Examination of Anti-Oppressive Education

The Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Social Justice (EDISJ) committee dedicated to supporting and advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion within the College of Information, Data and Society (CIDS) has undertaken an ongoing project (now in its 5th year) to examine anti-oppressive education in Library and Information Science (LIS) and data analytics. Anti-oppressive education actively engages with and seeks to work against systems of oppression, including those embedded in both education and professional structures. Anti-oppressive education “requires disruptive knowledge, not simply more knowledge” (Kumanshiro, 2000, p. 34, emphasis added). Library and information science education, like libraries themselves, is historically intertwined with intersecting systems of oppression, including white supremacy, settler-colonialism, and patriarchy, as well as economic and class-based oppression. This paper addresses these aspects and shares our attempts to examine oppressive education in LIS and data analytics within our college.