When we think about locating resources for DEI that we can incorporate as examples in our curriculum, we can approach searching in two main manners. After the initial step of deciding a topic (for this example, we will use school lunch programs) we can either (1) search on the topic and pair it with terms such as diversity, equity, or inclusion - which will often lead us to a small number of results - OR (2) we can reflect on specific aspects of that topic that relate to DEI and use those as our secondary search terms. Remember, just as we instruct our students to brainstorm synonyms and related concepts before/during searching and holding space for flexibility in search terms, we encourage you to do so as well.
For this example, we can use Academic Search Complete. We strongly encourage you to check the database's subject terms when running searches. When searching "school lunch", it takes only a glance at one or two articles to realize that the database uses the subject term "school food." Using the database's term will help us locate more targeted articles.
The chart demonstrates potential search strings to locate articles that tie DEI themes to our main topic of school lunches. It is important to note that both sides of the chart may work to find articles, but Side 2 may help to locate articles that don't use DEI language even as they speak to the purpose of DEI initiatives.
| Side 1: Adding Diversity, Equity, Inclusion | Side 2: Reflecting on our theme and how it relates to DEI |
| "school food" AND diversity | "school food" AND "low-income students" : this search focuses on a specific socio-economic aspect |
| "school food" AND inclusion | "school food" AND "african american" : this search focuses on representation of foods on menus and health aspects |
| "school food" AND Equity | "school food" AND "educational equalization" : this search focuses on how access to quality food enables student achievement |
When thinking about locating sources in the public domain, before you search, consider what you might be looking for.
For school lunch programs we will not find useful sources that have gone into the public domain due to age (97 years ago is too dated), but we may want to consider documents published by the federal government. This may direct us to the USDA National and School Lunch Program or the Illinois State Board of Education School Nutrition Programs. As these are government agency websites, each one with have different search/browsing functionality, but you can always search by your topic's keywords.
For instance: if you are looking for students to consider how the government communicates, or to break down a news/press release and want to stay within the theme of school lunch, you might look at publications from the USDA, such as:
The links below will take you to the best places to start your research on this subject. If you are asked to log in using your CCC credentials, just use your username without @student.ccc.edu. If you are redirected to a page that is neither a log in page nor a database search page, try clearing your browser cache and trying it again. If you are unable to access the database or find what you need, feel free to contact an HWC librarian.
The first step when considering looking in an OER repository for content is considering what repository is going to have the type of content you need. If you are looking for textbook material, you would want to search in a repository such as Open Textbooks Library, OER Commons, or Libretext.
However, with this example of using a topic, such as school lunch, as a DEI theme to structure discussion around, where the item is an example to be analyzed, you might be searching for an article about the topic. This should lead you to consider open journals, such as searching the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). This directory differs from our subscription based databases in that all of the journals have committed to at least publishing with a CC-BY copyright, allowing "distribution, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any way so long as attribution is provided, including for commercial use" (Creative Commons). This allows you to distribute the article to your class, whereas with the library's databases, you should provide a permalink back into the database for students to access.
When searching an OER repository, the navigation and search functionality may vary considerably. Some repositories are much larger than others. Use your best judgement on whether to browse through or use a search function. We recommend starting with a relatively simple search to get a sense of how much content the database might have. For example, when searching DOAJ for an article on school lunches, we run a search on (school food). The database lacks some of the advanced search functions of a subscription database, such as geographic focus, so as a researcher, it may require a bit of additional browsing. That being said, even within the first page, there are relevant articles that can be used to explore how researchers present findings or the structure of academic writing, such as: