Background or Context: Public school library book challenges have garnered ample media attention in recent years as many school districts and advocacy organizations have reported record numbers of book challenges. Book challenges are not a new phenomenon, historically speaking, but they have often illuminated values clashes in communities and…

To understand the effect of library science coursework on student perceptions of issues related to intellectual freedom, researchers surveyed students at the start and end of their enrollment in a Master of Library Science program. When the results were compared, the percentage of graduating students who indicated that they might rethink…

This paper explores the representation and non-representation of slavery in US school textbooks from the late eighteenth century to the beginning of the US Civil War. It reviews the major readers, almost none of which mentioned slavery despite the anti-slavery sentiments of many textbook editors. The few readers that addressed slavery did so in…

This issue's Featured Article is bold! Readers are challenged to be advocates with loud voices, ready to push back on current legislation intended to silence voices in our classrooms and on our bookshelves. The author provides readers with an overview of laws and legislation currently impacting teachers and provides ideas for what you, as an…

In 2017 the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) released the "National School Library Standards." The revised standards were streamlined to reflect the attributes that dynamic school librarians, learners, and school libraries should possess. The standards provide school librarians with a framework for creating school…

The annual "What's Hot in Literacy" survey uncovers the current focal points within literacy education. A panel of twenty-five literacy leaders participated and engaged in interviews to identify the most and least emphasized literacy topics, as well as those deserving more attention. The findings for 2023 spotlight several topics…

The heightened use of "safe space" in educational settings has been the subject of polarizing contemporary controversy and protested by conservative and progressive camps alike, raising concerns about whether "safe space" remains an educationally viable concept. In response to claims that safety is conflated with…

Numerous states have attempted to enact sweeping curricular bans targeting Critical Race Theory (CRT) to prevent educators from teaching content that challenges the white-Eurocentric curriculum of American schooling. In this paper, we build on arguments that curricular bans are not new to education, nor is the resistance enacted by educators to…

The American Library Association reported an "unprecedented spike" in the number of book removal requests in the final months of 2021, and most of these challenges focus on books about people from marginalized communities. Robert Kim asks whether such removals violate the First Amendment and explores how much discretion court have…

Little scholarship exists on administrators' perceptions of censorship in specific districts and schools. I studied secondary administrators' perceptions of censorship in one, Midwestern suburban school district and how their perceptions and experiences affect their policy-making practices. Grounded in an anti-censorship stance, I conducted a…

Based on the third-person effect hypothesis--people's belief that the media influences others more than it influences themselves--we administered a questionnaire to Chinese teens (N = 1,538) to discover the impacts of exposure to internet pornography on perceptions of pornography and attitudes toward censorship of pornography. The results…

What can school librarians do about library and book censorship? First, ask questions. Find out what your principal and your district have put into policy and what your principal's expectations are for your school library. Then, communicate with your classroom teachers. For ourselves, school librarians should work with colleagues, especially other…

According to the ACLU (2005), ". . .at times of national stress -- real or imagined -- First Amendment rights come under enormous pressure." So, too, academic freedom of expression for faculty, staff, and students has become a casualty in the post-9/11 world. Academics were criticized and reprimanded for not being patriotic enough. Using…

Labels and epithets relating to gender, sexuality, ethnicity, color, and disability have long been divided into acceptable and offensive categories. This paper examines how differences in culture and historical contexts can cause an issue when translating English media into Arabic by examining how they are subtitled in different contexts. Examples…

Ms. Sampson, a White eighth-grade teacher in a predominately White suburban school district in the southern United States, decided to include several books in her lesson plan. Selected books were from the school's library and had been previously approved by stakeholders as instructional resources for the district. One parent, a school board…