What is the impact of Teacher-Librarian Additional Qualification programs and Teacher-Librarian Certificate courses on Canadian-based, university-level research on school librarianship? How might teacher-librarians ensure Canadian university scholarship on school librarianship grows and thrives?
by Diana Maliszewski and Joanie Proske
Course writers and instructors for the Queen’s University Continuing Teacher Education Department’s Teacher Librarian Certificate / Additional Qualification discuss the state of teacher-librarian education across Canada, focusing on examples from their home provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. They pose challenging questions about the future of TL education courses, although popular, with TL positions in decline.
Diana Maliszewski (OCT BA BEd MEd) is the teacher-librarian at Agnes Macphail Public School in the Toronto District School Board and has worked as a school library professional for over twenty-five years. From 2006 - 2018, she was the editor-in-chief of The Teaching Librarian, the official publication of the Ontario School Library Association. Currently, she is the co-Vice President of the Association for Media Literacy and Canada's representative with the North American and European chapter of UNESCO's Media and Information Literacy Alliance. Diana developed and still facilitates the Teacher Librarianship Additional Qualification courses for York University and Queen's University. Diana has been honoured with several awards, such as the Follett International Teacher-Librarian of the Year in 2008, the OLA President's Award for Exceptional Achievement in 2013, and the CSL Angela Thacker Memorial Award in 2025. Like her friend and co-writer of this TMC paper, Joanie Proske, Diana is a proud graduate of the University of Alberta Teacher-Librarianship via Distance Learning Masters of Education program. She blogs weekly as part of her reflective professional practice at
http://mondaymollymusings.blogspot.com.
Joanie Proske is a retired elementary and secondary teacher librarian from Langley, BC, whose contributions to the profession were honored with the BCTLA Val Hamilton Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020. She is a coursework writer and current instructor for Queens Teacher Librarian Certificate program.
As a fellow TLDL graduate, I am enormously impressed with the history and overview of the different programs and emphasis on how much we need graduate level research based courses like U of A's TLDL program. I had, prior to taking on the Chair of CSL and way too many other things, been looking at starting my PhD to examine School Libraries. It's still on the agenda but I need sometime to get my feet under me with the CSL role. Another barrier has been the lack of a Canadian choice for pursuing a PhD. While I am looking at San Jose State University's program, I haven't had time to write a paper for publication in a peer-reviewed journal which is a requirement for entry, as I've been committed to writing for CSL Journal and doing various larger projects for BCTLA. I hope UofA can reconsider the closing of the TLDL program, it is instrumental in building capacity within TLs across Canada to be leaders.
ReplyDeleteJoseph, thanks for your comments. Although I love learning and researching, I did ask my spouse to prevent me from pursuing my PhD. (It would have been too expensive, too lengthy, and with not enough gain for the effort.) As Joanie can attest, writing that MEd paper itself was tough. It's interesting that a requirement for the PhD program at San Jose is to publish in a peer-reviewed journal. You almost need the skills that you'll get in the program before you begin the program! (If it's any comfort, I graduated from TLDL in 2010 and had my first peer-reviewed academic journal publication in 2018, with a great deal of credit to my co-writer, E. Soleas!) Make sure to read Dr. Oberg's paper to see how U of A plans to offer something "same but different". Do you think it would equal the TLDL MEd program? Maybe free PhDs for those who do the MEd with U of A and then write for TMC? (We can dream, right?)
DeleteDiana
YES! YES! YES!
ReplyDeleteThere *are* organizations that have the money and interest to fund Canadian-ledresearch. How *do* we connect these grant providers with the researchers willing to do this kind of work? And WHEN!
This remains one of my priorities heading into 2025 for OSLA Council... we want new school library data. Let's do this!
It's definitely on our (lengthy) to-do lists!
DeleteWe can make it happen!
I brought up this paper at dinner last night. I thought my Mom, who represented her union of public health workers in Peel Region for many years, would appreciate the disappearing nature of specialized workers. I commented that the M.Ed TLDL program I graduated from in 2014 no longer exists. She mentioned that the nursing program that she graduated from in 1967 no longer existed 3 years after she attended. Then we got to wondering why out loud and we decided that it definitely has something to do with gender, and rural living. There's a need across Canada for elevating marginalized folks yet accessibility still remains an issue, even when something like online learning exists. In Mom's case, she had to leave home to go to this program but wanted to because it gave her direct work experience in her field before graduating. For me, the TLDL program at the University of Alberta gave me a community of like-minded individuals and through this I found my voice as an educational professional. I never set foot on the campus until 2022. I was really grieving graduation and asked my faculty advisor, Dianne Oberg, what am I going to do now? She said: "You're going to join your provincial subject organization." And I did. This mentoring is crucial to the existence and advancement of school libraries. The learning is important, but in my humble opinion, the community and the forum for our research is is even more so. I wonder if we collaborated with the Open Access people at UVic like Valerie Irvine, or UCalgary like Verena Roberts, if we couldn't collate our specialized courses somehow regardless of if they're running. If we could increase the scope of what you've found here, I'd track down some of that demographic data about accessibility challenges and see if both a national and regional approach to mentorship would help us feel connected.
ReplyDeleteAlanna,
DeleteWait, so we have Oberg to thank for your activity in OSLA? Thank you Dianne! I agree with you; the word "community" is bandied around frequently (my CrossFit community, my Fluevog community) but community is so important. Joanie was the one who shoulder-tapped me and told me to look into writing the TL AQs for Queen's, and now I get to help mentor. Alanna, do you know Valerie or Verena? Maybe connecting and consulting would be useful. Check out Dr. Oberg's paper on what the TL-DL program is becoming (or the U of A next steps). There's the Mentoree that exists, but I think what you are suggesting is a slightly different sort of creature.
Diana
I've orbited Alanna while she did her Masters and my recent secondment has put me in the middle of post-grad research in Canada. When we did a quantum bootcamp at UBC in 2023 we met with 9 post-grad students about to complete their PhDs. Guess how many stayed in Canada upon graduation? Not one.
ReplyDeleteThere is a class of people who live internationally and move where the funding is (they take their IP with them). Some time ago Canada leveraged its excellent university research ratings and started selling seats to people who have no intention of helping to build the thing that serves up their PhD.
In my travels I'm having trouble finding any Canadian university who isn't more interested in cashing in on international students than it is in building Canadian capacity. On top of that, at an IP conference I attended in the fall Canada is falling far behind in terms of retaining any of the intellectual property that comes out of our award winning research universities.
I read this paper with a sense of resignation because I've come to the conclusion that our universities have little interest in building Canadian capacity as they chase funding elsewhere.
As an aside, the computer tech AQ I took 15 years ago is no longer available. They say due to lack of interest yet boards say they don't run it because they can't find anyone qualified to do it. I'm watching computer tech dying while the rest of the planet is talking about digital transformation. If we get it here we'll have to bring in the talent because we adamantly refuse to curate it locally.
Tim, as is often the case, you tell the brutal truth. When researching this paper, I went looking for "where are they now" reconnections. Many folks have retired after a rewarding career, some have died / passed away, but others, like you've stated, have moved away to greener pastures.
DeleteThis is a conversation I've had with my husband (who actually entered this country as an international student for post-grad; I like to joke that he came to Canada for his PhD and got a Mrs instead!) and you are correct that the money received from international students is ridiculously large and dangerously attractive to Canadian universities. How do we retain the intellectual properties from our research universities? Did your IP conference have any suggestions?
My question (both for you and the discussion forums at TMC) are then: if universities won't build Canadian capacity for research excellence, then who might?
And yes, how ironic to see computer tech decline when it's needed so badly. (Kinda like media literacy - AML is currently the only provider of the Media AQ in all of Ontario, and we [AML] can't run the course every year because they need a set number to make it feasible.)
Diana
Thank you for this important study, Diana! You hit upon some key points that I think make teachers reticent to continue their TL education. Many teachers take the initial TLAQ to receive the minimum requirement to qualify for the TL job but stop there. Once in the position “learning on the job” takes precedence over continued academic scholarship. As you pointed out TLs are often used to fill gaps around the school during absences or the TL job comes with other leadership roles such as chairperson or special education, thus not allowing enough time for educational advancement. I think many TLs employ a cost-benefit analysis to furthering their studies as well. Many boards have already moved away from the TL position and more go year to year with the funding for the position up in the air. To this end, many TLs choose not to expend time and energy on something for which the practice of is in serious doubt.
ReplyDeleteHi Ian,
DeleteIt was a joint effort with Joanie (and I really like how we took different approaches to investigating things - she conducted lots of interviews while at the BCTLA conference and I leaned on quantitative data from OCT).
You are right that so many educators prefer the "on-the-job learning" - how many of us (or know of others) that bemoaned their time in the Faculty of Education or complained that they learned so much more in their practicums than they did in their Fac of Ed courses? Reducing the "best parts" of the TL position also makes it less-desirable. So, then, how can we make it more attractive? You took your Part 2 - what encouraged you to do so? What might encourage you to take a Part 3 TL AQ? Or beyond?
Diana
Thank you, Diana and Joanie. Your paper provides an important reminder about the need for research and scholarship in our domain. It is interesting to consider this issue given :
ReplyDelete- the wide (and changing) variation in qualifications across the provinces and territories, and
- the challenge of pursuing research that is evidenced-based and reflects theories and practices from both educational and library and information science fields. Lots to think about!
Annette, your two bullet points make me wonder how easy it would be for a qualified TL in one province to move to another province to practice. Would these various qualifications be recognized, or would they need to take the local courses?
DeleteDiana
I enjoyed reading this paper, having just completed my TL Specialist (AQ Part 3) at Queens with you! I connected with a lot of points in your paper, but the part on why so many people take Part 1 resonated with me and had me thinking. I will admit, that I took Part 3 to complete my 2nd Specialist, which would open the door to take PQP Part 1. I thought that Part 3, with a focus on leadership would be a good fit for my goals. Well, my goals have changed. I decided not to take PQP this fall as planned. Instead, I am here at the Superconference, acclaimed as an OSLA Representative, a member of the Climate Action Committee and with your encouragement, I have published a paper for TMC8. I feel I am have made the leap from talking about leadership to doing it. I am truly grateful that our paths have crossed (now in person too). I am so happy to be collaborating, advocating, and learning for our school libraries with such an amazing group of people. Thanks for being such an inspiration.
ReplyDelete