Category: ETL504

I was a part of case study group eleven and I feel that we displayed primarily situational leadership rather than any other models discussed in the topic. The member that would take the initiative depended on our own individual lives and what we had going on. At times, we would be displaying transactional leadership, asking for each of our input, without much discussion (see Module Two blog post).

When I would engage with the case study content, I would be looking more at the practical aspects, rather than the theoretical. Much of the time, when working, we do not necessarily have the time to stop and think ‘what leadership model do I need to use here?’ but rather just go ahead and do what needs to be done in order to ensure that it all runs smoothly and the challenges are resolved. While I do reflect on what I personally do in my lines of work, I do not tend to break it down to the models that could have been used but what I could do well and what I could improve upon.

One of the biggest challenges outside of curriculum change that teacher librarians face is with technology and ICT. With technology changing rapidly, we need to be able to adapt to what our students are using in their day to day lives and have the knowledge to support classroom teachers with it. Teacher Librarians are also facing additional levels of stress with more responsibilities and additional areas for leadership that put pressure on them. I have elaborated further on these areas within Module Three blog post.

While I have only written and published a limited amount of blog posts I have learnt quite a bit during this topic. I would work through the modules and forget to write a reflection post. This is one area of professional practice that I aim to improve upon as I progress further. By highlighting my own short comings and making plans to improve them, shows that I am displaying good practice and am planning my own professional development.

References

Mickan, N. (2019). ETL504 Module 2 [Blog]. Retrieved from https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/nikitamickan/2019/09/01/etl504-module-2/

Mickan, N. (2019). ETL504 Module 3 [Blog]. Retrieved from https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/nikitamickan/2019/09/02/etl504-module-3/

This module operates under the premise of what the formal leadership within schools can potentially look like, as well as how Teacher Librarians fit in, within the community.

As Teacher Librarians (as well as classroom teachers) we can struggle to stay positive and happy when faced with disrespectful students and students who refuse to complete the assigned tasks. Students who come from dysfunctional homes or who have severe learning needs can face an additional struggle, and we, in turn, struggle with them.

We need to be able to adapt to the changes in curriculum and approaches that come with being in a 21st-century classroom or site. In reality, most Teacher-Librarians are ‘lone practitioners’ who may or may not have a Library Technician or volunteers as assistants. This means much of the processing, day-to-day work and special event work is left in the hands of one person.

Collaboration is well needed within the school environment and with external bodies in order to give the students the education that they deserve and need.  Successful collaboration includes successful timelines, clear evaluation and allowing time for reflection and evaluation of the process.

Professional learning can come from many different forms including reading journal articles, short courses and even, this degree.

There is much more that can be covered from the module but these were the main points that I felt were the most interesting and the most relevant to me and my situation.

Module 3 was concerned with leadership and change within organisations as well as what it means to work in a team – as we inherently do within a school environment.

Change tends to stay within the realms of technology and management on a year-to-year basis; outside of that, there can be some structural change to adapt to as well. With technology, there is very little engagement with the use of it. This could be due to the aging teaching population who dislike the rise of technology use within students lives and in the classroom. It can be argued that younger teachers don’t wish to ostracise themselves from their older colleagues so they don’t ‘rock the boat’ when it comes to the use of technology within the classroom. Downsizing can play a part in terms of change within a workplace and this could be a major part of change within a smaller school or site. This could especially be true if student numbers are dwindling.

Stress can be a factor when coping with change as if we are under a lot of personal or professional stress; we could respond differently to what we normally would. While attitude change can be a normal part of change, a difference in attitude that is beyond what you would normally expect from a disgruntled co-worker; could be a reason for investigating further and establishing what could be wrong.

We all work in teams, and we all need to be able to work in them efficiently. This means dealing with a lot of opinions, personalities and much, much more in order to get the task or job done. Setting boundaries early on can help ensure that the process is fairly smooth. However, conflict and communication (and/or lack thereof) can really hinder the progress of a team so being able to effectively and with compassion deal with them when they arise.

Ultimately, as Teacher Librarians and classroom teachers, we need to be able to adapt to change, stress and being able to deal with the complexities that come with working in teams. We need to be able to be flexible when it comes to our environment and those that we work with; both on a day-to-day basis and on an ad-hoc basis.

I did notes (on my computer, would you believe it or not!) and am uploading a summary now.

A major aspect of being a good leader is knowing yourself and knowing your strengths. Knowing what you can do well and knowing what may be best to distribute to other team members.  Also, knowing where you fit in within the leadership structure; both within the school or site but also the wider educational department and the curriculum bodies.

Knowing that the situation will change, depending on the setting, is vital to make sure that no toes are stepped upon. Understanding that a public school is different from a private school and a primary, secondary and combined (R-12) are all different in their requirements and leadership structure is vital.  Also, understanding that there are different leadership styles employed by staff within a school is important to understand what their focus and objectives are.

There are different forms of leadership; including Situational, Transactional, Transformational, Servant, Distributed and Instructional. All of these can benefit the wider school in different ways. Situational Leadership is more focused on what the situation at hand is and how to respond to it appropriately. This form of leadership changes and the exact leader can vary. Transactional Leadership utilises rules and incentives to maintain normal flow of operations and is not generally focused on the future or strategic operations. Transformational Leadership is, as the name implies, a leader who goes beyond the day-to-day level of operation and focuses on how to take the organisation or site to the next level of success. A Servant Leader displays attributes of someone who has their staffs’ interests at heart – they are servants of their team. Distributed Leadership is based upon the distribution of tasks by team member’s strengths and expertise. Finally, Instructional Leadership generally focuses on the executive leadership team within a school or site. They direct and manage from the top but allow staff to develop their own leadership as well.

All of these play a part in how leaders and staff operate within any organisation, both within schools and outside organisations. Leaders come from many different backgrounds and we have to take that into account when working within teams; both as a classroom teacher and as a Teacher Librarian.  As a Teacher Librarian, we must be open to developing our own skills and the skills of those who we work with and to do that successfully, we have to be good leaders.

So you would think that after a semester, I would know how this whole Thinkspace blogs thing works, right?

Well, I have only just worked out how to put categories in place. And it was thanks to this module. Yep, it took me how many weeks? Way too many.

I was putting tags on all my posts thinking that would be enough but I discovered the difference between the two so (hopefully!) the posts I’ve gone through and categorized adapt OK!

Over this module, I drew out some things that I thought were great reminders of where we currently stand:

The overall learning context of our schools has changed dramatically; even in the last five years since I graduated high school. We need to be able to deliver content and services differently than what we ever have before because of how different our students are. Society is a lot more technologically advanced with mobile phones able to do a similar (if not the exact same) job as a laptop or tablet. We are able to use ICT in the curriculum in a way that we haven’t before with more and more real-life applications. Students and teachers alike have very little patience for clunky and hard to use sites. The biggest point, however, is that there are more and more ways for Teacher Librarians to model and lead in 21st-century ways of teaching and learning; and that it is our job to be that guiding voice.

Well, I hope that gives you an idea of what I took away from this module and that you all enjoyed this blog post!