Part B: Blog post (500 words, +/-10%)

Reflecting on your experiences as a teacher before you became interested in working in a school library, write a 500 word piece about your understandings of the role of the TL in schools. 

In response to this prompt, I would like to offer two experiences of the role of a teacher librarian from my perspective as an EALD high school teacher:

The first experience was in a large secondary school in Tasmania. The school was going through a number of significant transitions when I arrived, and these transitions had led to problems with management and the overall structure in the school. As a result, there were classroom management difficulties that I experienced on a daily basis. I would expect the library to be a place of refuge in such a situation, with an atmosphere of study and focus, that could shield the students and staff against any unrest and likelihood of conflict in the greater school (Shaper & Streatfield, 2012). However, in this school, the library did not provide such safety for those who wished to study in peace. Rather, a permanent librarian was largely absent from the scene in this school, part-time and fill in teachers took on the role, and they could not assert an overall sense that the library was a place where students and teachers could properly focus on academic achievement and intellectual progress. I do not believe that this was the fault of any individual, but was a result of management and resource allocation, that had neglected the importance of a central and well-run library. There was an opportunity here for a permanent school librarian to make a significant difference in the way that this library functioned.

The second example of a library that I would like to offer from my experience comes from my time working as a teacher in Argentina. This school was a prestigious, international school, with a national reputation for high achievement. The library was replete with resources, centrally located at the heart of the school, and run by a number of permanent librarians. As soon as I stepped into this library, I knew I was in a place to study. Students and staff hardly dared to speak. Efficient, knowledgeable, expert librarians, whose specific job was to take care of the resources and learning space, made it a joy to go to the library and use its facilities. In those days, most of the resources were still in print, so reading books and other resources was a common practice. I can remember bringing classes into this library to study, and feeling confident that we would be well-served by our time there. This library did not work as a social space for student to relax, as the hierarchy of librarians and formality of the space tended towards quiet study. This library was well-run and proudly displayed by the school to visitors and parents, and had an impressive collection of print resources. This is an example of the role of the librarian being dictated by the functioning of a vital organ in school life (Barrett, 2010).

References

Barrett, L. (2010). Effective school libraries: Evidence of impact on student achievement. The SL, 58(3), 136-139.

Shaper, S., & Streatfield, D. (2012). Invisible care? The role of librarians in caring for the ‘whole pupil’ in secondary schools. Pastoral Care in Education, 30(1), 65-75

https://doi.org/10.1080/02643944.2011.651225