Promoting Civic Engagement through Cultivating Culturally Competent Self-Reflexive Information Professionals

ABSTRACT

Although cultural diversity has been a growing discussion topic at conferences in recent years, the library and information science (LIS) profession remains in the gatekeepers of predominately white and female identities. Consequently, due to perpetual homogeneity and systemic institutional norms, some information professionals lack a deeper understanding of effective intercultural approaches and strategies to serve patrons who come from different cultural, socioeconomic, and religious backgrounds. This study demonstrates how information professionals can promote civic engagement by engaging in introspective reflections of their own identities and privileges. The qualitative content analysis of fourteen personal identity narrative papers from a recent ‘Cultural Competence” course reveals how students’ understanding on identity, privilege, oppression, and intersectionality evolved by self-exploring their own cultural identity narratives. This study addresses an approach to LIS education that calls for intentional efforts in developing experiential pedagogical approaches for facilitating critical self-reflection through coursework. Finally, it emphasises that self-reflexive information professionals equipped with cultural humility will go a long way in promoting civic engagement and building a more respectful, collaborative, cohesive, and culturally sensitive community.

KEYWORDS:

• Civic engagement
• cultural competence
• cultural identity
• experiential pedagogy
• diversity
• self-reflection
• intercultural communication

Introduction

Libraries today have reached yet another pivot point as they struggle to maintain the balance between their traditional role as keepers of knowledge and the contemporary needs of patrons to prepare for success in a rapidly changing world. To this end, many libraries have developed programs highlighting civic engagement, marshalling communities to utilise this underappreciated (and underfunded) resource. It can prove difficult, however, for libraries that serve diverse populations to achieve buy in from these communities. The confluence of various races, religions, and cultures can threaten to overwhelm librarians with little experience working with these communities, issues exacerbated by failures in LIS education to supply students with adequate experience or education around diversity topics (Jaeger, Sarin, & Peterson, 2015). According to Burke (2008), three distinct areas of library operations can act as barriers to access exist: collections and programmes, staff and atmosphere, and community outreach.

Professional library associations and library and information science (LIS) degree programmes have railed against these barriers by urging librarians to adopt some measure of cultural competency; that is, the understanding of how different groups frame their knowledge building processes to facilitate improved service. Interwoven with diversity, cultural competency is typically framed not as a vague idea but as the skills needed to effectively communicate cross-culturally. The move towards a truly diverse library workplace has been glacially slow and ineffective (Jaeger, Subramaniam, Jones, & Bertot, 2011), but cultural competency stresses self-reflection as a tool to better equip librarians to assist patrons of different backgrounds. This makes it more readily adoptable for both students and professionals, thereby allowing librarians to make more effective change in immediate ways. These changes are necessary to ensure that libraries are places of inclusiveness, and truly uphold the first idea that libraries serve humanity (Crawford & Gorman, 1995).

Against this backdrop, the present study attempts to demonstrate how information professionals can promote civic engagement by engaging in introspective reflections of their own cultural identities. The overall goal was to understand if asking students to engage in self-exploration of their own cultural identity helped them to become more sensitive towards people of other cultures. In particular, this study attempted to understand how future information professionals discover and interpret the meanings of race/ethnicity, privilege, and intersectionality while navigating their own cultural identities. To accomplish this goal, this paper reviews relevant literature related to diversity and cultural competence in the library and information science (LIS) profession. The subsequent sections discuss the methods and materials, the findings, and the implications of self-reflective teaching exercises in building cultural competence in information professionals. This study addresses an approach to LIS education that calls for intentional efforts in developing experiential pedagogical approaches for facilitating critical self-reflection through coursework.

Review of Relevant Literature

Civic Engagement in Libraries

Libraries, by virtue of their mission and placement, play an outsized role in America’s civic life through civic engagement. While not an easily definable concept, in essence civic engagement is the idea that in order to make a better society people must develop a certain set of knowledge, skills, and values and take action to make change (Ehrlich, 2000). It can take a number of forms, but importantly civic engagement combines ‘academic inquiry with community service activities’ (Cress, 2012, p. 1).

This means that libraries provide various outlets for civic engagement. They act not only as stores of vital information for citizens to engage in academic inquiry for themselves, they are naturally structured to provide a place for the community to meet and discuss and work through issues. This ‘deliberative democracy’ allows for a non-judgemental forum where community members can meaningfully engage with one another without the performative nature that often accompanies more public debate (Kranich, Reid, & Willingham, 2004, p. 381). Giving patrons a location and opportunity for discussion is only one way in which libraries help facilitate civic engagement. In academic libraries, students can take internships or work on community-based projects while faculty can develop research partnerships with community organisations (Kranich et al., 2004).

Civic engagement also gives libraries a chance to provide programming outside of their traditional scope. Cocciolo (2013) analysed a program where the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) gave public libraries across the country access to a number of documentary films and associated discussion points. He found that after viewing the films respondents felt more inclined to take civic action in the future, both large and small scale. The study also illuminated the importance of cultivating knowledge on these public topics, since ‘developing a knowledge base around the issues raised … is a necessary first step before taking more intensive actions’ (Cocciolo, 2013, p. 13). Civic engagement is so important because it helps reorient patrons from an individual to a communal focus. Cress (2012), looking at students in particular, distills this idea into ‘a simple but elegant educational formula: academic learning + civic engagement = student and community success’ (p.2).

Libraries have long been at the forefront of promoting civic engagement by holding space to facilitate conversations on a variety of topics, including but not limited to civility, racism, mindfulness, health matters, misinformation and fake news, etc. These programmes help bring people together regardless of their race, ethnicity, religion, education, socio-cultural background, etc., and promote conversations to enrich the civic fabric of our society. As diversity may be a predictor of libraries’ efforts to promote civic engagement, a broader understanding of diversity and its implications for the information profession becomes critical in the light of increasingly diverse workplaces.

Diversity in the LIS Curricula

Diversity, or recognising the uniqueness of each individual and the differences between them, is a blanket term used to refer to people who are different along the dimensions of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, physical abilitiy, religious and political beliefs, and other factors. The benefits of diversity may seem self-evident but bare repeating. The ALISE Diversity Statement (2013) cites the majority opinion from Grutter v. Bollinger, where Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote that research shows ‘student body diversity promotes learning outcomes … better prepares students for an increasingly diverse workforce and society, and better prepares them as professionals’ (Association for Library and Information Science Education [ALISE], 2013). Society benefits when people from differing backgrounds meet and engage with one another.

The topic of diversity has been popular in academic discourse in the LIS profession for the last several years. LIS scholarship has stressed the need for diversifying course offerings and equipping future graduates with cultural competency skills so that they may serve diverse populations more effectively (Adkins & Espinal, 2004; Andrade & Rivera, 2011; Cooke & Jacobs, 2018; Honma, 2005; Josey & Abdullahi, 2002; Kim & Sin, 2008; Lee, Chancellor, Chu, Rodriguez-Mori, & Roy, 2015; Pawley, 2006; Subramaniam & Jaeger, 2010). Furthermore, calls have echoed through the profession to open up not only the materials but the services and profession itself to be more inclusive. However, diversity initiatives meant to directly promote traditionally underrepresented groups are floundering. Due to the limited diversity of the LIS field as a whole, awareness and training on the subject has in fact decreased since the 1990s (Mestre, 2010). Furthermore, the meaning of diversity has mutated from an institutional goal and become a mere buzzword. Moreover, conversations and initiatives surrounding diversity are done primarily on a performative basis. Rather than treat diversity events like boxes to be checked off, genuine efforts to increase diversity in staff, programming, and service offerings would go a long way in breaking down institutional barriers and perpetual homogeneity in information organisations.

The LIS field has been aware of its diversity issues for a long time. Bodies like the ALA have made clear their intentions to support diversity; diversity is one of the ALA’s key action areas, topics that they focus on and help guide them through organisational planning (American Library Association [ALA], 2019).

Additionally, many LIS programmes have begun to offer courses in ‘Information services for diverse, underserved, and multicultural populations’ in recent years. However, students are often not required to take courses addressing diversity topics, which are limited to electives (Subramaniam & Jaeger, 2010). Moreover, this curricular change does not seem to reflect any increased diversity in library personnel and staff. The demographic of library workers, who are primarily white, female, and middle-class information professionals, (Mehra, Olson Hope, & Ahmed, 2011) increasingly fails to reflect the populations of the communities they are trying to serve (Cooke, 2017; Hill & Kumasi, 2011).

In general, while LIS education programmes strive to increase the number of librarians from underrepresented groups, LIS organisations remain unwilling to alter their workforces to be more inclusive.

Building Cultural Competence

Cultural competence is the ability to interact effectively in cross-cultural situations by recognising the importance of race, ethnicity, and culture with multicultural patrons (Kumasi & Hill, 2013). It enables professionals and organisations to work effectively in diverse and multicultural workplace settings (Blackburn, 2015). Overall (2009) provided a conceptual framework for information professionals and emphasised the importance of three factors: self-awareness, education, and interaction. The first requires LIS students and professionals to take stock of their own identities, as ‘knowledge of the culture of self is at the heart of understanding others and the surrounding world’ (p. 192). This self-reflection allows individuals and organisations to look at their beliefs, biases, attitudes, and assumptions; have a greater appreciation for different cultures; and provide culturally responsive information services. Moreover, developing cultural competence is a life-long learning journey that can require the adoption of a combination of cultural awareness, cultural knowledge, and cultural skills (Dolan & Kawamura, 2015; Overall, 2009). Finally, the skills needed by those practising cultural competency are interpersonal ones; effective cross-cultural interaction is key. These skill sets are critical in breaking down cultural differences by obtaining knowledge and appreciation of diverse communities, as well as in enhancing libraries’ outreach to more library users (Overall, 2009).

Understanding Cultural Identity

Cultural identity describes an individual’s affiliation with a particular social group. Cultural identity is a specific collective identity that helps bind people together through certain shared attributes and characteristics, including race, ethnicity, language, cultural similarities and differences, gender norms, religious and political beliefs, socio-economic status, and education, among others (Kosmitzki, 1996; Sussman, 2000; Tajfel, 1981). As a result, the cultural identity of individuals continues to evolve throughout life due to the interaction of a number of individual and socio-cultural attributes, values, and norms. While these cultural values and norms help develop social affiliation between individuals within certain groups, they can also trigger self-reflection on cultural identity in cross-cultural situations. Therefore, cultural identity can be considered an important predictor for success for information professionals in service encounters with multicultural patrons. As the evolution of an individual’s cultural identity is a complex phenomenon that involves a number of underlying factors, this paper will focus solely on three critical aspects, namely race and ethnicity, privilege, and intersectionality, all of which are relevant for the purpose of this study.

The first and foremost aspect of an individual’s cultural identity is related to race and ethnicity. While people often use race and ethnicity interchangeably, it is important to understand the fine distinction between these terms. The U.S. Census Bureau (n.d.) defines race as ‘a person’s self-identification with one or more social groups’. Different personal identifiers related to skin colour are used to understand race in society (e.g., White, Black or African American, Asian, etc.). As the discussion on race often brings up the topic of ethnicity, it is equally important to understand that the term ‘ethnicity’ refers to ‘the way in which one identifies learned aspects of themselves – i.e., nationality, language, and culture’ (Jean-Philippe, 2019). Examples of ethnicity include Jewish, Asian, or African, irrespective of race. As the concepts of race and ethnicity are deeply intertwined, this paper considers these terms as two sides of the same coin and occasionally uses them interchangeably. In general, LIS scholarship reflects a tendency to avoid uncomfortable and difficult conversations about race/ethnicity (VanScoy & Bright, 2019; p. 295). Additionally, the topic of diversity has been stripped down to mean differences in race (Jaeger et al., 2011).

The next critical imperative is to analyse privilege that enhances or minimises benefits and opportunities for certain groups, thereby making them advantaged or disadvantaged. Diversity and inequality are closely associated with issues of privilege, power and dominance. Privilege helps certain groups derive more benefits, power, prestige, and opportunities than others due to their unearned characteristics, including but not limited to race, gender, socio-economic status, education, etc. (Choules, 2006; McIntosh, 1989). Lipsitz (2009) points out that the United States grants structural advantages to white people simply by virtue of their skin colour. Furthermore, continuous attention paid by the media and scholars to the informationally disadvantaged, underserved or marginalised populations helps privileged groups remain invisible. As a result, institutional homogeneity and structural inequalities continue to perpetuate, and efforts to increase inclusivity in the LIS profession often fall flat.

Similarly, issues of intersectionality must be understood in order for an individual to develop a deeper understanding of their cultural identity. Crenshaw (1991) popularised the term ‘intersectionality’ with the image of many intersecting city streets; each street represents a separate identity, such as gender, race or class. The overlapping of streets at the intersection is a metaphor used to describe how a combination of gender, race, class and other categories of an individual’s identity combine to create a unique position of advantage or disadvantage. This notion suggests that that forms of discrimination are interrelated variables and cannot be addressed individually. The call of Jaeger et al. (2011) call for the broadening of diversity urges the inclusion of all those who are informationally disadvantaged and experience library access issues due to age, language, or sexual orientation along with race, gender, and socio-economic status. Thus, a deeper understanding of intersectionality and its implications would be helpful for increasing inclusivity in information organisations.

Teaching Cultural Competence in LIS Classrooms

The recent academic discourse emphasises the benefits of incorporating cultural competence into LIS curriculum (Andrade & Rivera, 2011; Cooke, 2017; Jaeger & Franklin, 2007; Jaeger et al., 2011; Mehra et al., 2011; Mestre, 2010; Montague, 2013; Rivera, 2013). Many of the field’s governing bodies indicate the necessity of being able to work with diverse populations, pointing to the growing global information environments and multicultural nature of the information profession (Jaeger et al., 2011, p. 168). Notably, these competencies ‘are not intuitive and must be learned’ (Association of College & Research Libraries [ACRL], 2012), placing the onus on professional organisations and established institutions.

Self-reflection is key for building cultural competence (Cooke & Jacobs, 2018; Overall, 2009). Social work educators have developed a number of teaching models to cultivate cultural awareness in students through self-reflection exercises. These exercises range in their emphasis as well. Sakina Mama’s (2001) model emphasises diversity as the norm, recognition and acceptance of ones’ own culture, and knowledge of other cultures. The Newcastle Model emphasises the importance of experiential learning in teaching cultural competence (Gibbons & Gray, 2002; Negi, Bender, Furman, Fowler, & Pricektt, 2010). The Self and Other Awareness Project (SOAP) focuses on teaching exercises that facilitate self-exploration in students (Colvin-Burque, Zugazaga, & Davis-Maye, 2007). Pedagogical approaches to self-awareness also include ‘diversity audits’, family histories, journaling, and reflections, among others (Cooke & Jacobs, 2018; Desai, Dodor, & Carroll, 2020; Negi et al., 2010; Sakina Mama, 2001; Tervalon & Murray-García, 1998). However, a cursory review of present scholarship demonstrates the need for incorporating experiential pedagogical approaches into cultural competence education in LIS classrooms. This paper fills the void by demonstrating an experiential pedagogical approach to facilitate self-awareness and build cultural competence in future information professionals.

Methods and Materials

The Present Study

The overall goal of the present study was to understand if asking students to engage in self-exploration of their own cultural identity, privileges, biases and blind spots helped them make more sensitive towards people of other cultures. The findings of the present study are based upon qualitative content analysis of students’ reflections in ‘Identity Narrative’ assignments they completed as a part of their 3-credit online summer course entitled Cultural Competence for Information Professionals. It is therefore important to understand the context, background and structure of the study before discussing the findings in depth.

The Study Sample

The research participants were 14 students from an online 3-credit summer course called Cultural Competence for Information Professionals. With the exception of one male student, the course participants were female and belonged to different ethnicities, including Caucasian, African American, Hispanic and American Asian. Furthermore, the students were primarily adult learners who were geographically located throughout the U.S. A substantial number of students also held also part-time or full-time positions in various LIS organisations while they were pursuing their MS LIS (Master of Science in Library and Information Science).

Background of the ‘Cultural Competence for Information Professionals’ Course

The overall goal of the course was to prepare students to work effectively at the individual and organisational level by learning and applying the cultural competence knowledge, skills and practices required in a culturally diverse environment. The learning activities were designed to develop cultural competency in decision-making, problem solving and creating inclusive programmes and services in information organisations. The course readings covered a wide range of topics including an understanding of cultural competence, framework, race, implicit bias, privilege, intersectionality, microaggressions, cultural intelligence, multicultural communication, etc. All the course topics and related learning activities have already been completed before students embarked on writing their capstone Identity Narrative assignment at the end of the course.

Background and Structure of the Assignment

The Identity Narrative assignment was grounded in a social justice framework provided by Sensoy and DiAngelo (2012) who state,

‘Society is stratified (i.e., divided and unequal) in significant and far-reaching ways along social group lines that include race, class, gender, sexuality, and ability. Critical social justice recognizes inequality as deeply embedded in the fabric of society (i.e., as structural) and actively seeks to change this.’ (Sensoy & DiAngelo, 2012, p. xvii)

In keeping with this social justice perspective, the primary objective of the Identity Narrative assignment was to raise critical awareness about identity, privilege, oppression and intersectionality through the critical social justice framework mentioned above.

By the time students were tasked to complete the Identity Narrative assignments, they had a deeper understanding of how their identities privilege or impede their experiences in life and libraries. Similarly, their understanding of the topic of ‘intersectionality’ was fresh due to their proactive engagement and thought-provoking class discussions. In keeping with this background, students were required to reflect on five of the ten types of identities: race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, religion, ability, language, nationality, sexual orientation and class. The instructor provided a set of discussion prompts to help students navigate their personal identity narratives. Furthermore, the students were asked to articulate their learning reflections from this assignment and whether this self-identity exploration exercise helped them gain better insights into their cultural identity. Finally, the students were asked how this cultural awareness made them more sensitive towards people of other cultures (if applicable).

In summary, this learning activity challenged students to engage in self-exploration of identity, privilege and oppression and intersectionalities among them through a social justice lens discussed earlier. This required them to navigate through their own cultural identities by engaging in a deeper introspection of their privileges, biases, blind spots and potential pitfalls through a set of discussion prompts.

The Study Question

As a deeper understanding and self-awareness of their own cultural identities is considered a first step towards developing cultural competence (Overall, 2009), the study question was: Did asking students to navigate through their own cultural identity help them become more culturally sensitive towards people of other cultures?

Findings

The qualitative content analysis of fourteen personal identity narrative papers from a summer 2019 Cultural Competence for Information Professionals online course reveals how students’ understanding of identity, privilege, oppression and intersectionality evolved by exploring their own cultural identity narratives. The discussions on findings are arranged in the following three subthemes: increased understanding of privilege and race, increased awareness about intersectionality and increased sensitivity towards other cultures.

Increased Understanding of Privilege & Race

The findings indicate that 9 out of 14 students acknowledge that they did not engage in analysing derived from their race, ethnicity, schooling and family background prior to working on this assignment. In contrast, 5 of 14 acknowledged that they were aware of the pros and cons of their race, ethnicity and background and implications of those qualities for their professional careers. It was interesting to note that all the participants acknowledged inherent structural inequities and barriers in the LIS profession. Moreover, their reflections indicated a willingness and desire to be a part of the change by overcoming structural inequities in libraries for all patrons whether they are women, people of colour, refugees, transgender people or those disenfranchised in any way.

A couple of representative comments are given below:

‘Perhaps the biggest evidence of white privilege is not having to acknowledge it at all. I spent much of my life not realizing that many of my identity choices came, and still come from, a place of massive privilege. This may not seem inherently malicious (after all, I could not be purposely hurting anyone simply by being born a white, middle class, cis female/woman). However, by not acknowledging a privilege I now know is there, I would essentially be marginalizing the disadvantages experienced by those without the same privileges. When reflecting on my own identities, I am still shocked by how long I went before I associated many of my own identities with privilege.’

‘Acknowledging privilege is the active process of cultural competence that unpacks the assumptions and preconceived notions about the intersections of human behavior.’

Overall, students’ Identity Narrative papers highlight their appreciation for the opportunity to learn about the privileges they possessed or lacked by navigating through their cultural identities while looking at their lives through a social justice lens.

Increased Awareness about Intersectionality

Students found learning about intersectionality and its implications to be one of the most profound and enlightening experiences of the Cultural Competence course. Their proactive engagement was clearly visible in the thoughtful and passionate discussions they had on the topic of intersectionality at the beginning of this course. As a result, the students were prepared to navigate through their cultural identities while looking through the lenses of race, gender, religion, ethnicity, language, etc., and discover intersectionalities among them. Their reflections reveal how their various cultural identities are intertwined and contributed to forming complex and unique identities that can only be seen by considering intersectionality. Some sample comments are given below:

‘Going away to college, living in an immensely diverse city like New York City for over ten years, and now this academic course have contributed to my understanding of what Kimberlé Crenshaw means when she talks about having multiple identities and how non privileged identities lead to marginality. My privilege and marginality make me unique, but most importantly, having an understanding of my complex identity will help me connect with others.’

‘Examining my own identity and intersectionality has made me more sensitive to the unique needs of others. At this point in my life, I realize that my identity cannot be contained by my race, class, gender, religion, or any other label. My identity as a human being demands that I fit in by reaching out to people who feel left out. If I am ever in charge of hiring employees as a librarian, I hope to make decisions based on qualifications and not race, class, or any other aspect of identity.’

Increased Sensitivity Towards Other Cultures

The findings indicate that providing opportunities for self-reflection and introspection in a safe and non-threatening forum provided several benefits to participants. First, the exercise helped students understand the relevance of cultural competence and its implications for the LIS profession. Second, the writing assignment challenged the blissful ignorance of privileges for a substantial number of students. Finally, and most importantly, students’ overall comments indicate how such introspection fostered a sense of cultural humility. Some students’ comments revealing these sentiments are given below:

‘At this moment, I equate cultural competence with elevation and appreciation. It is about first appreciating a culture to understand it, and then elevating it so that it is valued and recognized for what it contributes to our humanity. Human connections matter more than anything and so accepting the struggle required of building cultural competence is key. Without this struggle, we will not be able to relish in the love that grows through the cultural understanding we develop about others and ourselves. I am confident that believing this will help me be a better librarian, and most importantly, a better human.’

‘While this paper may seem like me ranting about growing up in a blissfully ignorant blanket of privilege, I think it is an important display self-identified lack of oppression that I wish I had the ability to see earlier. Much of what we have learned in this Cultural Competency course is that in order to make a positive cultural change, we must first reflect on our own attitudes and beliefs when it comes to intercultural interactions. Moving forward, I specifically want to use my LIS education to better understand how I can be an ally and catalyst for positive change within the structurally racist system in America.’

‘I’ve come to understand the cultural capital in protecting information and narratives therefore seek to practice a librarianship in critical perspectives rather than neutrality which centers on serving and uplifting the voices in the margin.’

Discussion and Implications

The overall goal of the present study was to understand if asking students to navigate through their own cultural identity helped them become more culturally sensitive towards people of other cultures. Preliminary findings indicate that students who examine their own cultural identity will likely act with more cultural sensitivity towards people of other cultures.

The benefits of the Identity Narrative assignment were unknown at the time when this learning activity was designed. As considering our cultural identities can be a discomforting experience for some people due to the delicate and sensitive nature of the discussion topics, it was challenging to speculate about students’ reactions to this learning activity. As a result, the instructor had many reservations about the potential benefits of this learning activity. However, students rose to the occasion and engaged in deeper introspection of their cultural identity by reflecting on their upbringing, privileges, biases, gender, religion, race, ethnicity, language and finding intersectionalities among them. It is interesting to note that most of the students were unaware of the privileges they had due to their race, ethnicity, upbringing and family background. As a majority of students were women, their discussions on intersectionality revealed how being female put them in a disadvantageous position relative to their male counterparts. As a result, their self-introspection led them to be more empathetic and sensitive towards people of other cultures. Furthermore, their discussions revealed the need to redress power imbalances in libraries and develop mutually beneficial partnerships with communities on behalf of individuals and defined populations. Additionally, their reflections also highlighted their intentions, plans and approaches to work with diverse communities and people with different cultural backgrounds.

Some of the most striking findings of this study was students’ vivid, personal and revealing reflections while they examined their own cultural identities. Their humble emotions, feelings and reflections about a wide range of sensitive topics could be summed up as cultural humility. While the discussions on diversity continue and cultural competence increasingly becomes a hot topic for academic discourse, it is high time for the LIS profession to embrace the idea of fostering cultural humility in information professionals. We need to understand the distinction between cultural competence and cultural humility. While cultural competency involves learning information and tactics to apply when interacting with multicultural communities, cultural humility pushes practitioners to look inward ‘towards the continuous critical refinement and fostering of a way of thinking and knowing … of self, others, and the world’ (Kumagai & Lypson, 2009, p. 783). Lund and Lee (2015) discovered that self-reflective exercises like the Identity Narrative could enable teachers to form deeper bonds with their students through increased understanding of diverse life experiences.

As a small sample size does not lend credibility in generalising the findings of this study, the overall goal is to create awareness about the benefits of using self-reflexive learning activities in teaching cultural competence courses. Findings clearly indicate the benefits from the social justice-based approach in improving critical self-awareness, appreciating the advantages of self-reflection and self-critique in developing inclusivity and an increased sense of cultural humility in future information professionals. This study demonstrates how a learning experience involving personal identity narratives can be utilised in fostering cultural humility (Chang, Simon, & Dong, 2012; Hodge, 2019; Tervalon & Murray-García, 1998) in future information professionals in LIS programmes. Furthermore, the results of this study challenge and encourage information professionals and information organisations to engage in deeper self-examination of their own cultural identities to be able to serve their communities effectively. Finally, the study emphasises that self-reflexive information professionals equipped with cultural humility will go a long way in promoting civic engagement and in constructing a respectful, collaborative, cohesive and culturally sensitive community.

Conclusion

Diversity initiatives in the LIS field are nothing new; the keynote address at the ALA’s 92^nd annual conference in 1974 covered much of the same ground still being debated today (Jaeger et al., 2011, p. 166). But rather than continue to pay only lip service to ideas of diversity, both students and professionals are learning to adapt measures of cultural competency and cultural humility as a way of navigating librarianship in diverse communities. These efforts require the LIS community to engage in self-reflection to recognise their own cultural identity, interacting with others to achieve a dialogue, promote civic engagement, and continue practicing these tactics in perpetuity. Doing so allows librarians to move past the implicit privileges they possess or biases they subconsciously hold to better serve diverse communities.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rajesh Singh

Rajesh Singh is an Associate Professor in the Division of Library and Information Science (DLIS) at St. John’s University in New York. His current research interests revolve around cultural intelligence, knowledge management, and information behaviour. His research projects have been in the areas of information marketing, branding, and knowledge sharing in organizations. He teaches courses in cultural competence, knowledge management, project management, marketing and advocacy, leadership, and research methods.