This sentence has made me think a lot: ‘The Teacher Librarian should have a thorough understanding of the broader information landscape.’ 

What would a secondary school student understand the ‘broader information landscape’ to be? And I started to consider the cultural status of different types of information, and would this mean that a high school student’s idea of the types of information in a ‘broader information landscape’ would be grossly different from mine, or say, their first-choice university or future employer? 

What would this mean for the teacher librarian? I revisited French sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu’s work on the concept of cultural capital – where the non-financial social assets (which includes the ‘type’ or status of information that a person is familiar with) influences a person’s social mobility and success. This information can range from education credentials, knowledge, skills, talents, abilities and cultural awareness.  

Regarding information, Bourdieu recognises that certain types of information can be associated with cultural capital, influencing individuals’ social standing and opportunities. I would argue that with so much of an Australian students’ future lying on the ATAR score, the most pertinent to Australian schools, and TLs would be the distinction between information from high vs low culture. High culture would include classical literature, art and philosophy often associated with higher social classes. Whereas low would include pop culture and I would like to also add the trends and memes on which much understanding and enjoyment of social media would depend. 

With this in mind, I wonder if it is important for a TL to be concurrent with both high and low culture, and would it be advisable for students to have an awareness of such a classification system? 

Medvetz, T., & Sallaz, J. J. (2018). The Oxford Handbook of Pierre Bourdieu. In Oxford University Press eBooks. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199357192.001.0001