Reflection on Class, 20 March

Presenting a workshop during our last class was a strange experiment. In terms of tone, it felt a lot like a normal student-led discussion. Where it differed, though, was in terms of the content and each participant's relationship to it. My partner and I were in a position of teaching, and the rest of the group was in a position of learning (during our turn, at least). What was strange about that, though, was that I didn't feel that I had the authority to be teaching our topic. I understand that this was an exercise in the methods of conducting a workshop, but it still made me wonder about how the responsibilities of presenting a workshop compare with the responsibilities of teaching in a classroom setting.
There are obvious ways in which classroom teaching is different from library-based workshops. Workshops are usually intended for patrons older than grade school-age, for one thing. For another thing, they're not mandatory. Patrons attend workshops because they want to for whatever reason, be it to learn a skill, improve their careers (or begin them), or just because they want to learn something new. But they don't have to attend, and they don't have to stay if they do come. So it is important to present a workshop that is interesting more so than it is important to teach an interesting class. And it might be that workshops and classes have to be interesting in different ways. Entertaining vs interesting, maybe? I'm reminded of the spinach sundae analogy, but perhaps the opposite - fruit sorbet? Tasty and good for you? That's the goal for any teacher, of course, but most teachers don't have to worry too much about their students leaving in the middle of class if they miss the mark.
A lot of what it means to present a good workshop probably depends on the audience. A room full of working parents eager to get home and have dinner with their children may be similar in some ways to a room full of jaded graduate students who feel there are better uses for their time, but the two groups will probably respond well to different techniques. The sophistication of instruction may vary depending on the group, as well. The more they know about a topic, the more the presenter needs to know in order to make the workshop worth everyone's time.
That brings me back to my main concern for this and future workshops: am I qualified? My partner and I tried, for this workshop, to base everything we said on materials from reputable sources, but at some times it still felt like preaching to the choir. Obviously, if you're presenting a topic on which you aren't an expert, it is important to do enough research to at least be competent. That only goes so far, though. An expert is an expert because they have done the work required to achieve mastery of a subject, and that can't happen in a night-before crash course. Anyway, people can tell when you don't know what you're talking about or when you haven't prepared enough. But what if the topic is important - patrons have been requesting it or the library feels that it must address the topic - and you can't access a real expert? I wouldn't be surprised to learn that this situation occurs often in small or very under-funded libraries. I guess you just have to make do, then.
It has been great to learn and think about this aspect of librarianship, since I'm sure many of us will have to come up with answers to all of these questions before too long.

- K