As part of our studies, and more specifically the Professional Reflective Portfolio assessment, we have been instructed to create a personal philosophy which underpins our values, beliefs, ideals, theories and techniques as Teacher Librarians / Information Professionals. Below I have decided to record the process of creatine my personal philosophy.
A personal philosophy should be written in a first-person, concise, discipline specific rather abstract, avoid jargon, sincere, unique, and assessable or subject to revisions. A personal philosophy usually focuses on 3-5 concepts (or pillars) which gravitate around the concepts of your professional/personal values, beliefs and ideals (goals).
To begin with, I workshopped my values, beliefs and ideals into a categories; with the addition of professional roles and responsibilities.
Values:
- Trustworthiness, respect, accountability, confidentiality, inclusivity
- Accessibility for all
- Engaging children’s strengths, interests, skills, abilities, and knowledge
- Building positive relationships toward the user, community, library and information resources, colleagues/professionals, employees and employer
- Collaboration
- Promoting diversity – especially recognising first land owners
- Transperency
Beliefs:
- Freedom of access
- Intellectual freedom and creativity
- Preserving and providing
- Each child / patron is an individual
- Libraries are centres for life long learning, growth and change to occur
- Information is empowering
Ideals /Goals:
- Quality of Collection and user access to it
- Advocacy, allocation and access
- Promote positive social change and encourage diversity
- Restricting censorship
- Libraries as more than “books” – Visual poetics, maker-spaces, digital spaces etc
- Libraries as places to create, imagine, explore, and enjoy words and information
Roles and Responsibilities:
- Professional development
- Professionalism and code of conduct
- Competent, analytical and reflective practice
- Multi-dimensional role
- Specialist
- Curriculum support and resourcing
- Administration and management
- Resource collection and development
- Archiving
As you can see, a TL has a lot to consider when writing their personal or professional philosophy statement. Obviously, there are too many points above cover within a concise philosophical statement. Logically, my next step was to workshop the above ideas into a succinct paragraph, whilst reflecting on the ASLA standards.
Below is my draft philosophy statement (subject to change):
“An effective Teacher Librarian (TL) is an information specialist, resource curator, and an educational programmer who advocates, develops and supports lifelong learning of their students, colleagues and wider school communities. As a TL, it is my aim to foster a space that engages, empowers, challenges, and grows my patrons through collaboration, developmental opportunities, and the provision of a quality collection.
As a TL, I value trustworthiness, confidentiality, inclusivity, accessibility, and diversity. As I believe that a TL must advocate for freedom of access, restricting censorship, intellectual freedom, individual creativity, and the importance of libraries as hubs for social change.”
Side note: As the max word count for our Philosophy statement is 100 words (+/- 10%) I was unable to keep the next part of my statement. However, I thought I would still include it here.
“Additionally, being a TL is a multi-dimensional role. A TL does much more than collect and develop collections, and provide curriculum support; they also lead and manage specialist teams and administration. Therefore, I value being a competent, analytical and reflective practitioner who continues to develop themselves through professional development opportunities.”