For the Action Research Project I am proposing to use a CRT framework developed for the library and knowledge sector (Leung and López-McKnight, 2021, p. 13-15), to guide and expand the outcome actions. I used this framework in my MSc Library Science dissertation research; further detailed in a follow-up article (2022), and with NHS library and knowledge teams developing collections guidance (NHS, n/d).
There is a significant amount of discourse and writing about whiteness in librarianship (Stauffer, 2020, Ettarh, 2018, Morales et al., 2014), exploring low levels of staff diversity, embedded white supremacism in systems such as classification schemes and subject headings, and deficits of representation in resource authorship and subject matter. CRT frameworks help to equip library staff with limited lived experience of being minoritised (such as myself) with checklists or start points for EDI work.
For ARP I am using CRT to assess and guide the breadth of student-facing outcomes and action points; to ensure I fully explore opportunities for change, expanding and challenging initial interpretations. Belluigi cites Bhambhra stating that ‘it is insufficient to only point to the unjust gaps, omissions and silences … what must be engaged with is why … and what difference their inclusion would be for understanding’ (2023, p.146). Whittaker and Broadhead (2022, p.78) argue that ‘decolonisation should extend beyond adding names of under-represented scholars and creatives to reading lists’. UAL libraries having been the site of several CRT-led decolonisation projects and writings (Crilly et al., 2020). Many more diverse titles have been added to our libraries, but the wider work of acknowledging and platforming this knowledge is as yet incomplete.
Briffett Aktaş (2024) outlines dual modes of delivering Social Justice in education as ‘promot[ing] socially just education… that may also… incorporate social justice education topics explicitly’. UAL subscribes to both modes; so I will use the framework to assess not only the content to be added but the accessibility and inclusivity of the resource itself.
My experience of CRT for collections work has been STEM focused. Revisiting the framework will help me shift my focus from representation for scientific accuracy and health justice, to an understanding of representation for pedagogic and cultural inclusion. I have been involved in inclusion and diversity focused projects since joining UAL, but have not had an opportunity to to apply a CRT framework in this context; to assess which tenets prove most appropriate. Crilly, Panesar, and Suka-Bill (2020) assert CRTs utility in examination of ‘power structures … including the content of reading lists … [as] covert and institutionalised methods of Whiteness’. This feels like an apt lens in continuation of their decolonisation work at UAL.
CRT tenets, as listed by Leung & López-McKnight are as follows:
• Race as a social construct
• Racism is normal
• Experiences and knowledge of racially and ethnically minoritised people
• Intersectionality
• Interdisciplinary
• Critique of dominant ideologies
• Interest convergence
• Focus on historical contexts
• Counter-storytelling and voice
• Whiteness as property
The CRT tenets project review is available as an unassessed blog post linked here.
References
Belluigi, D.Z. (2023) ‘Why decolonising “knowledge” matters: Deliberations for educators on that made fragile’, in L. Czerniewicz and C. Cronin (eds.) Higher education for good. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, ch.5. pp. 137-159.
Briffett Aktaş, C. (2024) Enhancing social justice and socially just pedagogy in higher education through participatory action research, Teaching in higher education, 29(1), pp. 159-175.
doi: doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2021.1966619
Crilly, J., Panesar, L., and Suka-Bill, Z. (2020) ‘Co-constructing a liberated / decolonised arts curriculum’, Journal of university teaching & learning practice, 17 (2) article 9.
Ettarh F. (2018) ‘Vocational awe and librarianship: The lies we tell ourselves’, In the
library with the lead pipe, 10th January. Available at: www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2018/vocational-awe/ (accessed on 29/12/2025).
Leung, S. Y., & López-McKnight, J. R. (2021). ‘Introduction: This is only the beginning’, in S. Y. Leung and J. R. López-McKnight (eds.) Knowledge justice: Disrupting library and information studies through critical race theory. The MIT Press, pp. 1-41.
Chapter doi: Doi: doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/11969.003.0002.
Morales, M., Knowles, E.C., and Bourg, C., (2014) ‘Diversity, social justice, and the future of libraries’, portal: Libraries and the Academy, 14 (3), pp.439-451.
NHS (no date) Collections development guidance. Available at : https://library.hee.nhs.uk/resources/collections-development-guidance (accessed on 29/12/2025).
O’Driscoll, G., & Bawden, D. (2022) ‘Health information equity: Rebalancing healthcare collections for racial diversity in UK public service contexts’, Education for Information, 38 (4), pp. 315-336.
doi: doi.org/10.3233/EFI-220051 .
Stauffer, S.M. (2020) ‘Educating for whiteness: Applying critical race theory’s revisionist history in library and information science research: A methodology paper’, Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, 61 (4), pp.452-462.
Whittaker, R. and Broadhead S. (2022) ‘Disaggregating the Black student experience’, in S. Broadhead (ed.) Access and widening participation in arts higher education. Springer International Publishing, pp.71-297.