Critical Reflection
Before commencing ETL504 my understanding of educational leadership was quite basic, as I had never given it any great, critical consideration. My perception of leadership within schools centred around the principal as the authoritarian, leading from the top, with a flow on effect down to the deputy principal, assistant principals and classroom teachers. The idea of the teacher librarian as a “traditional” leader certainly wasn’t apparent during my initial musings on the subject. This was evident in my first assignment, where even though I addressed the importance of moving from ‘one-handed’ leadership styles (such as instructional leadership) towards progressive and distributed leadership (Gunter, Hall & Bragg, 2013), the Principal still clearly led from the top.
In Assignment 1 I reflected upon the roles of different leadership styles and how the teacher librarian must adopt these in order to effectively become a curriculum leader, information specialist and information service manager (Australian School Library Association, 2019). The concept map I designed demonstrated the teacher librarian working parallel to and collaboratively with executive staff, classroom teachers and the community. It observes the teacher librarian developing multiple leadership styles including transformational, distributed and instructional leadership, through change leadership employed only by the principal.
By considering the perspective of the teacher librarian as a change leader (Module 3) I developed a deeper insight; that it is imperative for a teacher librarian to adopt multiple leadership styles in order to adapt to change and be relevant and effective in their role (Bales, 2019). My understanding of the importance of the teacher librarian leading from the middle was supported throughout my readings by Gottleib (2012) and Saunders (2011), both of which explicitly describe the necessity for positive, transactional relationships with colleagues and the school community.
Participating in weekly group case studies allowed me to communicate my ideas and work collaboratively with my peers in the subject, which I found highly motivational. I believe our group work effectively by opening up positive and supportive lines of communication and actively ‘listening’ to one another and responding to and providing validation to each other’s commentary. By reflecting on this, I realise that we became transactional leaders through the partnership of sharing knowledge (St. Thomas University, 2014) and distributive leaders by assigning group responsibilities and roles (Belbin, 2010, as cited in Group 9, 2019). I am able to draw similarities from this situation to my school environment, where open, positive communication and respectful, professional relationships underpin the success of working as a collaborative team.
After completing Part A of Assignment 2 and considering the Module 6 task requirement of considering a personal learning goal based on the AITSL standards and descriptors, I have thought about how I can advance and improve my own leadership as a TL. This I feel may be achieved by planning for and implementing effective 21st century teaching and learning, through the possibility of whole school changes as outlined in Assignment 2 Part A. I have already begun teaching students information and digital literacy skills and personalising student learning through a guided inquiry approach in collaboration and consultation with stage leaders and classroom teachers and look forward to extending and developing this with others in the future.
References
Australian School Library Association. (2019). What is a teacher librarian? Retrieved from
https://asla.org.au/what-is-a-teacher-librarian
Bales, J. (2019). Leading change [ETL504 Module 3]. Retrieved from https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_4238 4_1&content_id=_2733070_1
Gottlieb, H. (2012, October 30). Leading from the middle: Bringing out the best in everyone [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://creatingthefuture.org/leading-from-the-middle-bringing-out- the-best-in-everyone/
Group 9. (2019). Belbin, R.M. (2010). Team roles at work (2nd ed.). in Case Study Group 9 Response.
Retrieved from
https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/discussionboard/do/message?action=list_messages& course_id=_42384_1&nav=discussion_board_entry&conf_id=_78887_1&forum_id=_153674 _1&message_id=_2234531_1
Gunter, H., Hall, D. & Bragg, J. (2013). Distributed leadership: A study in knowledge production. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 41(5), 557-559. doi:10.1177/1741143213488586
Saunders, L. (2011). Librarians as teacher leaders: Definitions, challenges, and opportunities.
Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Conference papers, 264-274.
Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/conferences
/confsandpreconfs/national/2011/papers/librarians_as_teache.pdf
St. Thomas University. (2014). What is Transactional Leadership? How Structure Leads to Results.
Retrieved from https://online.stu.edu/articles/education/what-is-transactional- leadership.aspx