UNG faculty publish book on intellectual freedom

Two University of North Georgia professors collaborated with colleagues from Old Dominion University on a book pertaining to children’s literature and intellectual freedom.

Dr. Danielle Sachdeva, associate professor of literacy and elementary education, received an invitation from publisher IGI Global to work on “Supporting Students’ Intellectual Freedom in Schools: The Right to Read,” a new book about issues pertaining to children’s literature and intellectual freedom.

“As a literacy teacher educator, it is my firm belief that young people have the right to read the books they want to read, and book challenges and bans strip children and adolescents of access to books and their freedom to choose their own reading materials,” Sachdeva said.

The American Library Association has been tracking book challenges — or formal requests to remove a book from a school or library — for about 30 years, and the number of book challenges and bans reported in 2021 and 2022 broke records, Sachdeva said. This trend has touched communities that UNG serves.

After receiving the invitation from the publisher, Sachdeva reached out to Dr. Wes Whitaker from the College of Education and Sue Kimmel and Samantha Hull from Old Dominion University. The four agreed to collaborate on an edited volume focused on how educators, librarians, school administrators, university faculty, and other stakeholders can be advocates for young people and their right to intellectual freedom.

“The right to read is as important to democracy as the freedom of speech. Yet, in recent times, the fundamental right of a citizen to choose the material they will read or study has been threatened and even taken away,” Whitaker said. “Our text is an attempt to resist this trend in local public schools, as well as schools all over the country. We hope to support teachers, parents and concerned community members as they seek to protect the right to read.”

The book has 13 chapters, three of which were authored by UNG faculty. Dr. Jameson Brewer and a colleague at the University of Wisconsin-Madison co-authored a chapter about how the current wave of book challenges is part of a broader political movement impacting education. Dr. Tiffany Watson, Dr. Nicole Maxwell and Dr. Alyssa Barnes and their colleague from Holy Family University co-authored a chapter about how teachers can integrate high-quality, global books in the classroom within a curriculum based in the science of reading. Sachdeva and Whitaker co-authored a chapter that highlights possibilities for defending young people’s intellectual freedom and offers a theoretical rationale for the right to read.

Several UNG faculty members served as peer reviewers for the chapters appearing in the book, including Dr. Charles Burrage, Dr. Diana Chang, Rebecca Rose, Dr. Amy Williams, and Dr. Carly Womack-Wynne.

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