Teacher Librarians: Leaders from the Middle

As stated in my initial reflection upon starting this unit, I had very little experience and knowledge surrounding the notion of leadership and the library (Johnson, 2021, March 3). Having only taught for 4 years, most of which being in a school library environment in which the library is not necessarily valued as a 21st century learning space, means that this is still an area that requires a significant amount of personal and professional development.

In saying this, however, my knowledge has expanded significantly as a result of the modules and readings of this unit, particularly in the areas of leadership theory and understanding how leadership operates within school environments and has done so in my own situation and experiences. I now recognise my position in the school to be principally one of a servant leader; as someone who has focused not on my own aspirations or the school vision, but on listening to and serving the needs and interests of library users (Crippen & Willows, 2019; Stewart, 2017).  This was made clearer to me when completing the conflict management self-assessment, identifying me as someone with tendencies to accommodate and compromise as opposed to compete, something that really resonated with me. While this leadership role certainly has its merit within school libraries, teacher librarians need to be curriculum, information and technology experts within schools that lead from the ‘middle’ – effectively bridging the gap between formal leaders (such as the principal and senior executive team) and classroom teachers (Toop, 2013). This role can and should be fulfilled by advising formal leaders on developments in pedagogy, curriculum and technology integration, and using this knowledge to collaborate with teachers to build their capacity, model best practice and support their teaching and learning (Cox & Korodaj, 2019). Leading from the middle therefore resembles transformational leadership far more than it does servant leadership (Baker, 2016), and is something that I need to focus on developing to become a more effective leader as a teacher librarian.

Reflecting on the role of teacher librarians as leaders, I believe that I need to become more proactive in seeking out collaborations with teachers in order to build my capacity as a transformational leader. I also need to start to challenge the perception of myself within the school as one of an early career teacher operating out of the library to that of a leader of teaching and learning – a perception that I believe will develop through effective collaborations. I have previously created information literacy lessons and programs and research scaffolds for specific classes (Johnson, 2021, March 3), however these were done individually and based on what I believed was best practice. While it important to model best practice to students and staff (Cox & Korodaj, 2019), I need to collaborate with the teachers in these classrooms to develop resources and lessons that meet the information needs of their students, and show me to be a leader and expert in curriculum development and support. Next year, moving to a new library as part of Marsden High School’s redevelopment I must take the time to explore meaningful collaborations with teachers in the Science, English and HSIE faculties to incorporate these resources into existing teaching and learning programs. This will hopefully provide a base from which I can grow my collaborations with teachers around curriculum development. I have also begun my journey as a technology leader this year, leading a professional development session on the effective use of Clickview to support teaching and learning (Johnson, 2021, April 21). This was a fantastic experience and I learned a lot from this. Now knowing the value of being a visible technology leader (Baker, 2016), I aim to pursue this as a regular element of my practice, leading technology integration and support within the school to develop my ability as a leader and to begin to change perceptions around myself as a teacher librarian.

References

Baker, S. (2016) From teacher to school librarian leader and instructional partner: A proposed transformation framework for educators of preservice school librarians, School Libraries Worldwide, 22(1), 143-158.

Cox, E., & Korodaj, L. (2019). Leading from the sweet spot: Embedding the library and the teacher librarian in your school community, ACCESS, 33(4), 14-25.

Crippen, C., & Willows, J. (2019). Connecting teacher leadership and servant leadership: A synergistic partnership, Journal of Leadership Education, 18(2), 171-180. https://doi.org/10.12806/V18/I2/T4

Stewart, J. (2017). The importance of servant leadership in schools, International Journal of Business Management and Commerce, 2(5).

Toop, J. (2013, July 2). Making the most of middle leaders to drive change in schools. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2013/jul/02/middle-leaders-driving-change-school