ETL 401 – Assignment One – Part B
Reflecting on your experiences of school libraries thus far, write a 500 word piece about how you think the role of the TL is perceived by parents/community in schools.
When considering my response to this question, I immediately thought of this popular meme:
I felt a meme was appropriate in helping to articulate my thoughts on this topic as they are often used today to reflect popular thoughts on ideas relating to culture and stereotypes.
The Oxford Dictionary defines it as:
Meme (noun):
- An image, video, piece of text, etc., typically humorous in nature, that is copied and spread rapidly by Internet users, often with slight variations.
There were various versions of this meme but I selected this one mostly because I felt a couple of the pictures summarised, for me, common misconceptions about librarians.
Namely, the picture of the woman with a stern expression, glasses and the caption, “What my friends think I do.” It captures what I believe is a common idea: that librarians are old, grumpy and spend most of their working day telling people to be quiet and/or joyfully giving out library fines (see picture one).
The other images I connected with included the last two: the image of the children, riding a rainbow into a book, with the caption “What I think I do” and the last image, “What I really do” which sees the librarian almost tearing her hair out at the incompetent patron.
Having now read the Standards of Professional Excellence for Teacher Librarians (Asla.org.au, 2018) it is evident that the Teacher Librarian’s role is more than the sum of an internet meme. In some ways, I feel a Teacher Librarian is a super human teacher. They have the qualification of a teacher first and foremost. This means they must comply with the Australian Teaching Standards (Aitsl.edu.au, 2018) and ensure they maintain their proficiency in these areas. They utilise those skills in teaching literacy, inquiry learning and information literacy in a classroom setting and have the same requirements of any competent teacher: know your students and how to teach them.
In addition, they must comply with the ASLA standards and have evidence to support that they comply with these standards. This aspect of the role has a whole school focus: understanding the curriculum and collaborating with various areas of the whole school to do this as well as managing the library resources and the space as a learning environment. Purcell (2010) explores in her journal article that Teacher Librarians are working in a micro and macro environment within a school.
This, to me, is an idealist approach to the role and correlates with the second last image, “What I think I do.” It is one TLs should strive for however, TLs must work against these persistent, simplified community perceptions. I also believe if the role isn’t viewed positively from within the school environment: as being multi-faceted, dynamic and necessary in its assistance of the whole school’s achievement of outcomes, then unfortunately, I think these commonplace stereotypes will continue to persist.
References:
Aitsl.edu.au. (2018). Teacher Standards. [online] Available at: https://www.aitsl.edu.au/teach/standards [Accessed 4 Mar. 2018].
Asla.org.au. (2018). Standards of professional excellence for teacher librarians :: ASLA. [online] Available at: http://www.asla.org.au/policy/standards.aspx [Accessed 4 Mar. 2018].
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.
