Recently in a whole school newsletter, I was referred to by the head librarian as the ‘library assistant’. While I am assisting in the library and I have not completed my teacher librarianship degree, I am still a teacher. This belittling, whether intentional or not, had steadily progressed from making ‘suggestions’ to my work in grade level planning documents, to editing my work in whole school documents; without permission.

Why am I telling you this?
Well, I needed to have a courageous conversation. From my readings throughout ETL-504 I have come across multiple useful resources. I took advice from Strive! and had a courageous conversation.

Following the 7 steps I participated in a meaningful discussion and was able to outline the issue I – not being treated as a competent professional – and together we were able to come to a resolution. I occupy the physical space and role of the teacher librarian, however in title and role, I am a teacher.

In past experiences I have been unable to have courageous conversations, instead I held the issues in until they grew to the point that principal intervention was needed. This time due to my studies I was able to effectively solve the communication issue without principal intervention.

References

Strive!. (2013, June 12). How to have a courageous conversation. [Video]. Youtube. https://youtu.be/CoFe_NRRITQ