ETL 504 – Part B – Reflective Practice
In reflecting on my learning in this subject, I have come to understand that leadership is the actions which an individual takes either individually or collaboratively to achieve outcomes. Individuals do not necessarily need to be in positions of management to lead (Korodaj, 2018). This is very true of teachers. Teachers are leaders of their students every day. If “leaders” was the term used to describe teachers, it is worth considering how society’s perception of the role and importance of teaching might change.
I attempted to adopt this thinking as I learnt about the leadership role of the Teacher Librarian. The Teacher Librarian role is multi-faceted and dependent on the individual circumstances of the school. There were aspects of the case studies that were relatable in my own school context but there were others I had not which made considering appropriate leadership styles and strategies to manage the difficulties quite challenging. The ever-changing nature of the school environment means there is a need for flexibility in leadership style. This is true for the Teacher Librarian.
In Case Study 2 perspectives on collaboration and communication were addressed. In our group, I initiated a discussion thread to try to eliminate issues relating to this. It established lines of communication and ensured transparency in terms of the processes used to complete each task. (Olmos, 2018). The key ideas we generated through our wiki were communication initiatives such as structured meeting agendas and minute taking. Our suggestions were quite practical so it was beneficial to read Group 10’s perspective where they specifically addressed the leadership theory identifying the need to move from an autocratic style of leadership to one that is more transformational (Moses, 2018). This reiterated my understanding that leadership style requires flexibility.
Case Study 3 focused on conflict resolution between personnel. Most of our group did contribute to the wiki each fortnight. We had a group member leave (V Bishop, personal communication, August 2018) part way through the semester which didn’t overly impact things as our structure was well established and we could continue to work around the issue. If members were in conflict this was not openly discussed on the forums. One week I was delegated to post the case study and another group member posted it before me. I felt I needed to justify that I wasn’t being lazy so I responded to a thread of communication (Olmos, 2018) on the group discussion board to make sure that it was clear I hadn’t forgotten, that I appreciated her effort and that I could be relied upon to follow through on what I had said I would do. In Group 9’s response they offered some good strategies to managing personnel including addressing issues of conflict directly (Coventry, 2018). Whilst this was not conflict directly I felt I took a step towards ensuring that this would not develop.
References
Coventry, D (2018, August 4th) Case Study 3 Group 9 [Online discussion comment] Retrieved from Charles Sturt University website: https://bit.ly/2IATCLF
Korodaj, L. (2018). Introduction to leadership. Leadership for learning. [ETL 504 Modules: Topic 4] Retrieved from Charles Sturt University website: https://bit.ly/2NkAwKw
Moses, M. (2018, August 4th). Group 10 response case study 2 [Online discussion comment] Retrieved from Charles Sturt University website: https://bit.ly/2DWoqru
Olmos, K. (2018, August 4th). Introductions [Online discussion comment] Retrieved from Charles Sturt University website: https://bit.ly/2IAOCXp
Olmos, K. (2018, September 9th). Case Study 4 [Online discussion comment] Retrieved from Charles Sturt University website: https://bit.ly/2OCctLM
