Librarians as Teachers: A Qualitative Inquiry into Professional Identity

Abstract

This study explores the development of “teacher identity” among academic librarians through a series of semistructured interviews. Drawing both on the idea of teacher identity from the literature of teacher education and on existing studies of professional stereotypes and professional identity development among academic librarians, this study explores the degree to which academic librarians think of themselves as teachers, the ways in which teaching has become a feature of their professional identity, and the factors that may influence academic librarians to adopt a “teacher identity” as part of their personal understandings of their role on campus.