The KTH Library performed a project funded by the Vice President for Gender Equality and Values and Vice President for Sustainable Development during 2021 that aimed to support teachers in their work for embedding equality in education at KTH. The project was managed by the library’s Education team and designed in collaboration with team Arena, team Collections, and the Learning Department. The overall aim of the project was to support teachers in embedding equality by focusing on critical information literacy and develop activities that could, over time, foster a sustainable and systematic way of working with gender and equality. Activities that were performed within the frame of the project were exhibitions, book discussions with a gender perspective, a workshop on bias for PhD students, journal clubs within the Education team (Accardi, Drabinski & Kumbier, 2010; Carstensen, 2006), and a workshop for library staff.
The Swedish Higher Education Authority made an assessment that showed the need to improve gender and equality in several education al areas. This led to the University’s funding of projects that supportted teachers to embed gender and equality. The library staff developed the project based on theory and strategies found in:
- literature at the Gender Theory and Gender Equality in Technical Higher Education course at KTH;
- literature read and discussed by the Education team (Accardi, Drabinski & Kumbier, 2010; Carstensen, 2006); and the United Nations global goals (https://www.globalgoals.org/).
The outcome of the project was in many ways successful but several parts remain on which to reflect. One challenge was how to reach an audience that is busy with teaching and research. Another challenge was how to ensure that the content you provide is relevant. It was also challenging to consider how perspectives on gender and equality can be embedded in daily work after the project is formally ended. We found that the reactions and assessment after the different activities showed that the book discussions were much appreciated as it gave opportunities to talk about and share experiences on both texts and society from a gender and equality perspective. We held these after the project was finished. The journal clubs within the teaching team were considered valuable as competency development and resulted in updates of the policy for equality in the library’s teaching. As an effect of the project, the library’s policy for acquisition was modified to take gender and equality in consideration when new media is purchased. Another effect was a workshop performed among the staff that aimed to enhance the consciousness within the organization regarding issues of gender and equality.
References
- Accardi, Maria T., Drabinski, E., & Kumbier, A (Eds.) (2010). Critical library instruction: Theories and methods. Duluth, Minn.: Library Juice Press.
- Carstensen, G. (2006). Könsmedveten pedagogik: Konkreta tips och övningar för lärare. Uppsala: Avdelningen för utveckling av pedagogik och interaktivt lärande (UPI), Uppsala universitet.
- United Nation. The 17 goals. Retrieved from https://www.globalgoals.org/
Ika Jorum
KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden