TL Under Construction

As our group works its way through the collaborative project and we delve deeper and deeper into the leadership role of the Teacher Librarian, it is becoming clear to me what a dangerously misunderstood concept “leading from the middle’ can be.

The word that gets the most focus in this term is ‘leading’. While many, many articles are written outlining how TLs can lead and mention facilitation, building influence, collaboration and partnerships, I wonder if the message is getting drowned out in the desperation of our profession to be recognized, and legitimized and ultimately retained as important contributors to the school. So is the part of the message that is most agressively promoted and received ‘Lead’? It is very easy to fall into the trap of trying to get out in front and organize people in an attempt to raise the visibility of the TL. This can be stepping into the area of the least effective types of leadership style — Coercive and Pacesetting leadership.

TLs need to be mindful of the fact that they are in a partnership with teachers and that teachers are leaders too. In the end, teachers are the ones in the classrooms and at this stage, are the main delivery agents and biggest influence on students’ learning.

Fullan states that:

Although you cannot direct outcomes, you can set up conditions that help to guide the process. ‘The challenge is to disturb them in a manner that approximates the desired outcomes’ (Pascale, Millemann and Gioja, 2000) (Fullan, 2005, p. 57)

I am coming to appreciate and believe in the more positive power of ‘influencing’ – and see it as an art worth cultivating.

In a presentation to the School Library Association of Victoria (SLAV) in 2005, Ross put forward a question that needed to be asked.

What constitutes effective shared teacher & librarian-teacher pedagogy and leading of learning through partnerships?

In his talk he called for a shift in the focus to a more cohesive view of learning and onto the library as a key learning environment. He suggests:

Stop talking about collaboration

Stop talking about information literacy

Stop talking about research projects

Stop talking about roles of teacher librarians

Start talking about guided inquiry through information resources

Start talking knowledge outcomes, not information literacy outcomes

Start talking about intellectual quality of learning

Start taking about libraries as quality teaching environments, not resource environments

Start talking the leading of learning through the library

You are the information-learning specialist, working with partner-leaders to lead learning through complex and diverse resources, enabling your students to develop deep understanding of their curriculum topics.

I think this more mature view reflects an acceptance on the part of TLs that they are an integral part of the learning team and can focus their attention on the task at hand rather than on their role in it. And self acceptance is always going to gain the respect of others.

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Fullan, M. (2004). Understanding change. In Leading in a culture of change: Personal action guide and workbook (pp. 39-77). San Francisco: Jossey Bass.

Todd, R. (2005, August). School libraries, productive pedagogy and the leading of learning [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved August 21, 2008, from School Library Association of Victoria Web site: http://www.slav.schools.net.au/pastp.html

http://www.flickr.com/photos/suteki/475093875/

All the recent discussion on the OZTL_NET list (for information professionals) about the political climate and future of TLs in various states in Australia can put a real scare in the hearts of those of us studying to become TLs. I think the hardest thing for us is to envisage how we will fit in in the future. We are gaining skills but don’t know what our professional landscape will look like.

How wonderful to find places that if not exactly ‘maps’ are at least ‘tourist brochures’ with a few snapshots of what we might expect to be doing and dealing with.

One of the best places I’ve found is asseslindoiron wiki
entitled New Literacies, New Libraries, New Learners: Information and Ideas on School Libraries 2.0 – they have videos, slide presentations and academic papers that are exciting, challenging and comforting

There is a big future out there for TLs – I’m beginning to see it more clearly and am as excited as ever to be a part of it.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sergei24/1645592932/

This idea came to me when I was working on part of the collaborative project for ETL504 and was pondering the question from Montiel-Overall — what form of collaboration should TLs be involved in given limited resources (Montiel-Overall, 2005, p.41). I started thinking that bringing about collaboration is a very complex undertaking. Are TLs being encouraged to try to be ’super-human’ by the academics? Like the assignment in talking about Standards of Excellence, is it all expecting more than is possible? Which got me thinking about Coveys Circle of Influence and Concern and the proactivity thing.

Proactive people focus their efforts in the Circle of Influence. They work on the things they can do something about. The nature of their energy is positive, enlarging and magnifying, causing their circle of Influence to increase.

Reactive people, on the other hand, focus their efforts in the Circle of Concern. They focus on the weakness of other people, the problems in the environment and circumstances over which they have no control. …[which] causes their Circle of Influence to shrink.” (Covey, 1990, p.83).

I started thinking about the things we TLs had the most influence over and those we had less influence over. Is this a strategy? To work from the inner circle out? This probably isnt complete but gave me an original perspective on things that might be useful in addressing THE question — “How can TL’s influence teachers to collaborate with them?”

Covey, S. (1990). Habit 1: Be proactive. In The 7 habits of highly effective people: Powerful lessons in personal change (pp. 65-94). New York: Fireside.

Montiel-Overall, P. (2005). A theoretical understanding of teacher and librarian collaboration. School Libraries Worldwide, 11(2), 24-48. Retrieved August 5, 2008, from Emerald Insight database.

I am working through a chapter of Sergiovanni’s wonderful leadership book – The Lifeworld of Leadership. In the chapter entitled “Deep change and the power of localism” the leader gets to know the organisation more intimately.

Ouchi (1980, as cited in Sergiovanni) thought there were three different types of organisations:

• bureaucratic
• market
• clan or community

Each of these is characterized by different ways of getting things done. Bureaurcracies get things done by having policies and rules to follow and people working towards goals to meet expectations.

Markets get things done by pay-off. People interact with each other, trading their contributions and compliance for what they want.

The third type is a clan or community organisation. This type gets things done by encouraging and enabling people to bond and commit to common values and beliefs (a school philosophy for example). The group accomplishes for the common good of the organisation.

If one can figure out which type of school organisations they are involved in, theoretically the person/TL would change their approach and strategies to bring about change to match this type.

Reading this section of the article, it struck me that some of the situations we face at school are due to the fact that the founding teachers and current parents view the organisation differently. This differing view is due in large part to a general change in society.

In the 1980’s when the school was established, the idea of community was a significant factor in society especially in the alternative school movement. But in the past 15 years, there has been a strong shift towards a ‘what’s in it for me’, consumer attitude.

Fee-paying parents see their contribution as the money and expect a ’successful student’ in return. They are much less interested in the values and beliefs of the school. This reality often becomes apparent when there are behaviour issues and ‘uninvolved’ parents must become involved. The lack of commitment or belief becomes apparent when the school requires parental support for the consequences (and therefore the common good of the school community) and it is not forthcoming.

How is change brought about in an organizational situation such as this? Is this a common issue facing independent schools, even public schools?

I read on …

http://www.flickr.com/photos/18854914@N04/2249949755/

Sergiovanni, T. (2000). Deep change and the power of localism. In The lifeworld of leadership: Creating culture, community and personal meaning (pp. 155-164). San Francisco: Jossey-Boss.

On to the next chapter of Michael Fullan’s text/workbook Leading in a Culture of Change.

Everyone quickly learns when they enter the workforce that some bosses/principals are easier to get along with than others. We also quickly figure out that the ones easiest to get along with aren’t necessarily the best bosses/principals to work for. Leadership styles of course are what make the difference.

What I appreciated from Fullan was the idea a good leader doesn’t have ‘a style’; that different styles are needed for different situations.

The six styles of leadership as identfied by Golemen (cited by Fullan, 2004, p.43) are:

• Coercive — demands compliance (”Do as I say”)
• Authoritative — mobilizes people towards a vision or goal (”Come on, follow me, let’s go”) (How strange, I’ve just realized the root of that word is ‘author’ like a creator or maker)
• Affiliative — harmonizer and relationship builder (”People are most important”)
• Democratic — works for consensus through participation (”What are your thoughts on … “)
• Pacesetting — sets high standards for self then expects others to follow (”Do as I do, now”)
• Coaching — develops people for the future well-being of the organisation (”Try this”)

Fullan goes on to point out that two of those styles will negatively impact on school climate which of course impacts everything else: coercive and pace-setting.

The point to ponder in this section is –

Can you think of a real life example of a pacesetter leader? What is or was the effect of this leader on organizational performance and morale.

Well now I have to confess that I made a lame effort at being a pacesetter last year at the school. I was feeling frustrated with the lack of interest on the part of the teachers in learning to use web 2.0 technologies to motivate and engage students. I began to set up all kinds of things for the teachers and students to use beyond their email (used by teachers only). I spoke about them at staff meetings, I attempted to set up tutoring sessions to show them how, I even went into classes to show the students how to use some of the tools. I somehow thought that if they saw all these wonderful things the teachers would feel 1) that they were missing out on something, 2) that they’d better do something about it because the students were missing out on something.

Effect on organisational performance and morale? None.

Personal result? Exhausted from getting no where and the realization that you are only a leader if someone comes with you. =)

I think there is a lesson here about collaboration too. Professional articles say we should be working in collaboration with teachers but most TLs do not experience collaboration. Many TLs are not even seen as leaders or equals in the teaching profession.

We are also told to lead from the middle. 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 pretty important in making progress towards collaboration. We perhaps need to work on building relationships first, to bond with teachers. Teachers are particularily autonomous and many academics have pointed out that educational change is slow because of this autonomous culture (Joyce, 2004; Little, 1990; Cooper, 1988; Horton, n.d). Teacher librarians are in a unique position – we are teachers (as well as librarians). My last two questions are: is this 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.