The Importance of Collaboration
In my first blog post titled “Hello World” (MacDonald, 2012a), I admitted to not having a clear understanding of what a teacher librarian does, except for what I had taken from my own teacher librarian as a high school student and brief encounters as a substitute teacher. I wrote that it seemed to be a “jack-of-all-trades type job”(MacDonald, 2012a, para. 1) which was a sentiment I carried throughout the Masters program into my reflections of my final placement report as I confirmed a teacher librarian must “wear many hats” (MacDonald, 2014) to perform the tasks of many in a school. An important omission in my knowledge and understanding, however, was highlighted and developed in my first subject ETL401 Teacher Librarianship – that of collaboration. The subject’s first assignment, which looked at the Standards of Professional Excellence for Teacher Librarians (ALIA/ASLA, 2004), proved how little emphasis I had placed on collaboration, especially in terms of inquiry learning, and jump started a deeper look that followed throughout the course into what collaboration means for a teacher librarian and how a teacher librarian can achieve it.
Building my knowledge, I firstly delved into the definitions of collaboration during ETL401 in the blog post “All right stop. Collaborate and listen” with Montiel-Overall’s (2005) definition resonating with my emerging understanding:
Building my knowledge, I firstly delved into the definitions of collaboration during ETL401 in the blog post “All right stop. Collaborate and listen” with Montiel-Overall’s (2005) definition resonating with my emerging understanding:
“Collaboration is a trusting, working relationship between two or more equal participants involved in shared thinking, shared planning, and shared creation of innovation integrated instruction. Through a shared vision and shared objectives, student learning opportunities are created that integrate subject content and library curriculum by co-planning, co-implementing, and co-evaluating students’ progress throughout the instructional process in order to improve student learning in all areas of instruction.” (Original italics)
Montiel-Overall, 2005, p.32 |
At the same time, I was concerned as a beginning teacher librarian by Todd’s (2008) research findings that the teacher librarians he studied in active collaborative teams rarely had student learning outcomes as an objective for the collaboration they were taking part in, instead holding their own position and library above broader educational goals. I had begun to see the importance of collaboration during ETL401, but, more importantly, I had begun to understand that collaboration is most meaningful when both teacher librarian and classroom teachers have student learning outcomes at the forefront, a point I endeavour to act on as a teacher librarian.
The next major development in my knowledge and understanding of collaboration as it relates to teacher librarianship was during ETL504 Teacher Librarian as Leader. Although I struggled with viewing myself as a leader, this subject illuminated that the type of leadership often required by a librarian goes hand in hand with successful collaboration and creating a collaborative school environment. I discovered that basing a school culture on “continuous learning” (Hackman & Wageman, 2007, p. 46), coupled with both a transformational (Better Business Learning, 2012) and distributed leadership style (Youngs, 2009) is the most successful combination to promote successful collaboration in a school – a combination I had already seen in my own leadership style (MacDonald, 2013).
The next major development in my knowledge and understanding of collaboration as it relates to teacher librarianship was during ETL504 Teacher Librarian as Leader. Although I struggled with viewing myself as a leader, this subject illuminated that the type of leadership often required by a librarian goes hand in hand with successful collaboration and creating a collaborative school environment. I discovered that basing a school culture on “continuous learning” (Hackman & Wageman, 2007, p. 46), coupled with both a transformational (Better Business Learning, 2012) and distributed leadership style (Youngs, 2009) is the most successful combination to promote successful collaboration in a school – a combination I had already seen in my own leadership style (MacDonald, 2013).
I believe many schools in Canada are already foster a school culture of continuous learning, however, from observation, this does not always affect collaboration or a willingness to work together when it comes to student learning. This is where myself as teacher librarian has a unique opportunity to become an agent for collaboration between myself and classroom teachers, but also between classroom teachers themselves. As a transformational leader equipped with a vision, authenticity, growth mindset, and creativity (Better Business Learning, 2012), I hope to be able to be the change agent that can work between grade levels and subject areas to promote curriculum collaboration.
I do not believe a teacher librarian can or should be solely a transformational leader. By the completion of ETL504, I came to firmly believed that it needs to be coupled with a distributed leadership model in a school. It takes a transformational leader – in my role as teacher librarian – to enact the change to a culture of collaboration, however, it takes distributed leadership to ensure it has staying power through actively involving team members as leaders and using these team members to lead and reflect in their areas of expertise (Jones, Harvey, LeFoe, Ryland, 2011).
The capstone subject of my Masters program, ETL507 Professional Placement, sealed my certainty in the importance of collaboration in the field of librarianship. My placement report was filled with examples of collaborative practices that were improving the functioning, resources, and experience of users at my placement public library “solidifying the importance communication and collaboration play in the functioning of a library and its wider community” (MacDonald, 2014).
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Collaboration is great in theory, but who’s got the time? Collaboration isn’t an easy thing to commit to. It takes time, effort, and resources. I’ve witnessed many schools that have implemented structured collaboration time into the weekly school schedule. This is a positive sign that educators, administration, and school boards are also seeing the benefit of collaboration and giving teachers the most precious resource – time. As a teacher librarian, I need to play an active role in these collaboration times to plan collaborative curriculum units with classroom teachers and ensure the school community knows the wonderful resources the library, and myself as an information specialist can offer student learning outcomes.