A snapshot of leadership between the principal and the teacher librarian.
Present one simple concept map with no more than 5 concepts.

• Identify one style suitable for a principal that would facilitate leadership in the teacher librarian.
• Identify a style of leadership that the teacher librarian could adopt to facilitate professional growth in teaching staff to embrace the General Capabilities (or a 21st century skill)
• Briefly justify each choice in your message.

The styles of leadership I believe would be suitable for a principal facilitating leadership in the teacher-librarian are Transformational and Distributed leadership. Smith (2016) notes that while leaders generally possess strengths in one leadership style over another, the traits of different styles can be utilised to create an effective blend which is flexible and responsive to the specific needs of an organisation. Transformational leaders see the big picture and inspire the members of their organisation to achieve a shared goal, while Distributed leaders empower others to share or develop expertise and to enact change within an organisation. Both styles require high levels of trust and interpersonal skills to encourage participation and buy-in, as well as strong management skills. However, principal’s efforts to be Transformational and/or Distributed leaders can be hampered by external factors such as Departmental policies, changing curriculum documents, and widespread staff shortages.

In a high school setting, Principals and Deputy Principals often form the Senior Executive team. Whereas the Principal’s role is more inspirational, the Deputy role (in my experience at least) seems to be more managerial. The Senior Executive team manages each faculty Head Teacher, and together they form the Executive Leadership team which oversees implementation of the school’s strategic directions and each associated committee within the school, as well as each faculty. Each classroom teacher, auxiliary staff member (including counsellors, tech support, etc.), and the teacher-librarian is managed by a member of this Executive Leadership team. Classroom teachers often exhibit traits of both Instructional and Transactional leadership, since they are crucial in the daily instruction of students and are required to utilise both the reward and punishment aspects of classroom management. Teacher-librarians can support this core work of teaching and learning in many ways by adopting a Servant leader approach, and I’ve previously discussed in my blog some of the ways teacher-librarians can help our time-poor colleagues through this leadership approach.