Having been a teacher for 14 years across many curriculum areas, mainly Secondary but occasionally Primary I feel I have a knowledge of a variety of disciplines, & learning needs of various year levels, however, only usually focusing on one or two at a time.
The role of a TL as stated by the NSW Federation of Teachers:
PROFESSIONAL ROLE
- The Teacher-Librarian has a professional involvement in the learning and teaching program of the school by collaborating with teachers in curriculum development, implementation and evaluation.
- The Teacher-Librarian initiates and cooperates in programs to ensure that students become discerning users of information to enable them to achieve the learning outcomes specified in the schools education programs.
- The Teacher-Librarian has key role in the school’s information technology program.
- The Teacher-Librarian provides experiences to encourage reading.
- The Teacher-Librarian develops, organises and manages information resources which meet the educational, cultural and recreational needs of students and the professional needs of teachers.
- The Teacher-Librarian facilitates access to external sources of information.
- The Teacher-Librarian is responsible for all library management, including:
- devising and implementing systems for efficient library operation to ensure optimum user access to information resources;
- preparing and administering the library budget;
- training and supervising the library staff;
- evaluating and reporting on library programmes.
(https://www.nswtf.org.au/pages/role-teacher-librarian-school-community.html)
Since starting my Masters journey into Librarianship, the expectations of the role of the TL are astounding. The knowledge to teach ALL cross-curricular areas, across ALL year levels in addition to the daily managing of the physical space and often single handily seems almost impossible.
The role of a teacher is demanding and ever-evolving but generally their focus is in one subject area and so they can delve deeply into this, I feel that a TL faces the challenge of trying to have a knowledge across all disciplines in addition to the knowledge of how to access information, meanwhile collaborating with other staff and managing a physical space that requires constant updated and circulation.
NSW Teachers Federation. The Role of the Teacher-Librarian in the School Community retrieved 29th November 2019 from https://www.nswtf.org.au/pages/role-teacher-librarian-school-community.html