Initially my thoughts on the role of the teacher librarian were simply to view the teacher librarian as a resource for other teachers and students to assist them with understanding how to use the library and access resources. This was particularly evident in my blog post entitled ‘Role of the TL and Function of School Libraries’ where I stated that the role of the teacher librarian was to act as “...a resource for both staff and students to assist with student learning” (Easter, 2011). However, I now understand the importance of the flexible nature of the teacher librarian’s role where the teacher librarian has a multitude of responsibilities in the school. The Australian School Library Association’s (ASLA) (2004) ‘Standards of Professional Excellence for Teacher Librarians’ lists a wide range of skills, qualities and attributes of excellent teacher librarians ranging from managing and evaluating library facilities and information services as well as implementing and evaluating library policies and procedures through to understanding and empowering students and teachers to become information literate and life-long learners. This range of skills of the teacher librarian is about more than merely managing the library; it signifies the importance of having a well-rounded knowledge of the curriculum, positive pedagogical practice, a knowledge of how students learn as well as the leadership and instructional partner capacities to be able to “...collaborate with school staff to provide the best learning environment for the student” (Purcell, 2010, p. 32). Understanding the various responsibilities of the teacher librarian has helped to shift my original thoughts to a more complex view of how teacher librarians operate in a school to influence student learning both directly and indirectly.
Harvey (2001 as cited in ASLA, 2004) notes that “library education is becoming more focused on users and their needs and less focused on the library and its particular practices.” This statement comes from a review of literature examining the impact of school libraries on student achievement which has found that the role of the teacher librarian is moving away from simply managing the library collection and teaching library skills towards more learner driven needs including information literacy education, collaboration with staff to integrate the curriculum and supporting inquiry learning (ASLA, 2004). A traditional view of the teacher librarian as the library services manager is probably closer to what my original understanding of the teacher librarian’s role was all about. This was despite having worked closely with teacher librarians in a teaching role for more than five years. John Williams’ (as cited in CSU Forums, 2011) forum post supports the view of the changing nature of the teacher librarian’s role where “...the TL’s roles and duties [now] need to be in collaboration with the teaching staff and in alignment overall with the school’s goals and the overarching pedagogical framework. The more traditional roles such as shelving, circulation and cataloguing seem to play a much more minor role in the 21st century TL’s job...” The multi-faceted and the developing nature of the teacher librarian’s role is also supported in Emma Wundersitz’s (as cited in CSU Forums, 2011) thread ‘Initial thoughts on Purcell reading’ on the ‘Topic 2 The Role of the Teacher Librarian’ forum discussion. Wundersitz (as cited in CSU Forums, 2011) and others in the forum thread substantiate the idea that the teacher librarian of today has a significant number of responsibilities in the school and as Purcell (2010) states “Media specialists’ roles have evolved with the changing times. School librarians are now expected to be leaders, program administrators, instructional partners, information specialists, and teachers” (p. 33). The evolution of the teacher librarian’s role in recent times needs to be better communicated to assist staff and students to understand how to utilise the skills and expertise of the teacher librarian to prepare students for learning in the 21st century (Purcell, 2010, p. 33). If this communication can occur then better partnerships between teachers and the teacher librarian can be developed which can aide student learning by building on the skills of all involved.
After studying the role of the teacher librarian and reading many different views on the subject the two most important parts of the role that I wish to implement and develop in my new teacher librarian role is to collaborate more with staff and to embed a culture of information literacy education across the curriculum in the school. These two aspects of the teacher librarian’s role remain the most significant for me as I can see these aspects currently lacking my current school environment and through researching I have seen how they are integral in developing students as learners and the teaching capacity of staff at the school. If all parties involved in the school can work together on these two aspects, the school can further develop into a “learning organisation” or learning community (Senge, 2007).
No comments:
Post a Comment