Document Type
Article
Version Deposited
Submitted for publication (PrePrint)
Publication Date
Fall 10-2023
Publication Title
portal: Libraries and the Academy
Abstract
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.
Recommended Citation
Baer, A. (2023). Meaningful work when work won't love you back: Sociological imagination and reflective teaching practice (Reports From the Field). portal: Libraries and the Academy, 23(4): 671–681.
Included in
Higher Education Commons, Higher Education and Teaching Commons, Information Literacy Commons, Work, Economy and Organizations Commons
