ETL505 Assignment 2 Critical Reflection

This unit comes at the end of my Masters journey, and in many ways pulls together the many varied threads that run through the MEdTL course. As a teacher librarian I live and breathe information. Whether it’s locating resources or developing units of work on information literacy skills, information is my life. It is my role to provide excellent library and information services management. I have a responsibility to provide quality information resources and facilitate effective access to those resources (Australian Library and Information Association & Australian School Library Association, 2004).

            I began this unit, having just moved into a full time teacher librarian role, excited about developing practical experience with cataloging resources. The reality was, I struggled with developing the skills necessary for describing resources according to Resource Description and Access [RDA] (Joint Steering Committee for the development of RDA, 2015). I felt deflated with my results in regards to RDA in the first assignment and resentful of having to spend time on a skill that appeared to be beyond the scope of the teacher librarian role. This was reinforced on my recent study visit in Sydney, where a number of the libraries we visited do not engage in cataloguing at all, with resources arriving to them shelf ready. I began to think what is the point of this.

            Then I visited a library where one of the librarians talked passionately about the role of subject headings, RDA and understanding classification systems. This was a light bulb moment for me. This librarian explained resource description within the context of her educational library and I was suddenly astounded with myself, that just because something was proving hard for me to learn, I thought it perhaps had no place in my role as teacher librarian. I re-evaluated the libraries I had seen, the roles the librarians played in a wide variety of contexts and the resource description access they engaged in. I finally began to clue in to the critical role that resource description plays in the provision of access within these contexts.

            Over the past two weeks I have approached this unit with a renewed sense of focus. I can see the potential for using the SCIS (Education Services Australia, 2013) subject headings as a teaching tool towards developing more efficient search skills not only for myself, but also for the students and teachers who access the school library OPAC. I have thoroughly enjoyed working my way through the Dewey, and it has given me a much deeper understanding of the workings of the non-fiction collection in my library. I have begun using SCIS in a more effective way, and I can see now the importance of understanding how the subject headings work and using them to my advantage. It will also help me to identify any gaps within my collection and whether the needs of the users in my context require the gap to be filled.

            Overall, this unit has been challenging, and yet rewarding for the personal growth I feel I have made in understanding the role of resource provision and access within the school library. I believe this strengthens my ability to teach information literacy skills to my end users, enabling them to access the resources within the school library with more success.

ETL504 Don Tapscott's 4 principles of an open world: a school library view

In his 2012 Ted Talk on the “4 principles of an open world”, Tapscott describes openness as a word that ‘denotes opportunity and possibilities’. Further, he discusses how the technology revolution is opening up the world in the way people collaborate and share information, the transparency of the way organizations interact in the global community and the empowerment that comes from the distribution of knowledge in a connected world. The evolution of the Internet and the role of technology in society have created a global information community, unlike anything experienced by human society in the past. People are connecting across the world, sharing information, ideas, collaborating. Where once access to knowledge was the privilege of those who could read and had access to the printed world, now knowledge is accessible to anyone, used to create, solve problems, innovate in socially connected, collaborative communities. Tapscott describes this global connectiveness as a way of shedding light into areas that before have only known darkness.

So what does this mean for schools and in particular, the role of school libraries and teacher librarians?

           

The future direction of the 21^st century school is one full of possibility and challenge. The past two decades has seen the need for significant changes in the way curriculum knowledge and skills are taught and the integration of technology into the learning and teaching context. Tapscott discusses the impact of the digital world as causing ‘a profound change in the deep structure and architecture of organisations’ and this is inherently true of the educational setting. As schools endeavor to meet the challenges of such profound change, it is possible that the four principles discussed by Tapscott - collaboration, transparency, sharing and empowerment can be applied by our schools, teachers and librarians as a way of shining the light of this technological revolution into the learning and teaching context.

Collaboration

There have been significant mind shifts in the role of both classroom teachers and teacher librarians. Teachers are no longer the holders of information, students no longer the recipients of content and knowledge deemed important by the school boards and curriculum associations.  Teacher librarians are no longer the curators of just a collection of print materials. Today’s educational environment requires both classroom teachers and teacher librarians to look at how to use this limitless access to information to build students capabilities to innovate, create and engage with knowledge – to develop the students abilities to collaborate in a digital world. Teacher librarians are an essential component for schools to meet the needs of the students in a technologically connected world. They are information specialists with the skills to create an information-rich learning environment that supports both students and teachers in developing the skills needed to succeed in an online environment. Through collaboration with teachers and students, teacher librarians can teach students information search strategies, develop inquiry-based learning skills, and create opportunities for innovation, creation and engagement.

Transparency

Classrooms are no longer isolated, stand alone communities of 1 teacher and 30 students. The classroom extends beyond the four walls of the building, into learning communities across the globe. There is an increasing obligation for accountability of schools to be transparent about the way teaching and learning occurs within their school. Classroom teachers and teacher librarians must be able to demonstrate to all stakeholders in the community how the school is actively teaching the necessary skills and strategies for active participation in an online world. Tapscott refers to transparency as a being a very good thing for it forces people to consider how they are representing themselves within the global community – in particular the values and integrity of the organization. For classroom teachers and teacher librarians, it is imperative that they can be seen to be fostering within the learning and teaching context an understanding of responsible digital citizenship. Teacher librarians must include in the information literacy skills they teach an understanding of credibility, accuracy and authenticity of information. As ICT and library budgets increase (or decrease), it must be transparent to the community how this impacts on the way students are taught, how accessible the online world is to them, and the implications for the teaching and learning context of the school. Classroom and libraries cannot be isolated anymore – they must be open to scrutiny – daunting and scary as that sounds, it is the only way to ensure students have the necessary teaching and learning opportunities needed for participation in a globally networked society.

Sharing

Teachers and schools are learning innovative ways of connecting and networking together, working to share knowledge and intellectual property. Teachers are learning new ways of sharing knowledge with students, developing student skills in searching for information, and using that knowledge to create, build, innovate, develop skills for the 21^st century. The open world is a platform that provides endless opportunities for enabling our students to feel empowered. As Tapscott discusses, the internet allows people to be producers of knowledge and ideas in an age of networked intelligence and promise.

            Teacher librarians have the skills to bring the online world into the school, building shared networked communities from the outside world that can be used to contributed to the learning and teaching context within the school environment. The 21^st century school library is not a separate room within the school, disconnected from the learning experiences of the students and the sole domain of the teacher librarian.

As Tapscott states ‘the world is opening up and it is a good thing’ (2012).

ETL 504 - Assignment 2 - Reflective Critical Analysis

‘What have I learnt as I have examined leadership in depth through this subject?’

If I were to answer this question simply, I would say that I have learnt another critical role to add to the already complex role of the teacher librarian. While that is very true, what I have learnt is much deeper and more involved than that simple statement.

Of all the units I have done so far in my Masters, studying ETL 504 has proven to be one of great challenge for me. I have spent 20 years working as a teacher and I have held leadership positions. However, due to my family circumstances I have been out of school life for over two years now. As I discussed in my first blog post for this unit (16 March 2015), I now feel a very strong disconnection between my studies and my personal experiences. It is challenging to move forward in your professional focus, when your only frame of reference is looking back into the past.

Despite this, I found the first module an acknowledgement of my previous teaching and leadership experience. I recognized leadership styles, understood their qualities and found affirmation in the leadership description I received from the quiz on Buzzle (2105). I felt confident applying the 7 step process to the primary scenario in Module 1 (Task 2, 29^th March). Importantly, as I discussed in my Critical Reflection for Assignment 1 (19 April 2015), this module was eye opening in helping me to understand how my successes arose from my ability to build connected, collaborative relationships. Module 1 enabled me to critically evaluate the aspects of leadership that I have found challenging and come to understand that my challenges arose from a limited understanding of how to stimulate change and support teachers through the change process.

This has been the most significant and critically important learning for me – change management. Studying this unit and not having a current arena with which to analyse, apply and evaluate the practical knowledge of the unit has been very difficult. Yet Tapscott (TED, 2012) managed to inspire me to look forward, forget my lack of present experiences and imagine the 21^st century educational paradigm that I want to work in (Blog post, edited May 25 2015). Doodle slide (2012), helped me understand that as a leader, not only do I need to be navigator in the change process, but I need to learn to put processes into place that enable those around me to be grow to be navigators of change too. Both Orridge (2009) and Kotter’s 8 step process (Kotter, 2015), enabled me to critically examine previous leadership experiences. I understand that the resistance to change I had experienced was a result of my lack of understanding of how to empower my staff; an inability to create that sense of urgency for the need to change; and not helping people to understand the plan and where they fit in to it. A humbling realization to come to, but crucial in helping me to understand how I, as a leader, can manage change in the future - that it is a strategic process that must be systematically planned for and worked through.

 In 55 days, I will be a teacher librarian and this unit has had me constantly thinking about my role, my leadership skills and understandings, and how I can marry the two together and be successful as a ‘leader for learning’ within my new school community.

How am I going to inspire collaboration, transparency and the sharing of knowledge?

How am I going to empower and lead a community into being excited about the world opening up?

How am I going to create a deep focus on learning from within the library and beyond the four walls of our classrooms?

It is difficult to say, without having started work as a teacher librarian. However, module 3: Task 1 (May 1 2015) was an important step in helping me to define what I believe about leadership in school communities - that ‘learning should be the prime concern of all those who exercise leadership in schools’ (Macbeath & Dempster, 2008, p.32) and my response to Module 6.1 (Task 1, May 12, 2015), was a way of explaining that a key aspect of leading from the middle in the library, is to ensure that the library stakeholders really understand the ‘why’ of we do and believe about learning in today’s world.

Ultimately, it will come down to the context of the school, the vision and mission that we are working to achieve and the mix of professional relationships that I have to work with. What I do know for certain, is that this unit has given to me a wealth of knowledge and skills that I can add to my Teacher Librarian toolkit, giving me the tools with which to identify, manage and guide change as a critical leader within the school community. Overall, this unit has been instrumental in learning about who I am as a leader, and where I see my future as a leader within the school. While this unit may be ending, my journey as a ‘leader for learning’ within the role of the teacher librarian is just beginning.

References

Buzzle. (2015). Leadership styles quiz. In Buzzle. Retrieved from http://www.buzzle.com/articles/leadership-styles-quiz.html

Doodle Slide. (2012). Change management explained in 1 minute! [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmoDpj1jtyA

Kotter, J. (2015). Kotter International: Change leadership. Kotter International - Innovative Strategy Implementation Professionals. Retrieved March 18, 2015, from http://www.kotterinternational.com/our-principles/change-leadership.

MacBeath, J. E., & Dempster, N. (2008). Connecting leadership and learning: principles in practice. Retrieved from EBook

Orridge, M. (2009). Change leadership: Developing a change-adept organization. Retrieved from Ebook library

TED. (2012 June 28). Don Tapscott: four principles for the open world [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfqwHT3u1-8

ETL 504 - Assignment 1 - Reflective Critical Analysis

As I write this critical reflection, I find myself weeks away from stepping into a full time teacher librarian role, where one expectation is that I have the ability to lead a library staff team. Therefore it is timely, that I use my learning so far to reflect upon the practice of leadership in a school library.

I thought I knew what effective leadership was, until I actually tried to define it. Effective leadership is much more complex than I realized. There are a number of leadership styles that leaders can draw from, to best meet the needs of the community at a particular point in time. I believe that my desire to lead in the past emerged from having a deep sense of passion and ambition to continually and incrementally improve student-learning outcomes (Marzano, Waters & McNulty, 2005, p. 16). My successes arose from my ability to build connected, collaborative relationships, and my challenges arose from a very limited understanding of how to stimulate change and support teachers through the change process.

A variety of readings about building trust spoke to me, but it was Browning’s (2013, p. 15) ten key practices of trusted leaders that brought about the realization, that the difficulties I had encountered in a previous position, arose from a breach of trust from the leaders within the school. From what I have longed viewed as a failure, I now consider a significant lesson learned, and as such, building trust arose as a critical leadership skill in my concept map. I understand that as a teacher librarian new to the school, I am going to have actively work at building trust with my new colleagues, and Browning’s list is something I will refer back to.

Tapscott’s TED talk (2012) was another key learning moment. ‘The world is opening up and it is a good thing’ was such an incredibly positive and inspirational statement that encapsulated the potential future and direction of school libraries. Through the four principles of collaboration, transparency, sharing and empowerment, I saw the connection between the leadership of the teacher librarian, development of information literacy skills, emerging technologies and a deep focus on learning. As a teacher librarian, I must be an active member of the distributed leadership of the school, using my specialist knowledge and skills to develop the skills and capabilities of other staff and students so that they feel empowered to innovate, create and engage in the ‘open’ world.

My new role as a teacher librarian could be seen as servant leader: in the middle of the organization, in contact with, and supporting all members of the community (Marzano et al, 2005, p.17); or perhaps instructional leader: promoting collaborative relationships, effectively providing and supporting instructional activities (p. 18). Ultimately, I aim to be a leader for learning, helping the school to create a shared vision, working collaboratively with other members of the school community to achieve ‘thoughtful consensus on critical questions about learning’ (Coatney, 2010, p. 16) and stimulating change to improve school practice.

I still have a lot to learn about myself as a leader and my leadership capacity. However, with the next exciting career step that I have ahead of me, I have strong motivation and desire to improve and develop my leadership skills.

 References:

Browning, P. (2013). Creating the conditions for transformational change. Australian Educational Leader, 35(3), 14-17. Retrieved from

             http://search.informit.com.au.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/fullText;dn=200657;res=AEIPT

Coatney, S. (2010). The many faces of school library leadership. Retrieved from Ebook library.

Marzano, R. J., Waters, T., & McNulty, B. A. (2005). School leadership that works: From research to results. Retrieved from www.csuau.eblib.com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/patron/Read.aspx.

TED. (2012 June 28). Don Tapscott: four principles for the open world [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfqwHT3u1-8