ETL401 Blog Task 1: Principal support

Introduction

Principal support is paramount to the success of the library. Principals assist the library by fulfilling four main roles, supervisor, model, manager and mentor (Oberg, 2006). They determine in what form the school library exists and whether a teacher librarian is needed. The principal is also critical to developing a collaborative school culture, but while librarians want principal support they have low expectations of it being provided (Oberg 2006). Only through partnership with the principal can the teacher librarian achieve a successful library program.

Role of principal

Principals can support the library program in three ways:

‘[B]y working directly with teachers to develop their understanding of the program; by clearly demonstrating personal commitment to the program; and by using the management role of school leader to enable the program.'  (Everhart 2006, p.38)  

These roles have been categorised; the principal is to be a supervisor, model, manager and mentor (Oberg, 2006). The role of mentor is a personal role, between the principal and the teacher librarian, the mentor seeks to develop the teacher librarian professionally and show them that they are valued.

The principal must work directly with teachers as a supervisor and model to direct learning, enhance understanding of the library programmes and facilitate collaboration. Teachers are more likely to work collaboratively with the teacher librarian if there is a pre-existing culture or expectation in the school. Teachers have a more positive opinion of teacher librarians in a collaborative environment (Haycock, 2007). The principal should appoint the teacher librarian to curriculum committees if they desire new collaboration initiatives. This also increases the visibility of the teacher librarian as a leader and is a result of principals supporting collaboration (Morris, 2007). The principal should also ‘recognise and award collaborative efforts’ (Farmer, 2007) to reinforce successful collaboration, the principal must be seen and heard to be supporting collaboration to model their ongoing personal commitment.

As a manager principals need to allocate an adequate budget to library programmes and resources. The budget dictates what functions the library can fulfil and the size of collection. The principal as manager should be aiming to provide flexible timetabling of teachers and teacher librarians, to enable collaboration and planning to occur.

Role of teacher librarian

Principals often do not understand the role of the teacher librarian and thus are not able to show their clear support (Morris and Packard, 2007). Principals overlook the value teacher librarians have in increasing student achievement this is often because principals lack knowledge in this area. It is the role of the teacher librarians to change these misconceptions. Purcell, (2010) argues that teacher librarians need to ‘prove their worth’ and this same notion is repeated by (Todd, 2003) and (Lamb, 2011).

The standards of professional excellence for teacher librarians (2004) require the demonstration of leadership within the school and professional communities. The standards further explain that this includes engagement in school leadership, participation in key committees, building and fostering of collaborative teams within the school. (Standard 3.3). Teacher librarians need to be involved in subject team meetings, curriculum councils and lesson planning to be able to share their knowledge of resources and display their value.

Conclusion

The principal and the teacher librarian need to work in partnership to ensure successful library programmes. An effective librarian will be helping lead the school in collaboration activities. An effective principal will understand and display the importance of the library by supervising, modelling, managing and mentoring.

References

Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) & Australian School Library Association (ASLA). (2004). Standards of professional excellence for teacher librarians, Retrieve from: http://www.alia.org.au/policies/TLstandards.pdf

Everhart, N. (2006) Principals’ Evaluation of School Librarians: a study of strategic and nonstrategic evidence-based approaches, School Libraries Worldwide, 12(2), 38-51

Farmer, L. (2007). Principals: Catalysts for collaboration. School Libraries Worldwide, 13(1), 56-65.

Hartzell, G. (2003). Why should principals support school libraries? Teacher Librarian, 31(2), 21-23

Haycock, K. (2007). Collaboration: Critical success factors for student learning. School Libraries Worldwide, 13(1), 25-35.

Lamb, A. (2011). Bursting with Potential: Mixing a Media Specialist's Palette, Tech Trends: Linking research to improve learning, 55(4) 27-36

Morris, B. (2007). Principal support for collaboration. School Libraries Worldwide, 13(1), 23-24.

Morris, B., & Packard, A. (2007). The principal’s support of classroom teacher-media specialist collaboration. School Libraries Worldwide, 13(1), 36-55.

Oberg, D. (2006). Developing the respect and support of school administrators. Teacher Librarian, 33(3), 13-18.

Purcell, M. (2010). All librarians do is check out books right? A look at the roles of the school library media specialist. Library Media Connection 29(3), 30-33.

Todd, R., (2003) Irrefutable evidence: How to prove you boost student achievement, School Library Journal