Teacher-Librarian? What's in a Name? Making Meaning from Metaphor

Abstract

Under what title should teacher-librarians be known? What is in a name? This paper provides an Australian background to the questions about the name that should be given to those who work as information specialists in schools. The authors review metaphorical analysis as a research tool and outline a qualitative research project employing the metaphor technique in an attempt to discover the conceptions that stakeholders (teacher-librarians, principals, classroom teachers, others) hold about three alternative titles that could be employed by the teacher-librarian profession. This research was undertaken with a number of groups in New South Wales, Australia.