The Adoption of Children's Mathematics Education in Public Libraries for Underserved Communities in the United States: An Exploratory Qualitative Study from a Critical Perspective

The purpose of this study was to explore the adoption of children’s mathematics education for underserved children in public libraries the United States from a critical perspective. This study specifically explored access and the role of power in the application of Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovations Theory (DoI) and the concept of culturally responsive mathematics instruction (CRMI) and utilized the critical exploratory research design that served to critique and challenge the notion that math education falls outside of the realm of library services and that math instruction is a culturally neutral activity. Application of the DoI theory to the phenomenon under study helped reveal how the factors that influenced adoption were characterized in the adoption of children’s math in public libraries, which has been slow to spread among public libraries despite the need and obvious advantages. The concept of culturally responsive mathematics instruction explained how the innovation, children’s math education for public libraries, was being communicated to those for whom it was designed to benefit.Participants were selected through a purposive and snowball sample of librarians who provided children’s mathematics education in public libraries to underserved children. This study utilized a theory/concept-driven deductive thematic analysis and a data driven inductive driven thematic analysis. A priori codes were identified based on concepts and constructs from Rogers’ DoI theory, and these codes were used to generate themes through a thematic analysis. In addition, deductive codes were drawn from the transcripts to further generate themes and build theory through a thematic analysis.Some of the themes that emerged from the theory-driven deductive coding process included: librarians are teachers, librarians connect with underserved families, decentralization of power, innovation enhanced and created better quality of service. The themes that emerged from the inductive coding process extended the constructs of the perceived attributes of Rogers’ DoI to include access to resources and access to the innovation. The emerging themes from the inductive coding also extended CRMI to include culturally responsive library-based mathematics instruction. Access and the role of power were expressed across concepts and constructs from Rogers’ DoI theory and in CRMI.