SUMMARY: The value of educational associations is considered, with particular praise for the work of the Ontario Library Association, now it is 112th year.
Teachers and Their Professional Organizations
As I prepared to present at this year’s Ontario Library Association’s Super Conference after a three-year absence, I came to reflect on the value of professional associations in general and the OLA in particular to my growth as a teacher.
As I prepared to present at this year’s Ontario Library Association’s Super Conference after a three-year absence, I came to reflect on the value of professional associations in general and the OLA in particular to my growth as a teacher.
Most educators belong to an organization that represents them professionally and politically. The usual general meetings, committee work, conferences, documents, and online resources keep you on your toes and provide solidarity within a focussed group to work effectively with other disparate groups. Since 1900, the OLA has been a voice for change in many information-related areas and any service we have given it as teacher-librarians has been repaid ten fold.
However, as an independent retiree, I now value the associations in a different way. Whether we like to admit it or not, we are often at odds with more official bodies such as our employers, boards of education, school administrations, unions, and ministries of education. Here issues of funding, politics, and policy priorities often prevent one necessary prerequisite for change and reform: collective dreaming.
Collective Dreaming
Collective dreaming is a kind of visioning and revisioning, free of pressures, in which new ideas are deliberately and respectfully sought in a democratic spirit of inquiry. This will become clearer, for instance, as the members collectively work out the practicalities of establishing the concept of the learning commons in and through libraries. The process will match the product as each subgroup works together for common learning.
Collective dreaming is a kind of visioning and revisioning, free of pressures, in which new ideas are deliberately and respectfully sought in a democratic spirit of inquiry. This will become clearer, for instance, as the members collectively work out the practicalities of establishing the concept of the learning commons in and through libraries. The process will match the product as each subgroup works together for common learning.
Sure all groups can lose their way at time in infighting and posturing, but generally new thinking gets things done where the sky’s the limit. As Henry David Thoreau put it, “Associate reverently, as much as you can, with your loftiest thoughts.” The Ontario Library Association has its internal conflicts and many challenges ahead. The report on the decline of school libraries and the curtailments to Knowledge Ontario are two of the most pressing issues.
Best wishes for The Ontario Library Association
However, change will be affected through collective dreaming and collective action. There is a professional code that binds all OLA members to a higher purpose, whether they are public librarians, school librarians, academic librarians et. al. Ask of your association the same.
However, change will be affected through collective dreaming and collective action. There is a professional code that binds all OLA members to a higher purpose, whether they are public librarians, school librarians, academic librarians et. al. Ask of your association the same.
I wish the OLA well at the SuperConference and invite those who don’t know of its great work to visit the OLA site to see how the dreaming is going.
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