Empowering Voices: The Importance of BC Teacher-Librarians in Union Activism and Advocacy
by Nicole Hurtubise and Tammy Le
Nicole Hurtubise and Tammy Le focus on the sub-theme of Accountability (How might we help students and staff know what learning is going on in our space and how they can get involved?), exploring the critical role of teacher-librarians in British Columbia's public education system. They outline the efforts of the British Columbia Teacher-Librarians’ Association (BCTLA) to gather data through a Working and Learning Conditions Survey and to advocate for better support and recognition of teacher-librarians' contributions to student success. Hurtubise and Le further detail initiatives taken to raise awareness among educators, parents, and the community, culminating in presentations and materials aimed at fostering support for teacher-librarians' roles in schools.
Nicole Hurtubise is an executive member of the BCTLA and a teacher-librarian at Morgan Elementary in Surrey, BC. She is the current President of the Surrey Chapter of the BCTLA. Nicole is involved in the Surrey Teachers’ Association as a Local Representative to the BCTF and Chair of the Professional Development Committee. Nicole has a B.A. from SFU, M.Ed. in Justice, Law and Ethics in Education from SFU and a Certificate in Teacher-Librarianship from UBC.
Tammy Le is the President of the British Columbia Teacher Librarians’ Association and a teacher-librarian at École Salish Secondary in Surrey, B.C. She is also the Past President of the Surrey Chapter of the BCTLA. She has worked alongside members in her association to advocate better working and learning conditions and helped organize several provincial wide conferences to support the professional development of teacher-librarians in British Columbia. Tammy has a B.Sc. in Biochemistry and French Literature and a B.Ed. From the University of British Columbia as well as a Diploma in Library Sciences from UBC.
The deterioration of working and learning conditions in BC and beyond with respect to teacher-librarians is baffling to me. As you pointed out the research shows clearly that our role improves student outcomes, yet we are continually cut and then district administration bemoans low student achievement. This dovetails with our findings within the District TL Network around district level TL and their ability to create meaningful change by improving TL competency through implementation of standards like Leading Learning. The advocacy work being done in BC and Ontario, as highlighted by both Donald Hamilton awardees, is crucial in turning things around and getting those in positions of responsibility to listen to the research and make positive changes.
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DeleteAlthough I've been involved in professional development with my local for many years, I didn't really get involved in "politics" until recently. I'm fortunate to belong to a local that supports TLs, and I'm grateful for the advocacy you, Shaunna, and others are doing within the district. We need to build a community of supporters who will listen when we emphasize that research shows we can make a difference in student achievement.
It is such an interesting contrast to read this paper and to read that of Dianne Oberg in the same place. Although your paper doesn't have the scope to address the specialized training needed to be a teacher-librarian nor the myriad of octopus-like skills needed to wrangle media in all its forms, the basic training to fill these positions is also less and less available. In my own past position, I often had to marry my job restrictions with those of my colleague, the library technician, assigned to the library as an administrative assistant. Under their contract, they were not to be supervising students, so indeed if I left the library space, they had every right to close the library, displacing up to 250 students at a time. Sometimes I could ask my colleague teaching in 1 of the library spaces that morning to go through the emergency procedures with me so that I could leave, but very often it meant just staying put, cutting off that collaboration or my attendance for that meeting opportunity. So much to think about here in terms of advocacy. I'm sure that your advocacy work had another unexpected result: community and the warmth of collegiality -- the antidote to being the lone voice as the librarian. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteThank you for reading our paper, Alanna. We are often one at a school and the work we do is often overlooked. I think our job has always been to help others shine and it is time for us to look out for ourselves and ensure that we are also entitled to support from our community and colleagues. They have been happy to support but don't always realize we need it. So advocacy is something we have to do continuously.
DeleteNicole and Tammy,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing what is happening on the west coast. Sadly, there was a lot of somber nodding as I read your account. You know it's bad when some of us TLs are "relieved" or "bitterly thankful" that we are emergency supply teachers because it means that it's a tiny bit less likely that they'll cut the position entirely because it saves the boards money and prevents internal chaos at the individual school level. It's a shame, because we know that TLs are so much more than prep providers; we can do so much more than just give teachers their allocated time to plan or mark.
Thanks for pointing out that your 2016 win was only a partial win, because you were still operating under your 2002 collective agreement. In Ontario, many of our school boards have only just got our agreements negotiated, and there's some retro pay for some of the not-legal pay restrictions the gov't imposed.
Do you know Johanna Gibson-Lawler? In Ontario, she worked hard to establish a TL Ad Hoc committee as part of her union local. It's a tough haul, as many union folks are unfamiliar with what TLs do. (You point this out later in your paper.)
I loved this line from your paper on page 5: "We are a small group of specialized teachers who need information and knowledge to be able to fight for better working conditions." We need small but determined groups of people to change the world!
The colouring sheet idea is so out-of-the-box innovative and clever!
This is also an important line, from page 8: "Very often, the public and even our own colleagues do not understand the role of the teacher-librarian. This felt like the moment to educate others as much as we could." You folks are making the changes. I know when people taking the TL AQ courses in Ontario "discover" what TLs can possibly do, many state that they were never exposed to these ideas when they were in the Faculty of Education for their teacher-training. How can we make in-roads there?
Congratulations on your group co-winning the Donald Hamilton Advocacy Award. I can see why you were so worthy and deserving of the honour!
Diana Maliszewski
Thank you, Diana. We all know our work is always more than is perceived and we often don't showcase the things we do. This is probably why we are always targeted because of stereotypes of us persist and our roles are misunderstood. And unlike many other teaching roles, we always have to advocate and fight for our position and value.
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