ETL504 Assignment 1 Reflective Critical Analysis

Why even study leadership in a teacher librarian (TL) course, all we do is manage books, right? This wasn't too far from what I came into this course thinking, not having worked in a library. I have come to learn over this subject and others leading up to it how wrong I was.  

Very few schools these days would have one person making all the leadership decisions. One of the first schools I worked at used a distributed leadership model.  The school was led by four principals, one head and three assistants, each principal was delegated an area of school life to run. Each faculty had a leading teacher who attended curriculum meetings then passed the information on to those under their leadership. Other teachers were leaders in areas of domain, ICT, and student wellbeing. It was in this school situation that I noticed the role of the TL as leader the most. The TL was given a role on the leadership and curriculum committees. As part of the leadership team they were involved in decisions regarding teaching and learning practices and other school wide issues. It was also in this school and possibly because of this role in leadership that the school library had an effective collaborative teaching programme. The classroom teacher and the librarian planned and presented lessons to help students undertake inquiry activities. The library nearly always had a class using it and was highly valued by the school. The TL promoted the library and its activities which resulted in a library which is nearly always full.  The TL in this setting modelled the instructional style of leadership. They communicated the vision, goals and potential the library had, they provided the resources and training needed to use the library effectively for teaching, and they were a visible presence around the school and on committees (Marzano, Waters, & McNulty, 2005, p. 18).

I have also unfortunately seen the opposite situation in schools, where the TL is not a leader; the library does not have the same value to the teaching staff and goes underutilised. I think the difference here is the TL is functioning as a manager, ‘managers manage things, leaders lead people’ (Brocker, 2012). Teacher librarians have technical expertise to manage the library, but they must also be able to motivate followers.  This contrast in schools has made me reflect on the importance of having a TL who is a leader. We know that student achievement is increased when the leadership ability within a school is increased (Marzano, Waters, & McNulty, 2005, p. 11). We also know that the school libraries can have a positive impact on achievement (Lonsdale, 2003; Oberg, 2002; Todd, 2003). It is not much of a leap then to suggest that improving the leadership quality of TL in schools will also be beneficial to learning outcomes. Through the use of distributed leadership the capacity to lead is enhanced in principal and teacher alike (Townsend, 2011, p. 95).

Key thoughts to take away from assignment 1 are that a teacher librarian who is a leader and not just a manager;

• embraces and leads through change,
• builds balanced teams to navigate change (Belbin, 2012),
• provides training with ongoing technical and social support to personally develop others (O'Donoghue & Clarke, 2009)
• uses open leadership to empower and collaborate with those they lead (Tapscott, 2012), and
• has the emotional intelligence to understand individual’s needs and help motivate followers (Cameron & Green, 2009; Orridge, 2009). 

References

Belbin, M. (2012). Team roles at work. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis.

Brocker, B. (2012, March 22). Leadership theory and critical skills [Video file]. Retrieved March 31, 2014, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzAzhiEsZtY

Cameron, E., & Green, M. (2009). Making sense of change management: A complete guide to models, tools and techniques of organisational change. London: Kogan Page.

Lonsdale, M. (2003). Impact of school libraries on student improvement: A review of the research. Melbourne: Australian Council for Educational Research. Retrieved March 31, 2014, from http://www.asla.org.au/site/defaultsite/filesystem/documents/research.pdf

Marzano, R., Waters, T., & McNulty, B. (2005). School leadership that works: From research to results. Alexandria, Va: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Oberg, D. (2002). Looking for the evidence: Do school libraries improve student achievement? School Libraries in Canada, 22(2), 10-13.

O'Donoghue, T., & Clarke, S. (2009). Leading learning: Process, themes and issues in international contexts. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis.

Orridge, M. (2009). Change leadership. Surrey: Ashgate Publishing Group.

Tapscott, D. (2012, June). Four Principles for the open world [Video file]. Edinburgh, Scotland: TEDGlobal.

Todd, R. (2003). Irrefutable evidence: How to prove you boost student achievement. School Library Journal, 49(4), 52-56.

Townsend, T. (2011). School leadership in the twenty-first century: Different approaches to common problems? School Leadership and Management, 31(2), 93-103. doi:10.1080/13632434.2011.572419