The relationship of teacher librarians to principals is a discourse that is no doubt substantially impacted by the balance of power between the two with school communities. Farmer (2007) addresses the need for TLs to increasingly align themselves with the vision of school principals.
One would hope that the vision of such powerful stakeholders as principals is articulated clearly through a school mission that explicitly dedicates a space for learning through the library. The dystopian careerist paranoia suggested by Kachel (2017) in which TLs are encouraged to surveil even the personal interests and hobbies of principals in a desperate effort to divine and supplicate to their will is best to avoided. Alternatively, as highlighted by Lupton (2017) the current situation in which many principals who acknowledge the inherent value of TLs in schools would be actively seeking to fully extend and perhaps, more concerningly, exploit the position, likewise requires critical consideration.
Empowering TLs with skillsets in emerging technologies and positioning them as leaders in this capacity ensures the agility and adaptibility for TLs to evolve and not be limited to a value assessment in which principals contend “(their) biggest beef is (they) pay for the ‘T’ part of the TL and (they) don’t get any ‘T’ from the TL.
Ultimately, the most compelling conversation that can be held between TLs and principals is one that revolves around the traditional relationship between librarian and learner has been highlighted recently by Merga (2019). In a refreshing piece of advocacy it is argued that that guidance and nurture provided by TLs during the selection of texts by learners outside of task-based learning can be linked to long lasting and powerful impacts to literacy.
I believe that while it is important to negotiate with power in a discourse that is responsive and reflective of its goals, it is likewise important in advocacy to draw attention to the value of integral practices that TLs have always provided through their direct role in the lives of individual learners. It would appear a skilled TL would be able to connect two and raise, rather than change, the profile of the profession within schools
References
Farmer, L. (2007). Principals: Catalysts for collaboration . School Libraries Worldwide, 13(1), 56-65.
Kachel, D. (2017). The principal and the librarian: Positioning the school library program. Teacher Librarian, 45(1), 50-52.
Lupton, M. (2016). Adding value: Principals’ perceptions of the role of the teacher librarian. School. Libraries Worldwide. 22(1), 49-61 https://doi-org.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/10.14265.22.1.005
Merga, M. (2019) Do Librarians Feel that Their Profession Is Valued in Contemporary Schools?, Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association, 68:1, 18-37, DOI: 10.1080/24750158.2018.1557979