizations to work with in terms of internships for international literacy that I have come across are Book Bus and Room to Read, there are plenty more that focus just on the United States literacy problem like Reading Partners and many others.    

LIS programs need to structure themselves to be more proactive about intercultural issues. How about requiring books on other cultures to be read in the materials classes or cultural sensitivity issues to be brought up in the required classes. How about not requiring leadership as a required course, since some cultures have different values for leaders than we do in the United States.  How about requiring this class instead of one of the others or in addition to the other required courses?

But most of all we need to allow and promote internships with Literacy organizations around the world!!! Or else we might keep our LIS bubbles intact for years to come!  

lack of Diversity in YA LIT

This article discusses a little about the studies of the unjust and nearly complete lack of adequate diversity in youth and children’s literature. Given the demographics of the United States in which according to the article that describes how today more than 1/5 children in in the United States are immigrants or children of immigrants. A recent study showed that 8.8 percent of the 3,400 plus books that the Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin were multicultural (contained non-white protagonists).  The article goes on to describe ways in which to resolve this and reasons for the importance of further research as well as how Counter-storytelling (counter stereotype/ anti-single storytelling) works. This article will help me with my research for my final paper!!

Reference: 

Hughes-Hassell, S. (2013). Multicultural Young Adult Literature as a Form of Counter-Storytelling. The Library Quarterly: Information, Community, Policy 83(3), 212-228.

bringing it all back home!

I used this CNN article about reverse culture shock to remind me of the reverse culture shocks I have felt in my life of which I am still living with the aftershocks. 
on my travels I remember it was not so much the shock of going to the developing world that was a shock, (with years of prep I think intercultural travel and paradigm shifts are somewhat easier) it was returning to our affluenza, the degree of materialism in the United States, and the (by comparison to most central and south American cultures) rude and brash individualism.
This CNN article explains the difficulties of returning home after living aboard for long periods of time. Not just in terms of what the cross culture traveler has missed with current events, but also integrating to the pervading changes and differences all around. When the travel to the other culture has been long enough the travel, and living in the other cultures area will usually change the traveler which again increases the challenge of adapting to living life as it is lived in the home culture.
The idea of the language barrier can be a tricky one also going both ways. The article I chose also describes some tools and techniques to integrate with the home country and deal with reverse culture shock after long trips abroad. The conclusion bares repeating, long term travel changes you. Cultures change each other, and people adapt sometimes it just takes longer for healthy changes to process themselves out for each cultural traveler.

According to Chen and Starosta, the W pattern curve is too U shaped curves together usually represents the process of reentry or reverse culture shock, as Chen and Starcosta explain that: this double u pattern is the “pattern (that shows) sojourners readjustment to their own culture. The W- curve pattern suggests that when we return home, we must proceed through the four stages of the U Curve pattern once again. (honeymoon, crisis, adjustment, biculturalism)  ” Although we may experience less trauma and adopt faster when we readjust to our own culture, culture shock is again inevitable.” (p. 174) Chen and Starcosta go on to explain Kohls steps oh how to help “sojourners” reenter or reintegrate with their home cultures.
Arasaratnan in his text: Perceptions and communication in Intercultural spaces (2011) writes that the sojourner returning from a host country “discovers that time has elapsed in his (or her) absence his (or her) friends have had new shared experiences that did not include him (or her), and possibly they are neither interested in nor capable of understanding the new insights he (or she) has had from being exposed to a different cultural environment.”  (p. 69)
It is important that we don’t forget to prepare ourselves for what awaits us when we travel no matter where from or to in our diverse and uniquely cultural world! Even if what we are doing is just coming home.

References:

Arasaratnam, L. (2011). Perceptions and communication in intercultural spaces. Lantham, Maryland: University Press of America.


Anjarwalla, T. (2010, August 26). Dealing with reverse culture shock. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/08/24/cultural.reentry/index.html

Chen, G., & Starosta, W. (2005). Foundations of intercultural communication. Lantham, Maryland: University Press of America.