Tag: research

As I am aware that the our contributions to the discussion forums won’t last forever, I wanted to record my response for Module 3.  Let’s see if I become more comfortable and confident with reviewing research papers for paradigms, methodology and methods towards the end of the course! This is my first attempt, even before INF447 Assignment #2. It’s all a little confusing and at this stage I feel like I am just picking out the obvious and am worried that I have even the obvious wrong!

I reviewed two papers that looked at the development of positive reading cultures in schools. 

Module #3: Discussion Forum Response

Merga and Mason (2019) and Loh et al. (2017) provided solid abstracts and provided a list of keywords. Both provided comprehensive introductions and both studies were given a place of purpose within literature reviews of other studies. Merga and Mason (2019) states that there is a dearth of research regarding the factors that contribute to the active building of reading cultures in Australian schools. Thus the purpose of their research was to investigate what teacher librarians (TLs) considered as constraints and opportunities to the building of a positive reading culture. Loh et al. explored what factors contribute to a reading culture by focusing on a single case study (in Singapore), but widened their net by including not only the views of the teacher librarian, but the principal and students as well. 

Loh et al.(2017) clearly stated that they undertook a mixed-methods study drawing upon both quantitative and qualitative tools of data collection, such as surveys, interviews, field notes and observations of the library space including still photography and timelapse photography. They described this as a “nested case study approach” (Loh et al., 2017, p. 33). I found this mix really interesting. Merga and Mason (2019) used “an exploratory qualitative approach” (p. 176), due to the lack of previous research in the area. Interviews were thus conducted with 30 teacher librarians across 30 different schools.

Both papers provided quite extensive findings/discussion sections. Merga and Mason (2019) were explicit in the limitations of their research. Gathering their sample was challenging due to a lack of official data on TL staffing so recruitment for the research was done through professional organisations, email and word of mouth. A limitation was that some sectors were under-represented (or not represented at all), for example, there were no TLs to be found in a public primary school in Western Australia. They also specifically mentioned the lack of generalizability, as they only looked at schools that had a TL, which they reported as then more likely to have stronger reading cultures anyway. Loh et al. (2017) did not specifically mention any limitations. Both papers acknowledged the need for further research with Loh et al. (2017) providing a few specific questions that could be further explored.

I hate to sit on the fence, but I enjoyed reading both these articles; they were both coherent and logical. They provided slightly different perspectives on the same topic, with some very practical considerations to think about. 

References

Loh, C. E., Ellis, M., Paculdar, A. A., & Wan, Z. H. (2017). Building a successful reading culture through the school library: A case study of a Singapore secondary school. International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, 43(4), 335-347. https://doi.org/10.1177/0340035217732069

Merga, M. K., & Mason, S. (2019). Building a school reading culture: Teacher librarians’ perceptions of enabling and constraining factors. Australian Journal of Education, 63(2), 173-189. https://doi.org/10.1177/0004944119844544