LOEX 2026

Deficit thinking is deeply embedded within American higher education systems, making it hard to root out. Deficit thinking disproportionately harms students from underrepresented communities by degrading their personal or cultural identities. Teaching librarians are likely to recognize the adverse impacts of deficit thinking but may be unsure of how to actively prevent it. This workshop will reframe deficit thinking as a cognitive bias and will expose common deficit-based narratives within higher education teaching settings. This workshop aims to train librarians in equity-based thinking and will equip librarians with strategies to move forward with this work after the Conference.

Participants will:
1. Learn how to recognize widespread cognitive biases of deficit thinking within the higher education academic context and articulate their harmful effect on underrepresented students.
2. Practice transforming common deficit-based narratives into equity-based perspectives.
3. Identify strategies for planning library instruction experiences grounded in strengths-based approaches.