Teacher-librarians have an important role in education today. That
role encompasses a wide spectrum of responsibilities making them an
equal and valued partner in the education process. Due to the limited
nature of Canadian research into the perceptions of the role of the teacher
librarian and School Library Resource Centres, the purpose of this study is
to address the changing role through both the literature and models in
practice in schools, and discover what change is occurring and will
continue to occur, despite economical restraints that limit budgets and
cut teacher-librarian positions.
The major research questions of this thesis are the following:
1. Do teachers, teacher-librarians and administrators all have the
same vision of the role of the teacher-librarian and School Library
Resource Centre?
2. Is there a difference in the perception of the role of the teacher
librarian in part time schools and full time schools?
3. Is there a difference in the perception of the role of the teacher
librarian by teacher-librarians, based on degree of education held?
The design of this thesis is survey research. A questionnaire was
mailed to all of the elementary schools in one urban school district in
British Columbia. In each school the administrator, teacher-librarian, one
intermediate teacher and one primary teacher were asked to complete the
form. The results, once analyzed, indicate that all of the respondents
have a similar vision of the School Library Resource Centre. This vision
correlates to that of the Canadian literature reviewed. It was perceived
that the primary roles of the teacher-librarian are Instruction,
Consultation and Library Management. While there are individual
differences between the 4 subject groups based on how important they
rate a task, all of the statements are consider a role of the teacher
-librarian. Both the education of a teacher-librarian and the amount of
time he/she holds in the position do not demonstrate significant
differences in their view of the teacher-librarian. In addition, the results
of this study also demonstrate some ambiguity between what is perceived
as the role of the teacher-librarian by all subject groups and what is
happening in elementary schools in reality. This is most evident in the
anecdotal comments. While highlighted as a significant change to the
School Library Resource Centre program, several teachers comment on the
lack of cooperative planning and teaching that actually takes place. A last
finding of this study is the importance of technology to School Library
Resource Centres, and as a consequence, the importance of the role of the
teacher-librarian in consulting with teachers and students to maximize
and facilitate the use of that technology.
Overwhelmingly, this study demonstrates that teacher-librarians
and School Library Resource Centres are both crucial to the education
process today. As the understandings of the importance of their role in
education continue to increase, so will the support and recognition that
are essential to their continued existence in times of restraint.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/5357 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Hufton, Amanda |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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