For my dissertation in the latter, I looked at how teacher-librarians were experiencing their role. I found that one impact was in stakeholder recognition – misconceptions abound, even in the international setting, because of the influences from other stakeholders who have been trained and worked in other national settings with poor library provisions. So though we might work in ‘international’ schools, when it comes to the library, we are still being affected by the experiences and situation of government school libraries elsewhere – the UK in particular has had a strong hold on the experiences of librarians in Hong Kong international schools. The role of advocacy is established in librarianship, but I found teacher-librarians were engaging in both advocacy and not. Further, advocates were either committed or reluctant, depending on how they found the efficacy of advocacy as related to the time spent. Meanwhile, non-advocates were either regretful (they thought they should do it more) or indifferent (they were sanguine about the effects of not advocating). Making teacher-librarians aware of this, and about when advocacy might be effective or not in the context and the awareness of the different types of advocacy can be a useful reflective tool for teacher-librarians. This is relevant not just to librarians but teachers and school leaders who have come from different national contexts as a way of understanding the role of the teacher-librarian.
Jonah Skinner, Teacher-Librarian, HKCA Po Leung Kuk School
I am a dual qualified teacher-librarian, with a PGDE from Hong Kong University in Early Childhood Education and an MA from the University of Sheffield in Librarianship & Information Services Management. I have lived in Hong Kong for 9 years, working in international settings for 5 and a half years both as a classroom kindergarten teacher and teacher-librarian.
