Toward an early history of teacher/librarian interactions, cooperation, and professional tensions
When I'm ready to revise Chpt 3 of the dissertation, these sources will provide the educational history background for that lit review:
-History of Education in America by Pulliam
-The American School, 1642 to 1933 by Spring
-Education in a Free Society by Ripa
-Pillars of the Republic by Kaestle
-How Teachers Taught by Curan
I have a conundrum regarding this article-to-be: who is the audience? Is it vindicating or villifying to write about teacher-librarian conflict in the past? I do think it's a worthy antidote to histories that gloss over such professional tensions over jurisdiction, definition, identity, etc. L&CR seems wrong because it's not about cultural records, it's about professional culture. This makes me think Library History might be the venue, but that raises issues that Boyd raised and I haven't yet addressed: how do these early tensions connect to the broader story of the joint section of the NEA and ALA that emerged in 1896? My data is basically 1882-1898 and from the Reading of the Young reports. So this might require more primary source work as well.
It's certainly not going to be for an audience of children's librarians directly, but rather for folks interested in how reformist and, later, Progressive Era professionals defined their work in relation to children's reading. Who should guide the reading of children, teachers, librarians, parents, or others? That's a question that persists, and it suggests that this might be a worthy article if I can just figure out the appopriate scope and venue.
-History of Education in America by Pulliam
-The American School, 1642 to 1933 by Spring
-Education in a Free Society by Ripa
-Pillars of the Republic by Kaestle
-How Teachers Taught by Curan
I have a conundrum regarding this article-to-be: who is the audience? Is it vindicating or villifying to write about teacher-librarian conflict in the past? I do think it's a worthy antidote to histories that gloss over such professional tensions over jurisdiction, definition, identity, etc. L&CR seems wrong because it's not about cultural records, it's about professional culture. This makes me think Library History might be the venue, but that raises issues that Boyd raised and I haven't yet addressed: how do these early tensions connect to the broader story of the joint section of the NEA and ALA that emerged in 1896? My data is basically 1882-1898 and from the Reading of the Young reports. So this might require more primary source work as well.
It's certainly not going to be for an audience of children's librarians directly, but rather for folks interested in how reformist and, later, Progressive Era professionals defined their work in relation to children's reading. Who should guide the reading of children, teachers, librarians, parents, or others? That's a question that persists, and it suggests that this might be a worthy article if I can just figure out the appopriate scope and venue.
