Developing Professional Dispositions and Competencies

Dispositions and competencies are something which I have given a lot of thought to whilst studying ETL 401. I located the e book titled 'Tales Out of the School Library: Developing Professional Dispositions' by Bush and Jones (2010).
Chapter 1 - "Dispositions' looks at the various points of view on student and teacher dispositions. The American Association of School Librarians identifies the following dispositions for students:
Display initiative
Demonstrate confidence, self direction, creativity, adaptability, productivity, leadership, teamwork, motivation.
Maintain a critical stance, openess to ideas.
Use divergent and convergent thinking.
Have and show an appreciation for social responsibility.


After reading chapter 8 -Communication, I considered my own emotional intelligence competencies.
The authors refer to Daniel Goleman's (1992) focus on emotional intelligence as an array of competencies that drive leadership performance.
these are:
self awareness- using emotions and using gut feelings to guide decisions
self management- keeping ones emotions and impulses in check
social awareness- interpersonal skills; ability to sense, understand and react to others emotions.
relational management - empathy, ability to influence, inspire, mentor and manage conflict.
Bush and Jones suggest that for TL's, relational dispositions are important. Rather than hide away in our libraries we need to step out boldy, communicate our role with succinct messages to our constituancies. If necessary we do this one teacher and administrator at a time. "Listening more than talking, knowing when to speak and recognising that variety(as well as flexibility) is the spice of Life."p69

The important idea I gained from reading these chapters is that we don't necessarily have all of these competencies or dispositions but
they are those which TL's should aspire to. Most of us would not possess all of them but they can be used to inform our practice and provide room for growth. They suggest that "dispositions are best acquired, taught and caught through modelling."p4 Teacher librarians must have acquired them first before they can model them for students.

I feel confident that I have the emotional intelligence for the job and feel sure that I have been and will continue to use it to promote good collaborative practices and advocacy for the role.
The challenge for me is how I will develop leadership skills which do not come naturally to me. My image of leaders has always been of strong, vocal, independent individuals . I know that Leadership is far more complex and yet it is still an area for concern for me as I don't see myself as a leader just yet. Perhaps I need to further investigate and re evaluate what effective leadership is all about.