For my MA dissertation, I looked at how 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 stakeholders who have been trained and worked in national settings with poor library provisions. This is particularly true when it comes to librarians having a teaching role. 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 may or may not be engaging in advocacy. 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 librarians aware of this, and about when advocacy might or might not be effective, as well as 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 teaching 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.
