Category: ETL504

The servant leadership style focuses on active listening, supporting and prioritising the needs of the team, and creating a positive teamwork environment. This approach in the library setting is highly effective in fostering care and empathy among the staff. This positive environment can reduce stress and foster high morale among staff. Hence, everyone will be willing to support the school’s goal and vision. Librarians can adopt a servant leadership style by proactively checking in with staff members on their well-being, asking about their challenges and how they are progressing with programs, and offering support.  The librarian can also host team-building events, providing an inclusive and fun environment to break down the barriers of staff.  Depending on the needs of the staff and students, librarians can create tailored training courses and programs that cater to the whole school community. This way, teachers will be upskilled, and students will be able to acquire new skills. Librarians can create a work culture that not only reduces stress but also fosters a harmonious environment that aligns with the school’s ethos. This will improve engagement and satisfaction within the staff team.

References

International Institute for Learning. (n.d.). Understanding The Basics and Benefits of Servant Leadership [Infographic]. https://blog.iil.com/understanding-the-basics-and-benefits-of-servant-leadership/

Mesagan, O. F. (2024). The role of leadership in shaping librarians’ job performance in academic settings. Journal of Education and Teaching (JET), 5(2), 228-247. https://doi.org/10.51454/jet.v5i2.406

The teacher-librarian (TL) utilises the servant leadership style approach to proactively facilitate and provide ongoing information and digital literacy training to support teachers in integrating the resources into their teaching practices. This could be collaboration on building online research lessons or providing workshops for teachers to learn how to integrate the digital tools (Coetzer et al., 2017).

Co-teaching is another opportunity for the teacher librarian to serve as a teaching partner and guide classroom teachers in real-life situations by modelling how to teach critical digital literacy skills so teachers could facilitate the lesson in future. TL can mentor teachers by providing them with knowledge and skills on using library databases, digital tools, and resources to improve their planning and strategies in teaching information literacy (Koh et al., 2022).

TL is a digitally literate educator who can guide teachers through the complexities of the 21st-century digital world. The school community will benefit from understanding and navigating the ever-changing digital platforms.

References

Coetzer, M. F., Bussin, M., & Geldenhuys, M. (2017). The functions of a servant leader. Administrative Sciences, 7(1), 5. https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci7010005

Koh, K., Ge, X., & Petrella, J. B. (2022). Librarian-Teacher Co-Teaching and the Role of School Librarians in Facilitating Inquiry and Maker Learning. School library research, 25. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1348949.pdf

PremiumVector. (n.d.). A group of children listening to a teacher giving a presentation on a chart [Stock image]. https://www.freepik.com/premium-vector/group-children-listening-teacher-giving-presentation-chart_328826978.htm#from_element=detail_alsolike

When comparing Bush’s (2015) four key elements of organisation theory (leadership, structure, culture and context) with Robinson’s (2010) video presentation (structural, cultural, and societal), I believe the key drivers for change that a teacher librarian could respond to through school library programs are:

1. Leading the integration of digital tools and resources into classroom teachers’ learning programs in conjunction with facilitating extra-curricular activities at school, such as coding cubes or digital literacy programs.
2. Preparing virtual learning spaces to allow students to access information, collaborate, and create projects online with the assistance of classroom teachers.
3. Support classroom teachers with student self-directed research projects.

Such programs would require support from the organisation. Considering Bush’s (2015) organisation theory, the four key elements would need to complement each other for the key drivers to be successful. The leadership of the organisation would recognise TLs as a driver for change (guided inquiry by Kuhltha et al., 2015). Consequently, the structure and culture of the organisation would be amended to reflect this, and the context also needs to align with the direction of leadership. Conversely, Robin’s (2010) theory shows that to incorporate such library programs meeting the curriculum (evidence-based by Robinson & Aronica, 2015), the organisation’s structure needs to be changed, along with cultural and societal values.

By responding to and supporting the key drivers, teacher librarians offer resources and services to meet their schools’ information needs (Edet et al., 2024). Teacher librarians are uniquely positioned to be leaders in creating a flexible, collaborative learning environment with innovation that will meet the demands of the current fast-changing educational landscape, including the emerging AI environment.

References

Bush, T. (2015). Organisation theory in education: How does it inform school leadership? CORE. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/162657439.pdf

Edet, A. N., Adamu, A. A., & Jatto, E. (2024). Library Management: Current Trends, Challenges and Prospects. Library Management, 6(1).  https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13168695

Kuhlthau, C. C., Maniotes, L. K., & Caspari, A. K. (2015). Guided inquiry: Learning in the 21st century. Bloomsbury Publishing USA.

Robinson, K. [RSA Animate]. (2010, October 14). Changing education paradigms [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

Robinson, K., & Aronica, L. (2015). Creative schools: Revolutionizing education from the ground up. Penguin UK.

TeraVector. (n.d.). Business People Attending Professional Training with High Skilled Coach [Stock image]. https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/business-people-attending-professional-training-high-1360373786