Friday, January 08, 2016

ALISE16 : Diversity and Motivation

Keren Dali and Nadia Caidi

Different kind of diversity: rumination so nice the (un)attractiveness of th LIS programs to culturally diverse students

Why do people who are culturally diverse come to LIS programs? They ha e four research questions.
They are not looking at the statistics but at the perception of the students themselves.
They looked at North America,including aboriginal people and immigrants.
They sent their survey to the 57 LIS programs (Sept. 2014) and received 118 usable responses.

Unexpected finding - "The most striking experience for us was the intensity and the volume of the emotional response generated by the factual, neutrally worded and deliberately balanced questions of the survey,  when it came to addressing diveristym participants' descriptions and perceptions were alarmingly and overwhelmingly negative."

What does diversity mean to you?  People felt outnumbered and a sense of isolation.  Questions of whether LIS is a diversity friendly profession.  There is a lack of more global content and approaches in the material.

What is the role of th diversity or lack thereof in students liking or disliking of the LIS program? Diversity was not mentioned as part of the liking.  It was mentioned though when people were asked what they did not liked.  But it was not a major factor in how people think about their programs.

What are some support mechanisms available to culturally and linguistically diverse students?  55% answer none,not sure, unaware or don't need any.  Noted a subjective meaning of "diversity."

Students talked about value-based diversity which includes life experiences and world views.
Connecting with others on a personal level and being able to dialogue made things better.

Where do we go from here?
Philosophical shift - values-based diversity; not only inclusiveness but also competitiveness and survival of the field.
Practical argument - outreach and promotion, recruitment and retention, open and multi-sided dialogue.

Getting personal in systemic changes.

Rajesh Singh
What motivates future information professionals? (It's probably not what you think)

Based on class discussions of a blended versions of a required management course.  98 students in total. Four cohorts.

Employee disengagement Is a problem.  Gallup poll ~70% are not motivates.

Motivations is the force that initiatives and guides behavior. There are many factors that impact employee motivation.  There have been many theories about it in the last 100+ years.

He collected information from their in-class discussion 

Discussion findings:
Engagement in the work - 34%
Culture of respect and rapport - 22%
Money - 11%
Autonomy - 12%
Recognition - 21%

We need to teach our students about intrinsic factors for motivation, so they know how to use them.

Wooseob Jeong and Laura Ridenour
Fostering diversity in LIS Education: FEAL project - an IMLS grant

FEAL - Fostering East Asian Librarianship. The grant was in 2013.
East Asian backgrounds who have East Asian language skills
Project supported 12 students who are paraprofesionals to pursue the MSLIS degree.  They received mentors.  Majority of students are under the supervision of Council of East Asian Libraries  members.

Only US residents or permanent residents were eligible.  They disseminated information through specialized email lists.

There group has done targeted travel, including the ALA conference and the CEAL annual meeting.

Students took a diversified curriculum.  Students found and advocated for taking a relevant class through University of Hawaii.

Student Feedback and overall been incredibly positive.  The classes are asynchronous online.

Issues:
Difficulty meeting admission requirements
Difficult to maintain work and family balance
Moving mentors/supervisors

No comments: