I am committed to anti-racist pedagogy in my teaching, which seeks to actively decenter whiteness and promote multiple ways of knowing as a strategy for creating more inclusive, just, and equitable learning environments. My teaching strategy invites students to engage in critical self-reflection as part of a process to address white supremacist thinking inside and outside the classroom. I also invite my students to consider how histories of white supremacy have shaped their understanding of the world.
Ultimately, I believe that teachers should act as guides working with their students to break down the hypodermic model of communication, wherein information is transmitted one-way from teacher to students. This approach provides students with opportunities to reflect on how their social privilege and marginalization have shaped how they come to know about the world. By allowing my students to bring their past experiences into the current learning environment, they are encouraged to reflect on how the course content connects with own values, attitudes, and beliefs. This approach deepens their engagement with course content, which can lead to transformative learning that impacts their lives.
I strongly believe in providing my students with opportunities for community-based learning through community engagement coursework, including in my Leadership in Information Organizations course at the University of Oklahoma and my Information Services for Diverse Users course at Simmons University. This technique draws on work that my colleagues and I developed to incorporate studio-based pedagogy in library and information science (see CV: Wolske, Rhinesmith, & Kumar, 2014). In this approach, “students and instructors work together within a studio space that serves as a model of professional practice, incorporating field visits to inform work. Regular student reflections also help students think more deeply about the paths that lead them to their final project designs” (p. 168). In the first part of the semester, students spend time engaging deeply with community engagement theory, including discussions of how power, privilege, and oppression shape community–university partnerships as well as the impacts of these relationships.
My critical service-learning pedagogy offers students opportunities to apply theories and concepts discussed in the classroom to their community–university partnerships. For example, my graduate students and I described how this critical pedagogical approach guided the design, implementation, and evaluation of a young adult (YA) public library space design program with teens and librarians through a community–university partnership in Moore, Oklahoma (see CV: Rhinesmith, Dettmann, Pierson, & Spence, 2015). Our paper contributes a theoretical and methodological framework for studying public library YA space design projects with teens and librarians using participatory research and design techniques. Progressive and critical educational philosophies are deeply embedded in this collaborative praxis. I brought these experiences with me to my teaching at Simmons University, particularly in my LIS 410 Information Services for Diverse Users course, in which we partnered with local libraries to help them to engage in meaningful ways with marginalized populations in their communities.
TEACHING AWARDS
2021 Outstanding Information Science Teacher Award, Association for Information Science & Technology (press release)
2019 Ernest A. Lynton Award for the Scholarship of Engagement for Early Career Faculty (Finalist), Swearer Center for Public Service, Brown University (press release)
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
School of Information Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2024-)
- Social Justice in the Information Professions (graduate)
School of Library and Information Science, Simmons University (2016-)
- Public Libraries (graduate)
- Social Informatics (graduate)
- Theories of Information Science (graduate)
- Communities of Discourse (undergraduate)
- Organizational and Information Ethics (graduate)
- Information Services for Diverse Users (graduate)
- Technology for Information Professionals (graduate)
- Decentering Whiteness in Library and Information Science (graduate)
School of Library and Information Studies, University of Oklahoma (2014-2016)
- Community Relations and Advocacy (graduate)
- Evaluation Methods (graduate)
- Leadership in Information Organizations (graduate)
- Social Informatics (undergraduate/graduate)
Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2012-2014)
- Co-Instructor, Community Informatics Studio (graduate)
- Co-Instructor, Introduction to Networked Information Systems (graduate)
- Teaching Assistant, Libraries, Information, and Society (graduate)
- Teaching Assistant, Social Aspects of Information and Communication Technology (undergraduate)
