While thinking about the learning journey undertaken this semester, with my return to study, it was both, challenging as well as encouraging. Throughout the course, my understanding about the role of teacher librarian has changed drastically. It has impacted very positively on the different roles and the many hats that the teacher librarians wear. They are teachers, ICT specialists, curriculum specialists, in charge of the management and resourcing of collections, expert communicators, environment managers- for effective learning environments, literature promoters, and leaders in the school and wider school community (ALIA, 2012; SLASA, 2008; ALSA, 2004). With the changing nature of education system in this e- world, the role of a teacher librarian is very complex and plays a pivotal role in a school.
I am now challenged and encourage to plan and deliver library programs that are based on quality teaching and guided inquiry design process. In today’s world, information literacy has been a buzz word. Constructivist theories of learning can be used to deliver these skills in a school. Constructivist theories of learning, which view knowledge not as some external block of ideas, concepts and information to be acquired, but as something constructed by individual learners, have become more accepted in schools. (Herring, 2007).Theories of constructivism suggest that humans construct knowledge and meaning from their experiences. It promotes active learning and learning by doing. As a result the understanding will be meaningful and lifelong.
Student Learning through Australian School Libraries (Hay 2005, 2006) indicated that the school library and teacher-librarian help students learn by providing access to a range of current resources and technology and by developing information literacy. The School Libraries Futures Project (Hay & Todd 2010) provided extensive examples of teacher-librarian activities that support information literacy and learning in New South Wales government schools.
A recent report (Staff in Australia’s Schools survey from the Australian Council for Education Research (ACER)) has suggested that the role of a teacher librarian in school has a significant impact on the NAPLAN results. It also shows that the students who most need teacher librarians are the least well served. The report notes that between 2010 and 2013 there is evidence of a greater number of teachers in library roles in high socio-economic (SES) schools and correspondingly fewer in low SES schools (ALIA, 2016).
However, some of the challenges that teacher librarians face are technology, time and workload, status and role (Combes, 2008). According to Barbara Combes, some of the strategies to overcome the challenges are to update our technological skills, learn to prioritise, be realistic, become a strategic planner, learn to delegate and collaborate, don’t make assumptions, attend professional development courses, promote yourself and your library (SCIS, Issue 66).
To sum up with, “Teacher librarians’ knowledge and use of current and emergent digital technologies, together with a deep appreciation of literature, can transform teaching and learning within the school” (ASLA, 2012, p.10).
References
Australian Library and Information Association Schools (March 2016), ALIA Calls more Teacher Librarians following Flat NAPLAN resultshttps://www.alia.org.au/news/14553/alia-calls-more-teacher-librarians-following-flat-naplan-test-results
Australian School Library Association (2013) Future learning and school libraries. Canberra: ASLA
Herring. J. (2007). Teacher librarians and the school library. In S. Ferguson (ED) Libraries in the twenty- first century: charting new directions in information (pp. 27- 42) Wagga- Wagga, NSW: Centre for information Studies, Charles Stuart University.
Combes, B. (2008) Challenges for Teacher Librarianship in 21st Century http://www2.curriculum.edu.au/scis/connections/issue_66/challenges_for_teacher_librarianship_pt1.html, Scan 66 (3), 11-12