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Implementing a global perspective: the role of teacher-librarians in facilitating curriculum change

University of British Columbia

The politics of education is such that curricula in our schools are continually changing. In British Columbia, this is especially apparent since the Sullivan Royal Commission on Education released its report in August 1988. The Commission suggested that "a quality curriculum clearly reflects relevance, equity of access, response to diversity, accountability, and achievement" (Sullivan, 1988, p. 79). Consequently, the British Columbia Ministry of Education published several documents to guide teachers in developing, implementing, and assessing curricula, which promotes the development of an educated citizen. As a teacher and a teacher-librarian, I believe that it is my responsibility to help develop students as educated citizens. I also believe that to become educated citizens, students need to develop a global perspective. The purpose of this research was to investigate ways in which teacher-librarians could facilitate the implementation of a global perspective. I expected to gain insight into the ways that reflection and collaboration motivated teacher-librarians to affect curriculum development and implementation. I also expected to create a situation that encouraged teacher-librarians to evolve as leaders in their schools, whether it was as cooperative program planners and teachers, as advocates of teaching for a global perspective, or as forerunners of information technology. My method of investigation was action research. I chose this approach because it was a collaborative process that involved creating a research plan, acting on the plan, reflecting on the information that was collected, and then revising the plan. Furthermore, it allowed for the improvement of our practice as we progressed. During the project, a group of five teacher-librarians, including me, completed two action research cycles where we developed and reflected upon strategies for implementing a global perspective within our separate schools. In conclusion, the teacher-librarians demonstrated a commitment to the project and documented various situations in which they influenced curriculum implementation that reflected facilitating a global perspective. They felt that the action research process provided valuable opportunities for sharing with peers, which generally does not occur because teacher-librarians tend to occupy unique, solitary positions within their schools.

Thesis/Dissertation

application/pdf

2009-05-25

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/8146

Curriculum Studies

University of British Columbia

UBCV

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