A Study of Culturally Diverse Materials in Elementary School Media Centers Presented by Marie Mawson May 9, 2005

Statement of the Problem Challenge for schools today is to provide students with materials that address: Cultural diversity represented in our country Evolving global community

Purpose of the research. Examine the collections of four elementary school media center for: Variety of multicultural holdings Number of multicultural materials Currency of the multicultural materials

Research Questions Answered How culturally diverse were the collections? How large were the collections? How many cultures were represented? How current were the resources?

Related Literature Research Study Multicultural diversity of children’s picture books: Robert Fulton Elementary School Library. Mosely, J.J. (1997). The primary purpose for this study was to determine if the collection reflected the ethnic culture of the community and met the criteria for good multicultural materials. Additionally, Mosely wanted to ensure that her library was offering the students books that reflected a diversity of cultures. This study was limited to picture books for young children.

Expert in the field Banks, J. (1991/1992). Multicultural education: For freedom’s sake. Educational Leadership, 49(4), Banks is a noted University Professor and director of the Center for Multicultural Education at the University of Washington in Seattle. He has authored 15 books on multicultural education and Social Studies education. He notes the established trend toward multicultural education in schools and its integral part in the curriculum. He discusses the need to ensure that the rich contributions that diverse groups can make to our nation and the public schools becomes a reality.

Research Design Methodology Applied research - information provided that is immediately usable in the resolution of actual problems Descriptive - contemporary data, meaning extracted through analyzing statistical information Quantitative- highly structured, problem solving approach for purposes of measurement and evaluation Sample and population Collections of the four elementary school library media centers in the Pleasantville School District, located in Atlantic County New Jersey, serving Pre-kindergarten through fourth grade students, with approximately 1786 students and 149 teachers.

Data Collection Method Search of OPAC for each geographic region within Dewey Numbers 300, 700, 800, 900, 92, Fiction, Easy and Video and for copyright dates Visual search of corresponding shelf areas Missing materials were verified as checked out or lost Lost materials were removed from the study

Data Collection Subject Heading List Countries within geographic region O.C. Public Library School A School B School C School D Africa Algeria Angola Benin Botswana Cameroon Chad Congo Egypt Ethiopia

Data Organization Collection Analysis Spreadsheet Collection Analysis School C Asia Call NumberCopyright Date Title/Author Osb1990The peoples of the Arctic. Osborn,Kevin.

Findings Culturally diverse materials are available Significantly greater number of African American titles Disproportionately low number of titles across other cultures Average age of multicultural materials older than recommended

Diversity and Size of Collections

Average Age of Each Collection by Region

Average Copyright Date of All Culturally Diverse Materials

Conclusions indicate… These elementary school media collections lack value in educating children about diverse cultures because… They did not provide an adequate amount of current materials representing diverse cultures Significantly older copyright dates than the 10 years recommended (with the exception of School D) Limited number of cultural diverse materials, other than for the predominate community culture, African American Collection development was pursued in accordance with the current trends of providing an abundance of materials related to the predominate neighborhood culture or ethnicity

Future Study Study of how the multicultural materials are distributed across Dewey classifications. Limiting the study to nonfiction materials only. A study of the availability of quality multicultural materials. Replicating this study in other school districts in this state or elsewhere in the country.

References Mosely, J.J. (1997). Multicultural diversity of children’s picture books: Robert Fulton Elementary School Library. Unpublished master’s thesis, Kent State University, OH. Banks, J. (1991/1992). Multicultural education: For freedom’s sake. Educational Leadership, 49(4),

Just a thought… If man is to survive, he will have learned to take a delight in the essential differences between men and between cultures. He will learn that differences in ideas and attitudes are a delight, part of life's exciting variety, not something to fear. Gene Roddenberry