Student agency is a powerful learning tool. Learners who have a sense of agency have increased levels of motivation, engagement and voice (Paganelli, 2017). To put it simply, learners with agency care more. And when it comes to learning, caring about something is the ultimate hook. In his Knowledge Quest article, Philip Williams poses the question,
How much are we listening to student voice, being responsive to student voice, and most importantly, enabling student voice that leads to action? (Williams, 2017, p. 11)
So, how can libraries help empower students and their learning? Library collections can provide fertile ground for students to participate in decision-making, identity building and develop agency. Below are five ways to develop student agency through your library collections.
Screenshot of User Needs Survey
Find out what students want.
Identify students' wants and needs by building relationships. Create a user needs survey and ask students what they like, don't like and what they wish for in the library collections. Review the survey results, respond and act on suggestions (where appropriate and practical), and make sure to communicate the actions taken. Repeat this process. When students see that their opinions are taken seriously, they care more.
"Students" by StockSnap (2015). Licensed under Pixabay License. Retrieved from https://pixabay.com/photos/people-girls-women-students-2557396/
Let students have some control.
Reach out to interested students to form a student advisory committee. The committee could focus on one area of the collection or multiple areas. Ask the committee to survey their peers, analyse the collection and identify gaps, curate book lists for acquisitions and help with promotion of new book arrivals with the general student body.
Be a student book shopper.
Create a book suggestions box and promote it every chance you get. Visit classes to tell them or email students directly. Encourage students to make book suggestions and then try to purchase as many as you can. When the books arrive, make sure to let the students know! They can't borrow a title if they don't know it is available.
Cater to students as broadly as possible.
Chances are that your students will most probably have different reading preferences to you. I realise this sounds obvious, but find out what your readers actually enjoy reading! Find out what they are curious about. What aspects of youth popular culture could you incorporate? Have a wide variety of formats, genres and complexities on your shelves. Include graphic novels, picture books, ebooks and audiobooks. Conduct a diversity audit to ensure diverse voices are represented.
Invite students to participate.
Students will not develop agency without participation. Ask them to review books and make recommendations for their peers. If your library catalogue has a review function, teach students to write reviews. Use competitions or challenges to motivate students to provide input. Book displays, book talks, vlogs, blogging and social media content are all ways that students can actively participate in building a reading culture and provide valuable feedback about the collection.
What practices have been adopted in your library to develop student agency? Have you used any of the above and did you find them effective? Do you have additional suggestions not mentioned above?
-BJK
References
Paganelli, A. (2017) Power to the pupil: School libraries and student agency. Knowledge Quest, 45(4). Retrieved from https://knowledgequest.aasl.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/KNOW_45_4_Guest-Ed_6-7.pdf Williams, P. (2017). Student agency for powerful learning. Knowledge Quest, 45(4), 8-15. Retrieved from https://www.proquest.com
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