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Libraries Indiana University Bloomington

Race, Migration, & Indigeneity

The inter- and multidisciplinary field of Race, Migration, & Indigeneity considers the ways in which race interweaves with historical and contemporary formations of identity

Instruction & Information Sessions

Please note: instruction sessions are currently only being offered virtually. If you need to schedule an in-person session, please contact our Teaching & Learning department at libinstr@indiana.edu.

As part of the program of support offered by our librarians, we are able to work with your students in sessions designed to introduce them to research fundamentals and provide an overview of general and subject-specific resources to facilitate their scholarship. 

Typically, a library instruction session lasts between 30-75 minutes, depending on your preferences and what material will be covered. Here are some possible skills we can cover in the library instruction session:

  • overview of library services
  • how to find books in the library (reading LC call numbers, citation searching, etc.)
  • how to search IUCAT for library resources
  • how to get items that IU libraries do not have
  • how to use OneSearch@IU in order to find research resources
  • how to use subject specific databases to find research resources
  • what a peer reviewed article is and how to find one
  • assessing resources of various types

For more ideas and suggestions about what we can cover, consult the Information Literacy Modules Guide, which you can use to select concepts for inclusion in our session.

Generally, library instruction sessions are hands-on workshops rather than individual lectures. In order to make the workshop portion of the class useful, we do like students to have access to a computer. If your current classroom has computers the library instruction session can be taught there. If your classroom does not have appropriate individual technology, students can bring their laptops or we can schedule the instruction session to take place in an instruction room in the library.  

Best Practices

  • Connect the session and concepts covered therein to specific course assignments (and/or learning objectives), and communicate these connections (and any expectations) to the students and librarian
  • Schedule sessions as close as possible to the “point of need” (ie. when the skills covered will be most useful for a project, assignment, etc.), such as after students have chosen their topics but prior to beginning the research process
  • Include librarian’s contact information in your syllabus and Canvas (and consider adding librarian to Canvas if appropriate)

Librarian Policies & Reminders

  • A minimum of two weeks (or 10 business days) is required in advance of the session date, and three weeks is required for sessions that require significant customization and to reserve instructional spaces in the library
  • Faculty or instructor attendance is strongly preferred, as this helps provide continuity and facilitation, demonstrates the value of the session, and enables clarification and support of learning objectives/expectations as needed

What we need from you:

  • Desired date & time of library instruction session: 
  • Number of students in class:
  • Preferred location of class (your normal classroom or instruction room in Wells Library): 
  • Specific resources your would like covered in the instruction session:
  • Learning objectives, if applicable: 
  • Skills with which students need help (this could include challenges you’ve come across, or anything that would help your students complete specific assignments or projects):
  • A copy of your syllabus, as well as descriptions or outlines of any assignments to which we can tailor the session
  • Any other expectations or requirements you have of the session:

To request an instruction session with our team, please either complete the Instruction Request Form or send an email with the requested information (above) to the librarian.

Instruction & Learning Support Resources

The Libraries and other units on campus offer an array of resources to support student learning and your instructional activities. A few that we recommend:

  • Information Literacy Online Toolkit We have a number of modules to support student learning around research skills that you can import into your Canvas course, which also includes assessment tools. If this is something you are interested in, I would be happy to show you how to bring this into your course Canvas site; there are also instructions on this page.
  • Library Resources & Services Training Videos  A YouTube playlist with a number of video tutorials we have created to help orient users to our many resources and services. With some lead time, and in circumstances where a librarian is not available for a synchronous session, we can occasionally create video tutorials tailored to the needs of a specific course.
  • Open Education Resources & Services IU Libraries provides training in and support with the creation and integration of open educational resources (OER) into your curricula. This page offers guidance around finding, creating, and evaluating OER to help you make your classes more affordable and accessible for students. You might also consider participating in our Scholarly Communication department's Course Material Fellowship Program, which offers instructors the the support, tools, and expertise needed to move from traditional textbooks to affordable course materials.
  • Center for Innovative Teaching & Learning (CITL) CITL provides comprehensive services supporting excellent teaching and learning at Indiana University Bloomington. They have programs, workshops, and a variety of resources and services to help you in your instructional activities. We particularly recommend the extensive series of Teaching Strategies they've created and curated.
  • Teaching.IU Online resource that connects instructors to university-wide resources and communities of educators across IU. The vision of the site is to gather and curate a wide array of teaching resources, seamlessly integrated and available to all instructors. Pair this with Learning.IU, which you can share with your students and helps connect them to learning resources, services, and communities across the university.
  • Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL)  Library guide that provides an overview of resources and services to support your SoTL research, across disciplines.

The next several tabs outline other pedagogical frameworks you may want to consider and integrate as you are designing courses, teaching, and working with students in various capacities. Always feel free to reach out if you want to strategize or discuss further.

A selection of important readings on teaching and pedagogy, from across time and disciplines

Universal design for learning (UDL) is a research-based framework that helps educators design learning experiences that are accessible and effective for all students, regardless of their abilities, backgrounds, or preferences. By recognizing that each learner is unique and has different strengths and challenges, it helps educators move from a one-size-fits-all approach toward one that adapts to learner variability. Therefore, UDL suggests that teachers should provide multiple ways for students to engage with the content, process the information, and demonstrate their understanding. By doing so, UDL aims to reduce barriers to learning and increase opportunities for success.

UDL is based on three main principles:

  • Provide multiple means of engagement: This principle focuses on how students are motivated and interested in learning. It involves offering choices, challenges, relevance, and feedback to learners.
  • Provide multiple means of representation: This principle focuses on how students perceive and comprehend information. It involves offering different formats, modes, languages, and supports for learners.
  • Provide multiple means of action and expression: This principle focuses on how students demonstrate their learning and skills. It involves offering different tools, methods, scaffolds, and goals for learners.

To learn more about UDL, try some of the following resources:

Trauma-informed teaching and pedagogy is an approach and practice that recognizes educators and students may have past and present experiences that impact learning and behavior in students and educators. This begins with an awareness of the trauma that students may have experienced or be experiencing, and thus aims to create secure, supportive, and equitable school environments that promote the well-being of everyone involved. It focuses on supporting individual students with strong, healthy relationships, and cultivating intentional school and community cultures and communication styles. It also incorporates and ensures patterned and consistent experiences, social and emotional learning, and regulatory practices to create sustainable changes in the nervous systems of learners and educators. It creates consistency and routine with room for flexibility, transparency about goals and expectations, a sense of physical safety in the physical space, and management of the risk of in-class triggers.

Principles of trauma-informed pedagogy

  • Prioritizing relationships and process over content
  • Recognizing that students' actions are a result of their life experiences
  • Creating a safe, welcoming, and engaging environment in which students can thrive
  • Adopting a supportive, reflective, and caring approach that is responsive to the reality that any student can be trauma-affected
  • Attending to the psycho-social and emotional needs of learners, and adapting content and structures accordingly
  • Providing choice, voice, and agency to students
  • Practicing empathy, compassion, and self-care as educators

To learn more about trauma-informed teaching and practice in libraries, try some of the following resources

Inclusive pedagogy is an approach to teaching that considers and values the diversity and intersectionality of students’ identities, backgrounds, and abilities. It aims to create equitable and socially just learning environments that are meaningful, relevant, accessible, and transformative for all students. It involves intentional efforts by educators to address systemic inequities and barriers to learning in the classroom, curricula, and assessment. It is learning-centered, equity-focused, trauma-sensitive, and fosters social justice.

Inclusive pedagogy is not a single approach, but rather includes culturally-informed, culturally-responsive, and culturally-sustaining pedagogies, among others. Other frameworks, such as Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Inclusive Design, can also be part of an inclusive approach to learning.

Some of the core principles of inclusive pedagogy are

  • Recognizing and valuing the diversity of students’ experiences, perspectives, and ways of knowing
  • Providing multiple and flexible ways for students to access content, engage with learning activities, and demonstrate their learning outcomes
  • Creating a welcoming and supportive learning environment that fosters a sense of belonging, trust, and respect among students and teachers
  • Challenging dominant norms and assumptions that may exclude or marginalize some students or groups of students
  • Collaborating with students, colleagues, families, and communities to promote inclusive pedagogy across different contexts

To learn more about this framework and approach, consult some of the following resources

Critical pedagogy is a teaching philosophy approach that applies concepts from critical theory to education, learning practices, and the classroom. It positions teaching as a political act and aims to help students question and challenge domination, inequality, and injustice in society, especially around structures such as class, race, and gender. It also seeks to develop critical thinking, social responsibility, and transformative action in students towards empowering them to create change in the world.

Some of the principles of critical pedagogy are:

  • Challenging the dominant culture and recognizing how these narratives and structures shape our knowledges, beliefs, and values
  • Changing the classroom dynamic to reduce the power imbalance between teachers and students
  • Presenting alternative views and perspectives that are often marginalized or excluded
  • Centering the agency and choice of learners in learning relationships and spaces
  • Collaborating with others to create change in classrooms and the larger society

To learn more about critical pedagogies, try some of the following resources

Indigenous pedagogy is a teaching method that connects Native experiences, stories, perspectives, and worldviews into a guiding path toward learning and knowledge, relying on the relationships between people and the land (including non-human beings and entities of all kinds) to build a broad, holistic interconnectedness. Indigenous pedagogy also promotes learning through four distinct areas: personal and holistic, experiential, place-based, and intergenerational. Indigenous pedagogy is informed by Indigenous epistemologies, which are ways of knowing that emphasize relationality, the interconnection between sacred and secular, and animism. Indigenous pedagogy also recognizes the important role that Elders and traditional communities have in passing on knowledge, and centers these relationships in curricula and learning environments.

Indigenous pedagogy is closely related to decolonial pedagogy, which challenge the historical origins, power dynamics, and Eurocentrism of Western pedagogies and educational methodologies, which are rooted in colonialism, imperialism, and racism. It seeks to deconstruct and reshape the ways that colonized individuals understand and interact with the world they live in, by recognizing and valuing their own epistemologies, cultures, and identities. Decolonial pedagogy also involves critically examining the sources, purposes, and effects of knowledge production and dissemination, as well as the role of educators and students in this process.

Some principles of Indigenous and decolonial pedagogies are

  • Centering storytelling and the sharing of perspectives, experiences, and voices
  • Learning with and through the land, and connecting education and lessons to place
  • Recognizing the integral role and wisdom of Elders, memory-keepers, and other key figures within Indigenous communities
  • Allowing reciprocity and mutual learning between teacher and student
  • Creating learning experiences and environments in which hands-on, participatory, and collaborative activities are encouraged
  • Engaging with and confronting the many structures of power that shape education and learning so that they can be deconstructed and dismantled
  • Denaturalizing and reshaping the ways in which colonized learners and communities understand the world and how they navigate it

To learn more about the tenets and practices of Indigenous and decolonial pedagogies, consult some of the resources below

Feminist pedagogy is a teaching approach that is based on feminist thinking, motivations, and values. It recognizes that knowledge making happens in socially and politically inflected ways, and that teaching and learning are influenced by structures of power, such as patriarchy, racism, classism, heterosexism, etc.. It aims to create a more democratic, inclusive, and transformative educational experience for both teachers and students.

Some of the principles of feminist pedagogy are

  • Rethinking the relationship between teacher and student, from hierarchical and authoritarian to collaborative and dialogic
  • Empowerment of students to become active agents of their own learning and social change
  • Building community among students and teachers, based on mutual respect, trust, and support
  • Privileging voice of students and teachers, especially those who are often marginalized or silenced by the dominant culture
  • Respecting the diversity of personal experience, and acknowledging how it shapes one’s perspective and knowledge
  • Challenging traditional pedagogical notions, such as objectivity, neutrality, authority, etc., and exploring alternative ways of knowing and learning

To learn more about the tenets and practices of feminist pedagogy, consult some of the resources below

A collection of resources from other institutions and organizations to support your instruction

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Literacy