The role of the teacher librarian is fulfilled in a school that believes in collaborative practice and where teachers are leaders. But many teachers see working with other teachers as a major challenge. In fact they might fight against this.

In such circumstances what would be an appropriate response from the teacher librarian?

I think the TL has an obligation to promote how valuable they are to the wider school community but also the individual teachers themselves. If TLs can demonstrate to teachers not only the benefits, but also the importance of collaboration in schools, then stakeholders may come to appreciate what could be. People like to be given concrete examples of how problems can be solved. It may be simplifying the situation with basic psychological principals, but incentivising teachers to collaborate by showing them how collaboration actually makes their professional life a whole lot more manageable could be a way to get staff on board. Ultimately, the goal is to improve learning experiences for students and encourage deep thinking and 21st century skills. But for some, whilst they probably agree with the sentiment they just can’t see a way out of the way things have always been. Teachers in schools are time poor. From my experience in secondary schools, it is one of the primary grievances for all teachers. Seemingly, as time goes on more and more work and stress is placed upon the teacher. But what if collaborative practice can give teachers back some of their time? TLs can illustrate how collaborative practice can free up time for the teachers to facilitate learning and spend less time on administrative tasks. I think this would be a great entry point for the conversation. In terms of promotion, be enthusiastic and work with teachers and other staff to overcome the barriers that are presenting themselves. Challenge the status quo, but in a productive and solutions focused way.

From your reading so far, can you build a convincing argument for collaboration between the teacher librarian, principal and teachers at a school that you know?

The world as we know it is changing all the time. If we look back ten, fifty, and one hundred years, the world as it is experienced by high school graduates in those years would find some similarities with our graduates of today. But more importantly, we would be able to balance and then completely tip the ledger on its head with the differences. The fundamental differences in the world have caused a shift in paradigm – preparing our students to contribute to the economic and cultural betterment of our societies has always been a focus of public education across the world (Robinson, 2010). We need to be constantly conscious that we are not repeating the way we’ve always done things and expecting an outcome that addresses the changes in the world and the speed at which it is changing. Our consideration needs to constantly focus on what is beneficial for our students’ learning, their futures and the future of our economy and culture. Our students, along with all of the students in schools in Australia, will absolutely be contributing to our society in this way once they graduate.

At my previous school, we engaged in professional learning communities. Professional learning communities are those that use members’ knowledge as a fundamental asset and rely on collaboration to produce knowledge and encourage a reflective cycle. These communities allow professionals to interact socially and intellectually, and promote innovative thinking amongst staff (Langford, 2008). Our goal was to improve student learning. Simple, right? Within our teaching domains we focused on an area that we were experts in and applied some strategies that aimed to improve student learning across all subject areas. My domain, Physical Education, chose to improve cardiovascular fitness in Year 7 and 8 students. The research underpinning the benefits of cardiovascular fitness on learning and wellbeing is well documented. We saw a significant improvement in students cardiovascular fitness (as per fitness testing) and via student interview some qualitative data that we collected also demonstrated a positive effect. Langford (2008) discusses the need for school leaders to empower teachers’ learning communities to be comfortable with change. Education must get comfortable with change because the world is changing before our eyes and we have little control over it. We have a responsibility to equip our students with the tools and knowledge to navigate the world they will enter into at the conclusion of their schooling. They have a right to access an education which encourages inquiry learning so that they can make meaning of the world around them, create their own understanding and their own knowledge. After all, this is what will be required of them in the future at the very least.

And that’s where the Teacher Librarian (TL) role becomes a schools’ greatest ally. The TL can collaborate with the principal to work through and initiate some changes that promote inquiry learning. A great example of this could be the use of professional learning communities as detailed above to combine and share knowledge between teachers (which will likely reduce workload rather than create more work). The TL is an expert in inquiry learning – if learning communities were introduced they could oversee and collaborate with the teaching groups to maximise the potential for creativity, innovation, critical-thinking, problem-solving…the list goes on. On top of that, the TL is an expert in assisting with resourcing. They could be drawn upon across all of the learning communities to resource and incorporate 21st century skills into all units. An issue with the professional learning communities at my prior school is that we were in domain teams (PE, Science etc.). How amazing could this kind of collaboration look if the teams were cross-curricular, working on inquiry learning activities for their students that incorporate multiple domains and break down the silos of subject areas and domains?