Being+Sensitive+&+Responsive+to+Culture

Why is it important to be sensitive and responsive to students' culture, gender, age, and stage of development?

Perspective provided by National Board Certified Media Specialist

Sensitivity and responsiveness are important behaviors for media specialists. It should be ingrained in library plans to review sections to ensure there is ample representation of informational and fictional texts. For example, in the Indian collection, there would need to be informational texts as well as fictional texts. It is important to keep track of current titles as well as those titles that could be added to the collection whether they were suggested by teachers or students. In the event there are funds available, the suggested/requested titles could be added to the collection.

Our Media Specialist collaborates with teachers to find materials that are culturally sensitive for the classroom. She displays multicultural literature in the media center that will remind and enhance students about culture such as Black History Month, Women in History and holiday literature reflective of Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. She also purchase and encourages students to read literature authored by multicultural authors. The media specialist also keeps a great wealth of books that are gender specific.