I am excited to start my second year of the Masters of Education (Teacher Librarian) course and am currently delving back into online meetings and discussion forum introductions and gearing up towards readings. This semester I am studying a unit (ETL504) on leadership, a unit (INF447) on research, and another unit (ETL507) which is spread out across both semesters involving practical experiences with a placement, study visit, and professional portfolio.
I am curious about how learning about leadership from a tertiary environment will affect my day to day practices in the management of volunteers. I know that I have developed my own style of leadership and that it is different to others and potent in its own way. I reckon that exploring weaknesses of differing styles and theoretical frameworks that the styles exist in will be helpful in engaging with other people and organisations whether I am the leader in the interaction or the led.
The research unit advances aspects of knowledge about knowledge that were part of why I wished to qualify as a librarian in the first place. To know how information is navigated at various levels, how it is held, and how this affects the ontology of individuals experience.
The placement unit will allow me to test out some of the future pathway ideas I have for my career such as working as a university librarian ,or perhaps a stint in the Melbourne Cricket Club library, or even as an actual school librarian. This one seems like the least pressing at the moment as it is over two terms but i’m going to get into its readings as soon as I’ve caught up on my other two units.