Diana Mitchell discusses professional librarians identity by taking us through the concept of identity and how its applies to academic librarians and their teaching role.
3. … a man has as many social selves as there are
individuals who recognize him and carry an image of him in
their mind.(William James, 1890)
4. People by nature lead storied lives
and tell stories of those lives,
whereas narrative researchers
describe such lives, collect and tell
stories of them, and write narratives
of experience’
(Connelly and Clandinin, 1990, p. 2)
5. Narrative Inquiry
A knowledge of the particular, the unique
Study into and understanding of experience
Charts identity across human life span
Life Stories social, cultural & historical
Transactional not passive – transformed
Stories with truth
7. ‘biography is, and always will be, the crucial factor
affecting perceptions and experiences. What has
happened to us in the past affects the things that
happen to us in the present’
(Wellington and Sikes, 2007)
8. 1. Previous educational experiences
2. Doctoral motivations
3. Relationships
4. Support networks
5. After the Doctorate…
6. Identity
Main Themes
11. Identity issues for all HEPROs
Multiple identities enacted
Changing identities – self-definition
Contrasting identities equals stress
Space to express voice, re-negotiating
Labels place value on roles
12. Identity
Relationship between an individual and society re-negotiated
‘What it means to be who one is’
(Burke, 2003)
‘People’s source of meaning and experience’
(Castell, 1997)
14. Communitarian Concept
Distinctive and embedded
Identity influenced by specific contexts &
traditions - family, culture, community
Community - defining moral space for individuals
to make sense of their world
15. Professional Identity
Professions can be important source of identity
Identity formation in education settings - workplaces
Argument that power institutionalised – hierarchies race, gender, class
Universities producing professionals and content of professional
knowledge
17. Academic identity
communitarian concept present for formation academic identities
‘scholarly community of which they are a part rather than the specific institution
in which they work’ (Delanty, 2008)
‘Core workforce’
Unique, bounded and protected space’ (Henkel, 2010)
Change causing crisis between self and collective identity – less cohesive
Redefining themselves, roles and boundaries, partnerships
18. Librarian Professional Identity
Spaces widened for HEPROs including librarians
Blurring boundaries
Exclusionary issues, binary perceptions
Some HEPROs have own professional affiliations
Widening participation - contribution to learning & teaching
20. The world of the teaching
librarian is diverse, challenging
and often contrary
(McGuinness, 2011)
Editor's Notes
Instruction not really recognised as a library function until 1970s (although around from 1800s)