To reflect on my own teaching journey, I have been a teacher and taught various teaching subjects in public schools for more than 5 years. I think being a teacher provides me an opportunity to deliver specific subject content and regularly meet with the same groups of students who attend my classes.

As a teacher, I plan lessons to suit different learning levels and abilities from individual students. I spend the majority of my working hours in my classroom to teach. At school, I cooperatively work with the Aboriginal Education Officer (AEO), wellbeing officer, and learning support staff to maximize some students’ learning and engagement in my class based on their culture, social, and economic backgrounds. Over the years of teaching, it has given me a great achievement and satisfaction to see the learning improvement from some of my students. Their enjoyment and positive feedback have encouraged me to be a better teacher and continue my journey in my teaching career.

Built on my teaching experience, becoming a future teacher librarian could be a very exciting challenge and opportunity in my professional development. After attending the first online meeting, watching the YouTube videos, and listening to the Podcasts, my understanding of the teacher librarian role has significantly changed. Module 1 has given me a broader picture of what a teacher librarian is and what they do at school. I think one of the significant aspects of being a teacher librarian is being able to oversee the development of teaching and learning from a whole-school scale rather than from a faculty or a specific teaching subject area.

The following areas are some of my key reflections on teacher librarianship:

The origin of school libraries in Australia can be traced back to the beginning of European-style educational provision in the country, in the early nineteenth century (Clyde, 1983). The role of a teacher librarian promotes the value of education and goes beyond the limitations of a single teaching subject.  According to the Statement of Teacher Librarians in Australia (ALIA & ASLA, 2016), a teacher librarian should be a leader of curriculum and learning at school and actively work with school leaders, faculties, teachers, and non-teaching staff.

In the Podcast interview which hosted by Dr. Kay Oddone, Natalie, who is the ASLA President of 2023, thinks that as a teacher librarian, it is critical to work alongside classroom teachers to build students’ learning skills, information literacy, as well as helping students select books based on their needs. She believes the primary role of a teacher librarian is to support teachers, learners, and families to extend students’ learning from the classroom to communities (Otten, 2022).

A teacher librarian should also be equipped with the knowledge and skills in digital information and communication in this rapidly developing society and support staff and students in how to choose and use information in their teaching and learning.

Collaboratively working with relevant school staff to create students’ interest clubs or groups and enhance cultural understanding by organizing school and community-invited events are other important areas in the role of a teacher librarian.

There are many more aspects in teacher librarianship could be explored. By following this course, I believe I will have a clearer understanding of teacher librarianship. This reflection will serve as a starting point and guide me in my study in this course.

References

Australian Library and Information Association, & Australian School Library Association. (2016, July). Statement on teacher librarians in Australia. Australian Library and Information Association. https://read.alia.org.au/alia-asla-statement-teacher-librarians-australia

Clyde, W. A. (1983). Australian School Libraries in the Nineteenth Century.  The Australian Library Journal, 32(2),11-17. https://doi.org/10.1080/00049670.1983.10755464

Otten, N. (Presenter). (2022, September 15). Episode 1 – Module 1: Introducing Teacher Librarianship [Audio podcast episode]. In ETL 401 Introduction to Librarianship. Charlies Sturt University. https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/teachlibpodcastproject/episode-1/