ERIC Number: EJ1412317
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2023
Pages: 11
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1531-2542
EISSN: EISSN-1530-7131
Meaningful Work When Work Won't Love You Back: Sociological Imagination and Reflective Teaching Practice
Andrea Baer
portal: Libraries and the Academy, v23 n4 p671-681 2023
This essay explores the tension between pursuing meaningful work in instruction librarianship and the realities of working in a society in which many jobs provide little fulfillment or pleasure, or, as the journalist Sarah Jaffe puts it, "Work won't love you back." Drawing on a recent conference keynote by Anne Helen Petersen, C. Wright Mills's conception of sociological imagination, and an ecological model of teacher agency, I propose that one way librarians can sustain their teaching practices and preserve their well-being is by actively investigating how social structures and relationships influence their teaching roles.
Descriptors: Library Instruction, Work Attitudes, Job Satisfaction, Professional Autonomy, Librarians, Academic Libraries, Teacher Role, Librarian Attitudes, Attitude Change, Stress Variables, Imagination, Sociology
Johns Hopkins University Press. 2715 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218. Tel: 800-548-1784; Tel: 410-516-6987; Fax: 410-516-6968; e-mail: jlorder@jhupress.jhu.edu; Web site: https://www.press.jhu.edu/journals/list
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A