Archive of ‘Leadership’ category
At the very start of the ETL504 I stated that I was interested in gaining further insight into how the teacher librarian (TL) can be the link between teachers, curriculum and school leadership (Gemell, 2021, 5 July). I also discussed the (TL) as a central role, stating that “we are the linking ingredient at the centre of the school, guiding the research and reading culture of the school” (Gemell, 2021, 5 July). This really was the beginning of my journey to understanding the central leadership role of the TL and how this role functions within the school. Oddone (2021, June 14) sums it up well stating that the TL leads from the middle by providing professional learning communities and facilitating collaboration. However, I feel that the TL does more than this. The role of the TL encapsulates more than PD, collaboration and resourcing. They are a leader within the school community, linking the needs of the students and staff with the goals of the school principal and the leadership team. The TL does this through clear communication with the whole school community and listening and responding to their needs. The TL also supports the school community through the management of the library space as a 21st century learning environment. Without that central space where collaboration, sharing, discussion and research come together then perhaps “these key learning activities are in danger of no occurring at all” (Gemell, 2021, 22 August).
Learning about the different leadership models and understanding how particular leadership affects the culture of a school has been eye-opening. I never realised there were different leadership models and that leadership was not all about the principal and the leadership team (Gemell, 2021, August 9). It was interesting to realise that different leadership models can be drawn upon to utilise the attributes of the different styles. The individual models by themselves have their own strengths and weaknesses, but in combination make the leadership stronger. I was particularly drawn to the models of servant and distributed leadership and how they support the role of the TL. The distributed model is essential to mitigating the ‘dictating from the top’ approach (Shaked, 2021; Ng Foo Seong, 2019) and gives the TL opportunity to be a leader. The TL then has the capacity to utilise servant leadership to assist the school community as a whole, not just the students or teachers separately.
I was also particularly challenged by the concept of conflict as a catalyst for change. I did identify some areas for my own improvement in regards to conflict as I try to avoid it rather than confront it (Gemell, 2021, 18 July). I have come to grow in my understanding of conflict and how it can form a platform to think about different angles in a particular situation rather than from my own perspective.
Moving forward with my learning, I will be mindful of leadership styles that I utilise to best support the library and school community. I feel that servant leadership works well for a TL because the attributes of listening and communication support the learning community as a whole. Through servant leadership I am looking to increase my own skills in ICT, particularly digital citizenship. By increasing my own skills, it becomes a platform from which to best support the whole school community (Gemell, 2021, 7 September). I would also use the experience of the discussion paper to harness servant leadership as a vehicle to discuss improvements with the principal. It has helped me to articulate where the gaps are in my school and how the TL can support the school community to fill these gaps. I have more fully grasped the understanding that the TL and the library cannot be seen as stand-alone resources within the school and, for improvements to be made in 21st century learning, it must be a whole-school approach (Cole, 2012).
References
Cole, P. (2012). Linking effective professional learning with effective teaching practice. https://ptrconsulting.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/linking_effective_professional_learning_with_effective_teaching_practice_-_cole.pdf
Ng Foo Seong, D. (2019). Instructional leadership. In T. Townsend (Ed.), Instructional leadership and leadership for learning in schools : understanding theories of leading (pp. 15-48). Springer International Publishing.
Oddone, K. (2021, June 14). Teacher librarian as leader: Lessons from the literature. Linking Learning. https://www.linkinglearning.com.au/teacher-librarian-as-leader-lessons-from-the-literature/
Shaked, H. (2021). Relationship-based instructional leadership. International Journal of Leadership in Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603124.2021.1944673
Every teacher librarian (TL) experiences the time when a class is in the library and is being noisy and off task. This could even be a daily occurrence. So, what do you do about it? Well…that depends on how you look at the situation. There are short-term solutions ranging from asking the students to be on task, to long-term solutions which involve collaboration with staff and analysing the library environment. The short-term solutions might be the easy go-to, but it does get pretty draining asking students to be on task day after day. The long-term solutions require analysis and reflection about the library space but are well worth the effort. The results are a win-win for students, teachers and the TL.
Short-term solutions:
Short-term solutions are required to solve the issue straight away but are not a total solution in themselves. Short-term solutions don’t particularly require any level of leadership from the TL, just a good ‘teacher stare’, quick reminders and positive interactions with students. Here are some ideas:
Do a check of what is really happening. Talk to the teacher about what the task actually is. You never know…the students might be on task, but it just doesn’t look like it!
If there are students off task, ask yourself, is it really the whole class who are noisy and off task or just a few students? Remind students to stay on task and to be respectful of others. Ask the students who are off task to show you what they are working on (in a positive way) and show interest in their work. Some students need the stimulus of a conversation to get on track. Ask students what their task is. Ask them how you can assist them in that task, or better yet, show them how the library can support them in the task. Here is a great opportunity for servant leadership to listen to students’ needs and act on them.
Long-term solutions
Long-term solutions may not solve the issues at hand immediately in that particular moment, but they will help to mitigate the same situation from occurring in the future. These long-term solutions rely on a combination of servant and transformational leadership and how these two styles interconnect.
Having a conversation with the classroom teacher is a wonderful place to start. Ask them what the task entails and, depending on their answer, it might be an opportunity for collaboration with the classroom teacher to devise inquiry learning tasks. Through servant leadership you could devise library guides and pathfinders for the teacher and students to use. There’s also an opportunity here to team-teach with the classroom teacher which results in more support for the students in their learning. This would be a positive approach to support the teacher to make their library time more effective.
Delving in deeper from this point is reflection on the environment of the library space. A close analysis of how the library space is set-up is essential to supporting student learning. There is an opportunity to ask yourself several questions in addition to talking to teachers and students about what they would like to see in the set-up of the library space. Questions could include
- Is the current set-up conducive to student learning?
- Are there sufficient break-out spaces for collaboration?
- Are there private study spaces for students who want to work quietly?
- Do the students and teachers know about the services available at the library?
There are a mountain of questions to ask in this process of analysis and reflection and changes would need to be made over time rather than in one fell swoop.
Gone are the days of the shushing library dragon and oppressive silence of a library, however, students need to be supported to achieve their best and TLs play a major role in this support through their leadership, collaboration and management of the library space and resources.
I have just completed and submitted the first assignment for ETL504. I found working with the software challenging, and my perfectionist self definitely struggled with ‘getting it right’. I came to the conclusion that the concept map was never going to be perfect because of the interconnectedness of all the parts of a school. I stand by my big ‘uh huh’ moment of ETL401 that collaboration is the key to success within a school. Staff cannot be islands who function independently of each other. Without collaboration each person would have their own values, vision and agenda and there would be no cohesion within the school.
I have also been reflecting on the attributes of different leadership models and how they interrelate and affect each other. Schools are always striving towards best-practice teaching, taking into account the 21st Century educational landscape. The leadership styles of the principal need to complement the change required to accommodate this evolving landscape. Transactional leadership is not going to be a good choice for inviting change. Instructional leadership is a good choice but needs to be supported by both distributed and transformational leadership attributes.
Shaked (2021, p. 2) shows that instructional leadership correlates with “better school results, improved teacher practices and higher student achievement.” This is a strong case for utilising instructional leadership within the school, but as stated before, this needs to be done in a distributed manner to mitigate the ‘dictating from the top’ approach that could be a factor in instructional leadership. Shaked (2021) and Ng Foo Seong (2019) both support that leadership must be distributed throughout the school and cannot be left to the principal alone.
For this distribution of leadership to work, there must be open lines of communication and opportunities for collaboration and discussion. The TL is well-placed within the school to be a central point of collaboration and communication. As a central point within the school, interacting with all staff and students, the TL can lead from the middle to provide professional learning communities and collegial collaboration to support and resource these areas (Oddone, 2021).
This task has been interesting to analyse my understanding of leadership theory and to apply it in a real-world context. Prior to undertaking this assignment my idea was that a principal took on one leadership style and applied that. Through research, there has been a shift in my understanding of how several leadership styles can be combined to support change and the 21st Century education landscape. I was also challenged by the concept that conflict could be a good thing. I am usually one to avoid conflict at all costs but have come to the realisation that conflict that occurs, as a result of collaboration, can be positive (Ho and Ng, 2017). It gives rise to opportunities for change with a purpose rather than change for change sake.
References
Ho, J., & Ng, D. (2017). Tension in distributed leadership. University Council for Educational Administrators. Vol. 53(2), 223-254. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X16681630
Ng Foo Seong, D. (2019). Instructional leadership. In T. Townsend (Ed.), Instructional leadership and leadership for learning in schools : understanding theories of leading (pp. 15-48). Springer International Publishing.
Oddone, K. (2021, June 14). Teacher librarian as leader: Lessons from the literature. Linking Learning. https://www.linkinglearning.com.au/teacher-librarian-as-leader-lessons-from-the-literature/
Shaked, H. (2021). Relationship-based instructional leadership. International Journal of Leadership in Education. Vol.ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603124.2021.1944673
Even before doing the questionnaire, I knew that my approach to conflict is to be the peacekeeper. This was always how my family describes me when conflict occurs. To be completely honest, conflict gives me the stomach flips and I try to avoid it as much as possible. I don’t enjoy it and find it anxiety-inducing and stressful. My way to deal with conflict is to try to come to a solution as quickly as possible, even if this means I compromise my own wants for the situation. This came out quite strongly in my score, scoring 14 in the areas of ‘Accommodating’ and ‘Compromising’. My next strongest area of conflict resolution in ‘Collaboration’ in which I scored 13 and ‘Avoiding’ gaining 11. These all seem quite high and on reflection it appears that if I can’t accommodate, compromise or collaborate, then I do everything I can to avoid the conflict. This is in line with the way I perceive myself in conflict situations and reiterates on how others perceive me in conflict situations.
The area of ‘Competing’ only scored 5 points. This is not surprising to me, but I have never thought of this as a deficit in how I manage conflict. My perception of competing (standing up strongly for my ideas) would antagonise a conflict situation. I would rather back down or try to compromise rather than stand firmly with my side of an argument. I feel this is an area that I need to improve on because in order to compromise and collaborate well, all ideas need to be heard and considered rather than being drowned out by the loudest idea.
What is leadership and how does this relate to the role of the TL? This question has really got me thinking and initially one important term springs to mind. The term ‘collaboration’ comes first and foremost. The concept of collaboration was my big take-away from ETL401 and without collaboration the role of the TL is redundant. One cannot lead without collaborating with others. TLs are the conduit that link the vacuum of the school to outside information. They communicate this throughout the school through collaboration and membership of both the teaching and leadership communities.
Before I go any further, what is meant by leadership? When I think of leadership, I think of someone that others look up to for guidance and information. Leaders have a goal and are able to guide groups to achieve these goals willingly. Leaders are inspiring. When I looked up the definition of leadership a multitude of answers came back. The more I looked the more definitions came up. The Oxford Learner’s Dictionary (2021) defines a leader as ‘a person who leads a group of people, especially the head of a country, an organization, etc.’ This definition doesn’t do very much for me and is too rigid and sterile. Leadership is more organic and involves identifying issues, supporting people and strategizing the best solutions to problems while keeping the humanity of the decisions in mind.
These ideas about collaboration, leaders and leadership are important to the role of the TL because the TL is the link between classroom teachers, curriculum, school leadership and outside information. As an information specialist TLs are at the forefront of sourcing and research skills for students, keeping all parties up to date with resources. As one of two TLs in my current school the importance of library advocacy and collaboration is paramount. We are the linking ingredient at the centre of the school, guiding the research and reading culture of the school. If the TL was considered a stand-alone position than there would be no consistency across the school regarding these areas.
References
Oxford Learner’s Dictionary. (2021). Leader. In oxfordlearnersdictionary.com dictionary. Retrieved July 5, 2021, from https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/leader?q=leader