A critical synthesis of your reflection on how your view of the role of the teacher librarian may have changed during the subject. This should include examples captured from your personal blog and from participation in the ETL401 forum (about 750 words).
My views of the role of teacher librarians have grown and developed as I have progressed through ETL 401 and ETL 501. My first blog post reflects where my initial view on the role of the teacher librarian laid. “It (the role of the teacher librarian) has changed a lot from when I was at school and they used to read a book and help us borrow“ (Martire, 2011b). This view reflects the stereotype of the teacher librarian that many share due to previous experiences with librarians (Brock, 2010, House of Representatives, 2010, Lance, 2010, Todd, 2001). This stereotypical view was also reflected in my blog post ‘ Child’s and Parent’s views on Teacher Librarians’ as I shared the discussions I had with some of my students and friends (who are parents) as to what the role of the teacher librarian is. These views support the view that the teacher librarian can be invisible due to the role they have in empowering others and contributing to what is perceived as other teacher’s work (Brock, 2010, Hay & Todd, 2010, Hartzell, 2002, Oberg, 2006). This observation led me to feel that the role of advocacy is more important than I initially thought and ‘we need to educate parents and students (when possible) about teacher librarian’s roles(Martire, 2011b).
As the readings led us to look further into the roles that a teacher librarian undertakes I was daunted by the number and variety of roles that were identified by Herring (2007), Lamb & Johnson (2008) and Purcell (2010). Lamb & Johnson’s (2010) discussion for evidence-based decision making made me consider how the role of ‘researcher’ is possible to be fitted in with the array of other roles. I came to the conclusion that ‘we need to prioritise the roles according to the school we are working in and the needs of the learning community’ (Martire, 2011b). The priority of roles is essential to ensure that we suit the school environment that we are working in though it is hard for me to make a final decision about prioritising these roles as I am not currently in a teacher librarian role and my understanding of what each role requires is still developing and evolving. The question of can we really take on a leadership role and balance all of the expectations of the role in the school still remains to be answered though I am sure that this will evolve with my studies and experience.
My current school situation has also influenced my view on the role of the teacher librarian. I ‘have been working with her (teacher librarian) in a variety of ways that link to my position. I am seeing more reasons as to why teacher librarians are a logical fit for leadership positions due to the amount of knowledge relating to the school curriculum’ (Martire, 2011b). Though from my interactions with her there is far from a balance in her role between leadership and other roles. There is also an ICT teacher employed at our school and this initially caused me some confusion, as I was uncertain about the difference between the roles. It raised the questions of:
· If the ICT takes over the ICT roles what does this leave the TL? Shouldn't this be an ideal situation?
· Do ICT teachers teach critical literacy skills or just introduce new technologies (which is my belief)?
Martire, 2011b.
It wasn’t until I inspected the job descriptions of these 2 roles that these questions were answered. Our ICT teacher is about teaching and introducing new technologies with information skills being left to the classroom teachers and teacher librarian.
The role of the principal and how it influences the role of the teacher librarian has also been highlighted through both the readings in the course and my experience. The stark difference between the principals is reflected in the teacher librarians in the schools with one being untrained and only there for book borrowing and the other being a highly active and crucial member of the school team. The issue of collaboration is continues to be discussed. When asked if the teacher librarian should be 100% of the time in the classrooms I discussed that while it sounds ideal the reality of a situation like that is quite the opposite. In the forum, I reflected that there should be a balance between collaborative planning, teaching and the other roles of the teacher librarian (Martire, 2011a.)
My views on the role of the teacher librarian will continue to develop and change throughout my course, first-hand experiences and other influences. They have taken a big leap from my initial beliefs and continue to evolve.
References
Brock, K. (2010). Submission to the Federal Parliamentary inquiry into school
libraries and teacher librarians in Australian schools. Retrieved 18th
September 2011 from
www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/ee/schoollibraries/subs/sub347.pdf
Eisenberg, M. (2011). What is the Big6? Retrieved 17th September 2011 from
http://www.big6.com/about/
Hartzell, G. (2002). What’s it take? Teacher librarian, 30 (1), 81.
Hay, L. & Todd, R. (2010). School libraries 21C: the conversation begins. SCAN, 29
(1), 30 – 42.
Herring, J. (2007). Teacher librarians and the school library. In S. Ferguson (Ed.)
Libraries in the twenty first century: charting new directions in information
(pp 27 – 42). Wagga Wagga, NSW: Centre for Information Studies, Charles
Sturt University.
– 132.
House of Representatives Standing Committee on Education and Employment.
(2011). School libraries and teacher librarians in 21st century Australia.
Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia.
Lamb, A. and Johnson, L. (2008). School library media specialist 2.0: a dynamic
collaborator, teacher and technologist. Teacher Librarian, 36 (2), 74 – 78.
Lance, K. (2010). The mind of a researcher. Teacher librarian, 37 (4), 81 – 82.
Martire, A. (2011a, September 13). Re: Unrealistic 2 [Online forum comment].
Retrieved 20th September 2011 from
http://forums.csu.edu.au/perl/forums.pl?task=frameset&forum_id=ETL401_201160_W_D_Sub5_forum&message_id=5375682
Martire, A. (2011b). Road to becoming a Teacher Librarian [Blog]. Retrieved 22nd
September 2011 from http://martirealissa.blogspot.com/
Oberg, D. (2006). Developing the respect and support of school administrators.
Teacher Librarian, 33 (3), 13 – 18.
Purcell, M. (2010). All librarians do is check out books, right? A look at the roles of a
School Library Media Specialist. Library Media Connection 29 (3), 30 – 33.
Todd, R. (2001). A sustainable future for teacher-librarians: Inquiry learning, actions
and evidence. Orana, 37 (3), 10 – 20.
