Anti-Oppressive Practice in Public Libraries

Register for this three-week course!

Tuesday, April 4 –  Monday, April 24, 2023.

While many organizations have adopted the language of "diversity" and "inclusion", it has only been at the surface level while power imbalances remain the same. This course will introduce you to a framework for understanding different aspects of oppression, privilege, and power at a structural level. Anti-oppression goes beyond concepts of "diversity" and "inclusion." Anti-oppressive practice is a social justice approach that focuses on how larger systems create and protect the unearned privilege and power that some groups have while maintaining and upholding inequitable conditions for other groups. This course will draw upon frameworks like anti-racism, decolonization theory, feminism, queer theory and disability justice, among others, in order to deepen your understanding of the world and enable you to think more critically. This course will provide you with tools needed to better understand how power and privilege work and will support the development and facilitation of programs and practices that can shift organizational dynamics in ways that decrease and eliminate oppression.

By the end of the course learners will:

• Develop a shared understanding of the principles of anti-oppressive practice
• Examine their social location and how their various identities intersect to shape levels of access and how they make meaning of the world and the communities they interact with
• Understand the different forms and levels of oppression
• Explore strategies, theories, and practices for actively challenging systems of oppression in one's daily life and work
• Harness learnings to drive change in their organizations

Course Description: This 3-week course will include two 60-minute interactive online sessions:

• April 6 @ 10:00 a.m. (pacific time)
• April 20 @ 11:30 a.m. (pacific time)

CALL Training Partner for this Event: Infopeople