role teacher librarian – Fleur Diamond

Part C – Critical Synthesis about the role of the teacher librarian.

I enrolled in the ME.d. (TL) with limited ideas about what teacher librarianship involves. I knew I wanted to be engaged in literacy teaching in a new way — after ten years as a High School English teacher, it was time to renew my practice.

Before applying for the course I spoke to teacher librarians at the school where I work. There is a large team at the school as the student population is about 2200. They had some tasks in common, but each seemed to have something that they were particularly responsible for: author visits and events; the student literature club; learning technologies; databases and referencing; acquisitions; cataloguing; pathfinders and wikis; journal and periodical subscriptions; coordinating and rosters. What’s more, each one is ‘tagged’ to certain departments and student year levels. From these conversations I got a glimpse of the complexity of the role — and yet it was only a glimpse. Since then, I have learned a great deal about the different aspects of a teacher librarian’s professional repertoire. However, I am completing the ETL401 module aware that the knowledge I have gained is largely theoretical.

As I have journeyed through the ETL401 course I have deepened my understanding of the dimensions and possibilities of the teacher librarian role. I have grown more intrigued by the ways in which the role and the school library program are rapidly evolving in response to changes in technology. The transformation of my understanding has happened on several fronts: the instructional role of the TL; the place of learning technologies in a library program; the power of collaboration with teaching staff; and information literacy. I bring with me into MEd.TL studies a passion for literacy, and almost all my blog posts have been concerned with this topic in some way and what it means in the face of rapid change. I have been challenged to rethink what I mean by the term ‘literacy’ and arrive at a new synthesis for what it entails in the twenty first century. As a corollary to this, I have begun to view learning technologies more broadly now that I have begun to think about how they can be used to foster information literacy.

Early in my learning journal blog, in ETL401 Topic 2: Part 1: the Role of the Teacher Librarian, I discussed my insight into how little classroom teachers are aware of the instructional, information specialist and collaborative aspects of the teacher librarian role. Teacher librarians are an untapped resource. I identified obstacles to collaboration in my workplace setting – lack of understanding of the teacher librarian role; lack of shared planning time; and a view of the library and its offerings in terms of resources rather than in terms of learning and collaboration. In response to our readings of Haycock (2007) and Oberg (2006) I posted a comment on the Topic 2 Forum about the limited understanding among classroom staff of what teacher librarians have to offer. It was becoming clear to me, as I elaborated in a second forum posting on this topic, that a hidden aspect of the teacher librarian’s brief, is to promote and publicise the collaborative learning that the school library program can facilitate. This thinking has informed my resolve to be a teacher librarian who is able to communicate the collaborative aspects of my role to colleagues and to build working relationships across the library/classroom divide.

Further to this point, one of the things that struck me as I read Buffy Hamilton’s article, “What kind of teacher are you?”, and her blog posts on The Unquiet Library is that teacher librarians need to be proactive in seeking collaborative working relationships with classroom teachers. She has prompted my thinking and re-thinking about what is possible in a teacher librarianship role. She has inspired me to think about how I can integrate ICTs into the classroom in ways that engage students and support their learning. I have found myself exploring the software she writes about, and, although I struggle to make it work for me, I have a new purpose in educating myself about learning tools that could help my students. I have realised that technology has to be part of my professional ‘kit’ as a TL. Work such as Hamilton’s and that of Joyce Valenza in her video “What teacher librarians make” and her “Manifesto for 21^st century school librarians” shows a vision of teacher librarianship that is vigorous and responsive to the new information landscape. They offer an idea of teacher librarianship that is far from the retiring and staid popular stereotype, but is engaged and involved in the learning community of the school. Reading is still at the forefront of what they do – but they integrate it with where students are using text, which is often online.

However, what is also clear is that in order to be able to create this kind of professional life, a teacher librarian needs administrators who are supportive of this renewed vision of the school library program. In my post on the forum for this topic, I discussed the need to target potential allies in the school executive, and get them excited about the prospects of an integrated application of technology, pedagogy and resources to improve student learning through the school library program. When students and administrators think information problems are solved by one large commercial search engine, teacher librarians have an enormous (but essential) task ahead of them making a case for what they offer. Reading Hartzell’s book Building influence for the school librarian (2003) was a valuable instruction manual on strategies to employ when advocating for the school library program. I noticed in my broader reading that an ongoing thread of librarian discussion is about evidence that qualified librarians increase student achievement and the necessity for restating this to decision-makers time and again. Moreover, the readings on Evidence Based Practice were salutary reminders that, as with classroom teachers, teacher librarians need to be able to document their impact on student learning.

Therefore, in my Reflection after Assignment 1, I examined how the subtext of so much of the course seemed to be that the teacher librarian’s role is surprisingly political. I had not thought of that before, but the theme touched on time and again was how teacher librarians have to promote their programs and the contribution they make to student achievement. It seems that libraries are constantly having to justify their existence. Later in the course I had a discussion with one the teacher librarians at my workplace that confirmed this suspicion. So I added “promoter”, “networker”, “marketer”, “evidence collector” and “strategic collaborator” to my list of attributes of the teacher librarian role.

Throughout the course I have been concerned with literacy and where it fits in this new ‘post-literate’ world. In ETL401 Topic 2: Part 1: the Role of the Teacher Librarian I noted that the qualifications required by the ALIA/ASLA to practice as a teacher librarian closely meshed with the Standards of professional excellence for teacher librarians. These qualities and standards revolve around the provision of both physical and “intellectual access” (Kuhlthau, 2004, p. xv). This means that for students to become information literate, they need more than just access to information – they need educators who can make it accessible, meaningful and part of the students’ learning. Ultimately, information literacy is not just about being able to recognise the need for information or even find it, but to be able to evaluate the credibility and relevance of sources, and apply new understandings. It involves skills in reading, comprehension and using technology – but it also needs to “transcend the format” (Bush). It requires the ability to synthesise information and create new ideas and outcomes from it. This came up in our study of the fascinating concept of transliteracy, and I blogged about these ideas in Reflections on definitions of information literacy part 1 and Musings on Transliteracy. Information literacy at its zenith is the creation of a personal mental construct of how we learn from information. Teacher librarians need to model this by becoming their own knowledge manager and a reflective practitioner.

Therefore, part of the role of the teacher librarian is to have a mental construct of what information literacy is to guide her practice. This definition will always be evolving as we encounter new information and technologies. However, the teacher librarian needs this to construct a sense of what outcomes she is working towards. Hence in a posting to the ETL401 forum, I offered a conclusion that information literacy was the theory and collaborative teaching and guided inquiry was the practice. Information literacy is a core, guiding construct for reflective practice.

Finally, my understanding of the teacher librarian role has been affected by current debates on whether or not school librarians should ‘leave the library’ and rebadge themselves in order to be effective. While concepts such as ‘the new model’ focussing on integrating learning technologies have some merit, in my view it risks abstracting just one strand of teacher librarian practice away from a holistic view of the profession. Rather, I see the teacher librarian as an “information activist” who extends her practice beyond the walls of the library, but who also fosters a sense of a special place for learning in the school. The discussion around the creation of “learning commons” has appealed to me and encapsulates a professional practice that is both situated and mobile. Most importantly, this idea of a learning commons with a qualified and collaborative teacher librarian at the helm provides opportunities for students to learn and to access information in context. Teaching librarians have an important role in facilitating access to literacy for people of diverse backgrounds and abilities – an important role for school and public library programs in fostering democracy.

References:

Australian Library and Information Association/Australian School Library Association (ALIA/ASLA) (2004) Standards of professional excellence for teacher librarians.

Retrieved from http://www.asla.org.au/policy/standards.htm

Barak, Lauren. (2012). Full-time school librarians linked to higher student reading scores. School Library Journal, March 6. Retrieved from http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/slj/home/893803-312/full-time_school_librarians_linked_to.html.csp#.T2lfZsRZdDQ.netvibes

Braun, L. (2012). Next year’s model? Digital Shift (School Library Journal). April. Retrieved from http://www.thedigitalshift.com/2012/04/k-12/next-years-model/

Bush, G. Information transliteracy in the 21^st century classroom. (Video). National Louis University. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=n1JjcmGJb2A

Clark, I. (2010). We still need libraries in the digital age. The Guardian, 13 July.

Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jul/13/internet-age-still-need-libraries

Hamilton, B. J. (2011). The school librarian as teacher: What kind of teacher are you? Knowledge Quest, 39(5), 34-40. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/869883192?accountid=10344

http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/docview/869883192/fulltextPDF?accountid=10344

Hamilton, B. (n.d.) The Unquiet Library (blog). http://theunquietlibrarian.wordpress.com/

Hartzell, G. (2003). Building influence for the school librarian: Tenets, targets, & tactics. (2^nd ed.). Worthington, Ohio: Linworth Publishing.

Haycock, K. (2007). Collaboration: Critical success factors for student learning. School Libraries Worldwide, 13(1), 25 – 35. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/docview/217750011/136DEEF8C6246D89F49/16?accountid=10344

Johnson, D. (2002). The seven most critical challenges facing our profession. Teacher Librarian, 29(5), 21. Retrieved from http://www.doug-johnson.com/dougwri/seven-most-critical-challenges-that-face-our-profession.html

Kuhlthau, C. (2004). Seeking meaning: A process approach to library and information services. Westport, Connecticut, Libraries Unlimited.

Loertscher, D. (2008). Flip this library: School libraries need a revolution. School Library Journal, 54(11). Retrieved from http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6610496.html

Miller, R. (2012). Undercover librarian: Tech coordinator Sarah Ludwig. School Library Journal, April. Retrieved from http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/slj/home/893870312/undercover_librarian_tech_coordinator_sarah.html.csp

Oberg, D. (2006). Developing the respect and support of school administrators. Teacher Librarian, 33(3), 13 – 18. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/docview/224879111?accountid=10344

Todd, R. (2003). Irrefutable evidence: How to prove you boost student achievement. School Library Journal, 04/01/2003. Retrieved from http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA287119.html

Transliteracy (n.d.). Retrieved from http://transliteracy.wikispaces.com/1+-+Introduction

Valenza, J. (2011). What librarians make. Or, why should I be more than a librarian? (video). Retrieved from http://vimeo.com/17247140

Valenza, J. (2010). Manifesto for 21^st century school librarians. Voya. Retrieved from http://www.voya.com/2010/09/15/tag-team-tech-october-2010/

ETL401 Topic 2: Part 1: the Role of the Teacher Librarian

Initial reflections from a classroom English teacher on the role of TLs:

Doing the initial reading about professional standards and role statements for Teacher Librarians has been a mixture of the expected and the thought-provoking. It has also prompted some reflection about the role of information literacy in my existing role as a classroom teacher for High School English.

One of the things that has struck me about the reading for the MEd. (TL) so far is how, in my experience, little real conversation there seems to be between TLs and English teachers and how teachers really need to know more about what TLs have to offer. I mean, TLs regularly come to Department meetings to show us the resources they have made (and they are always excellent) but we classroom teachers don’t use the expertise of the school TLs as much as we should. Instead, we feel like we need to resource our curriculum on our own. There does not seem to be the time to sit down in teams with TLs and design courses together and create resources and information literacy tasks, as I have seen evidence of in the blog “The Unquiet Librarian.”

What’s more, because of the size and complexity of the school where I work, many of the roles deemed to be part of the TL’s remit in standards statements are actually divided up among a number of personnel, who each contributes in a defined way to the running of the school library. Many of the functions classified under ‘technologist’ or ‘media specialist’ to do with the use of learning technologies have been hived off to ‘Learning Technology Consultants’ who are classroom teachers without TL qualifications but skills and knowledge in ICTs and, of course, learning theory and classroom teaching.

This means that as I have been reading the role statements and professional standards documents, I have been thinking about how complex the TL role really is and how in many schools TLs will end up focussing on select parts of the role, depending on the needs of the school and the seniority of the person. In other, smaller, perhaps less well-resourced schools, the TL ends up having to do it all – especially if they are the only one.

Overall, however, I would have to admit that I think TLs in my school may actually be under-utilised by teaching staff who perhaps, like myself until I started this course, have a limited understanding of the potential for collaboration and support from the library staff.

One of the more exciting aspects of my initial reading has been the focus on information literacy. While I have not wholeheartedly agreed with the way some authors conceive of “information” and “literacy” (more on that later), it has shown me that we classroom teachers really need to think more carefully about the Information Literacy dimension when we are designing units of work. It is often implicit or a buried assumption in both the texts set and the learning activities and assessment we design – but I think we and the students would benefit from making the Information Literacy aspects of our work more explicit and drawing on TLs more to help design units that foster these skills and aptitudes.

Standards for Professional Excellence:

The ASLA Standards for Professional Excellence are a good starting point for thinking about the Teacher Librarian’s role.

One of the things that struck me is how the qualifications and skills drawn up in this document closely correlate to the actions required by a TL. Some standards address the need for skills in Information Management and promotion, some are focussed on teaching skills and knowledge of pedagogy and learning theory, and still others are concerned with using ICTs and emergent technologies and supporting Information Literacy. There is a notable emphasis on being active in promoting the profession and contributing to the professional discourse, which I think is linked to the ongoing need to make a case for the value of funding and staffing a decent school library in the face of funding shortages in education and the growth of information outside the library and school walls.

One of the unexpected and, in my opinion, problematic effects of the plethora of information now available, is that the ideas of expertise and the trained, critical ability to discern the value of information and how it should be applied in specific circumstances, is being obscured. We still expect our local GP to know more than just how to type symptoms into a medical database and give us a print-out of a diagnosis. Yet, in a lot of other domains, there is an illusion that if the information is there, then anyone can just access it and be an instant expert. The idea that not all information is born equal, and that we often need to interpret information carefully, falls into the background when we have so much of it.

I find my students are far more willing to rest their research for a topic on a cursory internet search and Wikipedia, than they are to use the authoritative and carefully screened information in Library-subscription databases, online archives and topic guides. I seem to be always working against the grain in arguing that just typing in a few words or a question into a search engine is highly inefficient and does not yield the depth and quality and focus that they need. My other concern is that increasingly students seem to think that meaning is ‘out there’ on the net, in information, rather than in what THEY do with the information: interpret, assess, synthesise, create, evaluate.

So it is clear to me that in drawing up Standards for Excellence and Qualifications, the ASLA are making a case for an explicit and carefully-planned teaching of Information Literacy in schools, and that there is a specific profession trained to help with this. When we have so much information available to us and each of us can publish on the web more or less instantly, we have a need more than ever for teachers who can teach students how to use this new information environment effectively.

Joyce Valenza has made her 2011 poster ‘What do TLs Teach?” available on Flickr under the Creative Commons terms of use:

I found this poster handy and it linked to the slightly different role TLs seem to take in US schools. The blog “The Unquiet Library” calls the School Library Media Specialist an “Embedded Librarian” and this seems an exciting direction in the role of the TL that emphasises collaboration and how teaching Information Literacy can infuse all aspects of teaching and learning across subject areas.

Some tensions …

I did detect some possible controversies for TLs working in some schools when reading across the ASLA Standards for Professional Excellence, the School Library Association of South Australia Teacher Librarian Role Statement, and the International Association of School Librarianship Statement on School Libraries. The same tension is evident in the joint statement by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions and UNESCO. This is that TLs must work within the brief of their school’s stated aims and values, whereas a part of their role is in fostering independent learning, information literacy and intellectual freedom. For some librarians, this will be a difficult task as the IFLA/UNESCO statement specifies that:

“Access to services and collections should be based on the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Freedoms, and should not be subject to any form of ideological, political or religious censorship, or commercial pressures.”

Schools that quite consciously seek to limit their students’ access to some points of view readily available in the wider community, such as the Evolutionary Theory of Natural Selection, or the fiction of J.K. Rowling in the Harry Potter series, put their TLs in a tricky position. Clearly, some TLs will have to include the ability to campaign for and promote the inclusion of some materials in the school library collection as a part of their role.

Some thoughts …

Reading the various statements and standards for the initial part of the TL course has highlighted for me the multiple and collaborative nature of the role. Although I kind of sensed this before (the TLs at my school are far from the books-only recluses of popular stereotype), it is interesting to see the various facets of being a TL labelled and described.

Some authors’ views:

Purcell in her 2010 article “All Librarians Do is Check Out Books, Right?” A Look at the roles of a school library media specialist” divides the TL’s role into several sub-roles:

Leader
Instructional Partner
Information Specialist
Teacher
Program Administrator

It seems to me that a TL might play any of these roles in the course of a single day, or they may specialise in one or two within a larger team of TLs. For most it would be a mixture, with the balance and blend being set by the needs of the school, their place in the library team and their seniority.

Overall, Purcell’s vision denotes the TL as a kind of connective tissue between school administrators, students, teachers and parents in deciding what resources to acquire, how they can be promoted and used, and how they integrate with the curriculum and the goals of the school.

Lamb and Johnson in their 2008 article “School Library Media Specialist 2.0: a dynamic collaborator, teacher and technologist” also highlights the TL as a person with connections to many stakeholders. Their TL role is divided into three parts:

Collaborator
Teacher Leader
Technologist

For myself, it seems that collaboration is implied within all the functions that a TL performs – -whether or not they are working with collection management, subject teachers, students, or administrators.

Lamb and Johnson, as indicated by their title, place more emphasis on TLs as facilitators of technology in the teaching-learning process.

Herring, in his chapter (2007) “Teacher Librarians and the School Library” sums up the joint nature of the role, “It is an educational as opposed to an administrative role.” The focus throughout this chapter is that a TLs raison d’etre is student learning.

My thinking thus far …

Overall, my thinking thus far is that the TL is a kind of information activist. This is because they need to promote the library and themselves as sources of quality, authoritative, relevant information.

The qualifications needed in the TL role and the tasks they need to perform well are interlinked. To be able to offer library and media services relevant to teachers and students, the TL must be aware of curriculum, assessment, reporting, as well as current pedagogies and the realities of the classroom and the pressures classroom teachers are under.

I think it is apt that TLs are a part of the adoption of ‘convergent’ technologies in an education setting, as they themselves are at the point of convergence of many texts, resources, and people.

References:

Herring, J. (2007). Teacher librarians and the school library. In S. Ferguson (Ed.) Libraries in the twenty-first century: charting new directions in information (27 – 42). Wagga Wagga, NSW: Centre for Information Studies, Charles Sturt University.

Lamb, A and Johnson, L. (2008). School library media specialist 2.0: a dynamic collaborator, teacher, and technologist. Teacher Librarian, 36(2).

Purcell, M. (2010). All librarians do is check out books, right? A look at the roles of the school library media specialist. Library Media Connection 29(3), 30-33.