Assessment Item 2- Comparative Evaluation
At the heart of teacher librarianship is the quest to understand the best way to explore research practice and focus on teaching positive information behaviours so students become successful and contributing members of society. As ever-increasing demands are placed upon educators to deliver an overcrowded and complex syllabus, it is critical to be able to form smart information behaviours to clearly distil what exactly is going to be helpful in our profession rather than a hindrance and cause overload and burnout.
The skill of understanding research methodologies, paradigms, methods and research techniques in information science is going to allow us as Teacher Librarians (TLs) to be savvy in critically analysing and evaluating literature. Information research, along with social research in general, has developed greater sophistication over the years. (Williamson & Johanson, 2018,p. 538) With the past affecting the future, the insight into the research world gives information professionals clarity that strict protocols and rigour are adhered to.
Two research articles have been examined in this comparative evaluation to assess the effectiveness of the characteristics against the evaluation checklist (Interact2 site) and make commentary around the application to practice in terms of evidence-based practice. They both show there are strengths and weaknesses to the layout of research articles and the way they are conducted. Recognising these allows for better attainment of knowledge.
Research Article #1: School libraries fostering children’s literacy and literature learning: mitigating the barriers.
Author: Margaret K. Merga.
This research paper uses a qualitative methodology and the interpretivism paradigm to explore the barriers that teacher librarians encounter in school libraries. The primary data from the 30 West Australian teacher librarians (TLs) is used to give insights in this under researched area and used in the Teacher Librarians as Australian Literature Advocates in Schools (TLALAS) project. (Merga, 2019, p.71) The research investigates educational models from three different countries: United Kingdom, United States and Australia and the roles and qualifications of librarians in schools are elaborated on. Many mitigating factors were seen as barriers to truly utilising the teacher librarian and the library space as a powerful partnership/tool in maximising the potential of literacy knowledge and literature learning and increasing better learning outcomes for students. Merga, 2019, researches the difference in attitudes in teaching staff and the wider community in valuing libraries and the constraints that teacher librarians are faced with despite being dual qualified as both teachers and librarians. The research draws on examples from TLs across different school contexts and issues that they perceive as barriers to fostering children’s literacy and literature learning due to systematic deficits and embedded attitudes towards literacy learning.
Research Article #2: Strategies for Successful School Librarian and Teacher Collaboration. Authors: Jenna Kammer, Matt King, Allison Donahay, and Heather Koeberl
School Library Research (SLR), has published a qualitative meta-analysis (Kammer et al, 2021, p.1) that explores the nature of successful collaboration between teacher librarians (TLs) and teachers. This research sits under the interpretivism paradigm and is an action research paper that was presented for the AASL Research in Practice track at the 2019 AASL National Conference in Lousieville, Kentucky, USA. The research was lead by Jenna Kammer and three authors; King, Donahay and Koeberl in 3 different settings: an elementary school (King, 2019), a pre-service TL (Donahay, 2019) and a high school TL (Koeberl, 2019). They collaborated with different teaching staff within their contexts to undertake their collaborative projects. The 3 primary studies were conducted over a 2 year period and was part of a thesis work at University of Central Missouri.
School libraries fostering children’s literacy and literature learning: mitigating the barriers. Margaret K. Merga.
The use of qualitative methodologies allows for Merga, 2019, to work with 30 teacher librarians from Western Australian schools and check for common themes that arise during the data collected. The author does not specify the methodology or paradigm that this research covers, it is left to the reader to assume. Interpretivism is the paradigm as the purpose of the research is to understand something in a particular context and time and the data is collected and analysed in terms of meaning (Interact 2 Module 2- Key terms).
The research methods used were exploratory interviews conducted with a semi-structured interview schedule. (Merga, 2019, p. 71) The strength of personal interviews are that they offer greater flexibility than other survey modes, in relation to: the nature of questions that can be asked, the two way interaction between interviewer and interviewee and the ability to access different segments of the population. (Williamson & Johanson, 2018, p. 180) The weakness, however, is that this mode can be time-consuming, costly and resource intensive. Williamson & Johanson state that this can limit the number of participants, which may mean the interviewees are less frank in their responses and may generate responses that are inadvertently biased due to the interviewer presence. (2018, p.180). The geographical location of this research was in one state of Australia and therefore is based on the experiences of TLs in that state education system only, restricting the sample size of participants. However, transferability of the research themes with the varying case studies can be considered in other states and territories of Australia.
Observation field notes provided supplementary details about library spaces. There was only brief detail about this in the research methods in the article (Merga, 2020, p71.) Without explaining what exactly was being noted down in these jottings, it becomes problematic to concisely understand if all settings were judged similarly. If a checklist was included about the physical spaces in libraries this would have been a more effective way to balance the comments. Also, the use of a device to take pictures could also be a more active method.
Apparent themes arose amongst the participants in this study and the notable barriers to fostering children’s literacy and literature learning in school libraries were: limited time and competing demands, crowded curriculum, low teacher valuing, low student engagement, skills and motivation, issues with parental support, limited space and constrained budget. (Merga, 2020. P. 72-76). Examples of participant responses were under each of the
barriers headings. This was clearly set out and easy to follow but considering 1 hour was spent with each participant the research only blanket-covered some of the responses. This could have been shown in a table to show percentages of times themes arose to make the figures more impactful.
Strategies for Successful School Librarian and Teacher Collaboration. Jenna Kammer, Matt King, Allison Donahay, and Heather Koeberl.
Kammer et al, 2021, designed their research methodology around qualitative meta-analysis as stated in the abstract of the article (p.1). With the use of the interpretivism paradigm they were able to write a comprehensive thesis on strategies for successful school librarian and teacher collaboration as their title states.
At the beginning of the paper there is a lengthy literature review defining collaboration and confirming already researched material to back what successful teacher and school librarian collaboration looks like. Callison & Preddy, 2006 in Montiel-Overall states that the literature on teacher and librarian collaboration indicates that sharing knowledge and information can maximize time, materials, and expertise. (2010, p.33) Montiel-Overall affirms that more importantly, the literature indicates the importance of integrating libraries and librarians into the school curriculum in improving student academic achievement. (2010, p.33)
In the method part of the paper Timulak, 2009, says that “qualitative meta-analysis is particularly useful for providing a description of a single phenomenon that has been researched within a group of studies”. The Figure 1 Timulak’s six steps of qualitative meta-analysis clearly illustrates the steps used by the researchers. (Kammer et al, 2020, p.7) Elaborations on the methods could have been more wide-ranging.
Clearly set out was the 3 primary studies: King- 2019 in an elementary school collaborating with teachers from three grade levels, Koerbl- 2019 who a pre-service school librarian who liaised with a supervising librarian and history teacher to integrate picture books into a lesson on Egypt and Donahay- 2019 in a High School collaborating with an Early Language Learning (ELL) teacher to identify barriers for students who are ELL in accessing the school library. Having 3 TLs at the same level, rather than a pre-service TL would give better indication of if these strategies would work in the school for the longer term rather than just be done as a single lesson.
Triangulation, auditing, and validation was completed by all authors to check validity of the research process throughout. Triangulation is a popular approach which enables the checking of findings by the use of different data-collection methods, sources and using different theoretical constructs states Williamson & Johansen. (2018, p. 21)
Merga and Kammer et al. in these papers use qualitative methodology and sit in the paradigm of interpretivism. There were similarities in the research papers. The purpose of the research for both papers were to demonstrate that with strong teacher librarian presence around the school and utilising their advanced skill set will only see student outcomes increase but common themes originated in both findings. Both sets of authors did stumble across hurdles. The valuing of relationships between TL and teacher was reoccurring. Often is known about the role of the TL to the point sometimes the TL needs to enlighten the principal what it is that they do and communicate how they can add value to curriculum content. Being an advocate for literacy and literature learning in schools and across the community were also something that both research articles promoted. Merga’s article was part of a project for the Teacher Librarians as Australian Literature Advocates in Schools (TLALAS), while Kammer et al. was presented for the AASL Research into Practice track at the 2019 AASL National Conference in Louiseville, Kentucky, USA. Presenting your research to your colleagues and community encourages discussion and provokes questions relating to the research project which can only enlighten our peers and make them more aware of current research in the field. The methods and techniques used
Research about the benefits of TLs and teacher collaboration has been around for some time now but little has been done around the explicit strategies that article 2 demonstrated in its findings. There is scope here to take this and delve deeper. The same can be done in relation to the further research on common barriers and mitigating them in other state or territory education systems across Australia. Making a comparative evaluation to the 30 TLs that were interviewed in Western Australia would be purposeful.
Paper 1 was brief compared to that of paper 2. Paper 1 left many important research paper characteristics out which left the reader having to infer meaning. In Paper 2 while it was a thesis for University study, the 3 different settings was difficult to compare as they were all very different. The purpose to show how strategies can be built regardless of the setting but it would have been easier to compare with the same level of schooling with different contexts.
Both research article 1 and 2 make valuable contributions to specifically the school library and information world and the role that school libraries and TLs play in society. The research is useful for information professionals such as teacher librarians who are wanting to know more about how to conduct an action research project in their school setting. This research can be built on and contextualised to own situations and findings can be presented to community. Reinforcing the investment in learning about how TLs and teachers can collaborate is an area that further research can go into to provide more evidence of the successes that collaborative practices make to the educational attainment of student outcomes. As global connectivity soars, generational shifts will come to play a more important role in information seeking behaviours and the profile of the library space adapts and changes with progress to cater for diverse learner needs. The teacher librarian can lead school-wide process changes through collaborative partnerships. As with all progression there will be transformation and challenges. Strategies will need to be adopted and adapted as time prevails.
It is imperative to understand that there is a range of ways for research to be conducted. It’s with greater clarity you can then conceptualise the implications of method choices and it will provide a more profound insight into the implications of research findings. Recognising methodologies and research paradigms; the world view of the researcher helps the reader to understand the purpose of the research. Williamson & Johanson cited Kuhn’s, 1770, definition of the term paradigm is that it is “a set of interrelated assumptions about the social world which provides philosophical and conceptual framework for the systematic study of the world.” (2018, p.4) Comparative evaluations show that there are strengths and weaknesses in all research papers as readers will take out it what is important to them depending on their world views. It is however important that as practitioners we learn to evaluate where the researcher is coming from to understand their viewpoint and its application to the professional or academic world.
Kammer, J., King, M., Donahay, A., & Koeberl, H. (2021). Strategies for successful school librarian and teacher collaboration. School Library Research, 24. https://www.ala.org/aasl/sites/ala.org.aasl/files/content/pubs/slr/vol24/SLR_StrategiesforSuccessful_V24.pdf
Merga, M. K. (2020). School libraries fostering children’s literacy and literature learning: mitigating the barriers. Literacy, 54 (1), 70-78. https://doi.org/10.1111/lit.12189.
Montiel-Overall, P. (2007). Further Understanding of Collaboration: A Case Study of How It Works with Teachers and Librarians. School Libraries Worldwide, 16(2), 31–54. https://doi.org/10.29173/slw6806
Williamson, K., & Johanson, G. (2018). Research Methods: information, systems and contexts. Second Ed. Elsevier Ltd.
Supporting resource: Evaluation checklist for research articles- Interact2 resources https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_68470_1&content_id=_5933694_1&mode=reset