Originally presented January 12, 2022
What does it mean to be a “teaching librarian” and how do you become one?
The academic teaching librarian role is complex, and has been defined in multiple ways, focusing variously on the skills, practices, relationships and titles that shape our understanding of this professional position. For example, the recent ACRL framework, Roles and Strengths of Teaching Librarians (2017) was created to holistically capture the wide-ranging work of teaching librarians as they move in and out of different instructional and learning support roles during their careers, and to articulate the “strengths” or characteristics that enable them to excel in these roles.
However, to truly understand ourselves as teaching librarians, we need to go beyond considering what we know, what we do, and what our job titles are, to explore the powerful idea of “teacher identity” and to comprehend how it forms and develops as we act, react, interact and reflect during our professional training and in the day-to-day experiences of our work.
In this webinar, Claire McGuinness discusses how “teacher identity” develops over the course of a career in academic librarianship. Based on her recent book, The Academic Teaching Librarian’s Handbook, participants are invited to reflect on their own personal teaching journeys, and how they perceive and inhabit their roles. Participants will learn about the benefits of reflective practice in shaping teacher identity, as well as some practical approaches that they can integrate into their work.
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