Bringing about change to how a school views the library and enhancing the school library's services is not only exciting, but it is also quite confronting and full of the unknown. The changes my colleague and I are making involves increasing collaboration between TLs and teachers, introducing information literacy instruction and increasing the presence of web 2.0 technologies from within the library. All with the underlying vision of enhancing collaboration within the school - of which the culture is quite minimal.
I have to be careful in my attempts at facilitating change not to be too much of a "pacesetter leader" as Fullan describes. While I am frustrated currently with the lack of interest on the part of many teachers in learning to use Web 2.0 technologies to motivate and engage students. Additionally, teachers have an ad hoc view of information literacy - many think that students can just "Google it" and they'll find the information SOMEHOW and be able to synthesise it and make it their own learning. This results in plagiarism, which is rife in the school. While I acknowledge that many teachers are of the 'older vintage' it may be harder to persuade them to change.
The key will be to speak at staff meetings and offer relevant PD and tutoring sessions, but the overriding thing will be that teachers WANT to improve students information literacy skills and access to ICTs to engage students in their learning and to make connections to the world in which they communicate in. College administration also has to be a little flexible and allow myself time to go to classes to show the students how to use some of the tools of Web 2.0.
I have to be careful that I don't go bullet a gate and move too fast for the majority of teachers, who are generally resistant to change. I can't think that if they see all these wonderful Web 2.0 technologies the teachers would feel they were missing out on something and that they'd better do something about their own skills and knowledge because their students were missing out on these areas of education.
The teaching staff don't want to be overwhelmed and burnt out by the changes. There is an inherent staff morale problem and while there is so much talk about how students plagiarise and the need to improve student results it can't happen overnight.
For me it will mean that my leadership has to be one of coaching, democratic and affiliative styles (as per the definitions in Fullan chapter 3). I don't want to be in the position of being burnt out myself and getting no where and coming to the realisation that you are only a leader if someone comes with you. It will mean for me to work with the willing - start with one or two willing teachers and let the rest see what they're missing out and documenting feedback from those teachers about the quality of work being produced by students and their improvements in learning, being more information literate and discriminate about the information they're using for assignments. One step at a time.
Collaboration is crucial for getting staff to work with me more. Professional articles say we should be working in collaboration with teachers but many TLs do not experience collaboration. Many TLs are not seen as leaders (this certainly could apply in my school) and some are not equals in the teaching profession (even though many hold, or are in the process of acquiring, duel qualifications).
We are taught too lead from the middle (Donham I think). Will leading from the middle accomplish collaboration? I wonder what style or combination of styles are necessary to lead from the middle.
I'm leaning at the moment towards affiliative leadership being important in making progress towards collaboration. We perhaps need to work on building relationships first, to bond with teachers. Teachers are particularly autonomous and many academics have pointed out that educational change is slow because of the autonomous culture (Joyce, 2004: Little, 1990; Cooper, 1988; Horton, n.d). TLs are in the unique position - we are teachers (and librarians). My last two thoughts to ponder: is this a unique position really an advantage? If so, how best to take advantage of this unique position?
Cooper, M. (1988). Whose culture is it, anyway? In A. Lieberman (Ed.), Building a professional culture in schools (pp. 45-54). New York: Teachers College Press.
Horton, R. (n.d.). Teacher librarians: What are we? What should we be? Professional development from the inside. In Alia. Retrieved August 7, 2008, from http://alia.org.au/~rhorton/education/role.html
Joyce, B. (2004, September). How are professional learning communities created? History has a few messages. Phi Delta Kappan, 76-83. Retrieved July 25, 2008, from Academic Search Premier database.
Little, J. W. (1990). The persistence of privacy: Autonomy and initiative in teachers’ professional relations. Teacher College Record, 91(4), 509-536. Retrieved August 7, 2008, from Blackwell Synergy database.
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