Influential Presence

My friend and subscriber, Matt, left a comment in a recent post and included a url for all of us LtRRtL readers (see below). The link takes you to a project using the school library’s book-buying budget as a pedagogical tool.

What happens when you give 50 middle-intermediate grade volunteer students the power to spend $5,000 on books they want in the library? Check out the site for the story and the research.

At the conclusion of the research, the authors spell out questions for the future. One puzzle involves an off-the-cuff comment from a student who said he appreciated getting to go on field trips to the library—it was great to get out of class. This child’s teacher was a caring person doing it right: Classroom library, choice of books, time to read. The researchers wonder how they might “…break down the mental barriers between what students learn during the project and in the classroom.”

The richness of the discussions among these children as they considered not just the books they personally might like, but books that might make a difference in their lives in the community strikes me as less of a mental barrier and more of an incentive. Getting out of class could mean stepping into an influential presence. We know that writers benefit from a sense of audience, but I’m not so sure the idea of readers having a sense of audience is salient. These kids were analyzing an audience which they had the resources and authority to impact.

Irby (2021) discusses the concept of “influential presence” in the context of equity work. Presence in a school community isn’t the same as having influence on the community. Opening up the reality of seeing books in the school library purchased by those reading them, experiencing them, talking about them seems to me not a cognitive but a cultural change. I’m wondering what might happen if an LEA organized and resourced a publishing center that could get student-authored books and periodicals in the classroom and school library. I’d go hard copy.

The other question was about sustainability. Securing reliable funding is challenging, finding a way to institutionalize a project is tough without internal budgetary decision-making power, and depending on the kindness of strangers is a nice thought. Yes, action research is critical to support the story projects like this need to tell the world. Turn the kids into reporters. Ask them to write about their experiences with books and budgets and making purchasing decisions. You have an army of ethnographers who can get insider information and learn research and writing strategies in community service.

Thanks, Matt.

https://www.bringmeabook.org/the-school-library-book-budget-project-empowering-readers-through-responsibility-support-and-trust/