Modeling Inclusive Practice?: Attracting Diverse Faculty and Future Faculty to the Information Workforce

Goals for achieving diversity among library and information studies (LIS) students and the workforce will remain frustrated until root issues of diversity in LIS faculty are addressed. Students from underrepresented populations are typically drawn to academic programs where they believe the faculty can relate to their experiences and feel that the academic programs include their perspectives. For these conditions to be met, LIS faculty must become much more racially diverse than they are currently. Key aspects for increasing diversity among LIS faculty are to increase the diversity of LIS doctoral students, who will be the new generations of LIS faculty, and for LIS programs to offer courses that meet the needs of these diversified populations.

This article will examine the current state of diversity issues related to the education of LIS doctoral students, through the lens of the fourteen U.S.-based members of the iSchools caucus that offer LIS master's and doctoral programs. We will examine pedagogical initiatives that focus on diversity in LIS programs and federally funded grants that have supported recruitment efforts for doctoral students. Collectively, these issues will be used to identify possible strategies that can serve to promote diversity in LIS doctoral education.