scholarly journals Enabling School Librarians to Serve as Instructional Leaders of Multiple Literacies

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie Lewis
Keyword(s):  
School District ◽  
Administrative Support ◽  
School Library ◽  
Leadership Role ◽  
Instructional Leaders ◽  
Multiple Literacies ◽  
School Librarians ◽  
School District Leaders ◽  
Library Program ◽  
K 12

Research has demonstrated that school leaders have little to no understanding of the instructional leadership role of the school librarian and have received little to no training in how to lead this population (Lewis, 2018; 2019). Though the standards of the school library field state that school librarians should be equipped and able to serve as instructional leaders of multiple literacies in K-12 education, barriers exist that inhibit this from becoming a reality in many schools. One of these barriers is a lack of administrative support in the form of a district library supervisor to develop a vision for and provide support to the district’s school library program and its personnel. Very little research has been conducted to examine the support needs of in-service school librarians (Weeks et al., 2017), and no research has been conducted to explore how to equip existing leadership to effectively lead its population of school librarians in a school district that lacks an official district library supervisor. The purpose of this study is to explore how school district leaders can foster the development of an effective school library in which school librarians serve as instructional leaders of multiple literacies.

Supporting Immigrant Families and Rural Schools: The Boundary-Spanning Possibilities of an Adult ESL Program

2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 537-570 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Dunn Shiffman
Keyword(s):  
School District ◽  
Rural Communities ◽  
Immigrant Families ◽  
The United States ◽  
School Age Children ◽  
Esl Programs ◽  
School District Leaders ◽  
Adult Esl ◽  
The Right ◽  
K 12

Purpose: There has been a significant increase in the number of immigrant families moving to rural communities across the United States. Yet limited research exists that explores relationships between immigrant families and schools in these communities. Rural school districts are often challenged by insufficient resources, expertise, and infrastructure to respond. Adult English as a second language (ESL) programs can be valuable partners. This article explores how instructors in a regional adult ESL program supported relationships between immigrant families and schools in a rural Virginia school district. Research Methods: A case study was conducted between 2014 and 2015. Data collection included observations of adult ESL classes; semistructured interviews with adult ESL instructors, parents of school-age children, and school district leaders and teachers; open-ended questions on a parent survey; and documents. Findings: Four interrelated practices of the adult ESL instructors facilitated understanding and communication between immigrant families and K-12 educators. Adult ESL instructors disseminated information, explained cultural norms and expectations, coached family-school interactions, and created opportunities to connect families and educators. Supporting conditions included characteristics of the adult ESL classes, district leadership and sense of urgency, and multilayered relationships of professionals and actions of the adult ESL coordinator. Implications for Practice: Given the right conditions, adult ESL programs can be valuable partners for rural education leaders seeking to strengthen engagement with immigrant families. These programs can facilitate linkages between schools and adult ESL learners who are parents or caregivers and can be a professional development resource for building district capacity to engage with immigrant families.

scholarly journals Why did a U.S. secondary school district retain teacher-librarians in a time of economic crisis?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Dutton Ewbank
Keyword(s):  
School District ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
School Library ◽  
Stakeholder Involvement ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Governing Board ◽  
High School District ◽  
Library Program ◽  
Teacher Librarians ◽  
Certified Teacher

The number of U.S. teacher-librarians has greatly diminished despite advocacy efforts by stakeholders. This case study investigated the factors that led governing board members in a mid-sized urban high school district to retain certified teacher-librarian positions despite a major economic crisis. Themes constructed through the analysis were: stakeholder involvement; transparency in communication; trust between district leadership and the governing board; a commitment to the district’s core values; and the value placed on the school library program by the district’s stakeholders. Future research should investigate school districts’ decision-making processes in the retention of teacher-librarian positions during economic crises.

scholarly journals Other Ways of Knowing: How School Librarians Can Take a Leadership Role in Addressing Multi-literacies Across the Curriculum in the School Library

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meghan Harper
Keyword(s):  
New Technologies ◽  
International Association ◽  
School Library ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Learning Opportunities ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Leadership Role ◽  
School Librarians ◽  
Continued Learning ◽  
Professional Resources

School librarians have a unique, unprecedented, and unparalleled opportunity to affirm their role in students’ use of basic literacy skills – reading and writing – while highlighting their relatively new role, guiding students through the acquisition of information through multiple modes of communication with new technologies. School librarians can create and facilitate opportunities for students to enhance their learning and become multiliterate. These learning opportunities and a focus on “core” literacies shed a much needed spotlight on the important role and influence of the school librarian on overall academic achievement and the acquisition of multiliteracy skills that have become a necessity in a changing technological and global environment. This article isbased on a presentation given at the International Association of School Librarians Conference in Doha, Qatar (2012), the goals of which were to share an overview of the multiliteracies concept, suggest strategies for facilitating literacy in the school library and classroom, and share professional resources for continued learning and the integration of multiliteracies across the curriculum.

scholarly journals Confident but Lacking Support: School Librarians and Students with Autism

2021 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amelia Anderson ◽  
Selena Layden
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
School District ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
School Library ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Library Services ◽  
School Librarians ◽  
Training School ◽  
Students With Autism

School librarians work with students across their organizations, including those with disabilities such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, little is known about how prepared school librarians are to serve these students. Using a mixed-methods survey, this study sought to explore training school librarians have taken about ASD and students with disabilities, as well as the effects of training on librarian confidence and library services. Based on results, librarians who received training through their school district or professional development outside of coursework reported being more confident in supporting students with ASD in the school library.

scholarly journals Designing An Innovative School Library Environment To Facilitate 21st Century Literacy Skills

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meghan Sarah Harper
Keyword(s):  
Academic Achievement ◽  
Instructional Leadership ◽  
21St Century ◽  
School Library ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Leadership Role ◽  
School Librarians ◽  
Dynamic Impact ◽  
21St Century Literacy ◽  
Instructional Collaboration

School librarians have an unprecedented opportunity to assume an instructional leadership role and create a facility that promotes instructional collaboration, inquiry and collaborative learning that will have a dynamic impact on academic achievement. Through the facilitation of these activities, school librarians provide a vital connection to student acquisition of 21st century literacy skills.

scholarly journals Digital and information literacies and the school library

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yvonne L Barrett
Keyword(s):  
Digital Literacy ◽  
International Baccalaureate ◽  
School Library ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Online Information ◽  
School Librarians ◽  
Research Libraries ◽  
Digital Environments ◽  
Library Program ◽  
Primary Years Programme

You can’t teach people everything they need to know. The best you can do is position them where they can find what they need to know when they need to know it. (Seymour Papert)  For school librarians, this is certainly part of a core responsibility, to provide students with digital literacy skills and strategies that will enable them to find and access information at point of need, in order to create knowledge (Farkas, 2011). While students are growing up in this digital age, research reveals they are not necessarily skilled in reading to locate and use online information effectively (Leu, Zawilinski, Forzani, & Timbrell, 2014b; Pickard, Shenton & Johnson, 2014). This is significant when “students overestimate their ability to engage with information in a critical and literate manner” (Kirkwood in Beetham & Oliver, 2010, p.162).  Yet, students are required to be ethical and critical thinkers, and engage as collaborators and creators in participatory digital environments (Coiro, 2003; Mackey & Jacobson, 2011; Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL), 2015). This exploratory case study seeks to investigate Year 5 students’ (ages 10-12) learning experiences within a school library program. It endeavoured to explore the pedagogical background, motivation and steps in implementing digital and information literacies. Did these sessions provide students with the emergent skills and strategies to support independent research and collaborative inquiry as they began their International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (IB PYP) Exhibition?

scholarly journals Data Analytics to Improve School Libraries

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lesley S. J. Farmer
Keyword(s):  
Data Analytics ◽  
Program Effectiveness ◽  
American Association ◽  
School Library ◽  
School Libraries ◽  
School Librarians ◽  
Library Program ◽  
Key Variables ◽  
School Library Standards ◽  
Effectiveness Data

To improve programs, school librarians can analyze and apply data. Standards can help with the process, such as California’s model school library standards. To meet those standards, it is important to recognize and focus on variables to improve library programs. Data analytics can help librarians identify which data to collect, how to organize and analyze the data, and make informed recommendations for library improvement. Data analytics based on the California school library survey offer a predictive model for school library program effectiveness. Data analytics based on the American Association of School Librarians survey offers a longitudinal look at school library programs. A sample scenario that addresses one of the key variables provides the basis for employing data analytics to improve services.

Invaluable Collaboration

2013 ◽  
pp. 197-205
Author(s):  
Elizabeth K. Turner
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Collaboration ◽  
School Library ◽  
School Librarian ◽  
School Librarians ◽  
Library Program

This chapter presents examples of content-focused collaborations that illustrate how a school librarian can build collaboration with teachers. By describing actual lessons and units that were developed collaboratively with teachers, this chapter gives readers a glimpse at what one particular school library program happens to look like, in hopes that a more concrete picture of school librarian-teacher collaboration emerges. This chapter covers five key lessons new or struggling school librarians can review as they develop their school library programs.

Creating and Sustaining Problem-Based Partnerships among Graduate, Undergraduate, and K-12 Learners: Opportunities and Challenges

2005 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joette Stefl-Mabry ◽  
Jennifer Goodall Powers ◽  
Carol Doll
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Administrative Support ◽  
Information Science ◽  
School Library ◽  
Undergraduate Curriculum ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Learning Needs ◽  
Associate Dean ◽  
K 12

This article outlines a K-12 college learning partnership that has evolved over the past two years at the University at Albany, SUNY. Two faculty members with the School of Information Science & Policy (SISP) Joette Stefl-Mabry and Jennifer Goodall Powers, with administrative support of their Associate Dean, Carol Doll, have integrated problem-based learning (PBL) into graduate and undergraduate curricula to establish partnerships with local K-12 school districts. Dynamic PBL environments link K-12 schools, School Library Media (SLM) graduate students, and undergraduate students majoring in information science to develop content, delivery, and assessment methods for K-12 curricula while at the same time strengthening graduate and undergraduate curricula by incorporating real-world challenges into coursework. Through this partnership, K-12 schools benefit from research-based best practices in educational technology and information science graduate and undergraduate students experience real career situations within educational environments. Over the course of a semester, SLM graduate students wrestle with theory and practice in K-12 curriculum, as undergraduate students develop Web pages based on research theory summarized by their graduate student partners. Stefl-Mabry and Powers collaboratively create and/or adapt instructional methods to meet the educational requirements of graduate and undergraduate curriculum as it relates to the specific needs and abilities of their students and the learning needs of K-12 environments. PBL enhances learning and provides new instructional models for SLM graduate students to emulate as educators when they are employed in K-12 communities.

scholarly journals Turkish School Libraries

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ayse Yuksel-Durukan
Keyword(s):  
School Library ◽  
School Libraries ◽  
Ministry Of Education ◽  
School Librarians ◽  
Media Centers ◽  
Library Media Centers ◽  
Turkish Government ◽  
History Of ◽  
School Librarianship ◽  
K 12

This paper focuses on school libraries in Turkey. It is a general outlook on K-12 education and how the community perceives the school library. A short history of school libraries and the problems they face will be described. Is a school library part of the education or is it a supplementary issue? How do librarians view the issue? How does the Ministry of Education see the centers? The current trends in Turkish school librarianship: what is the near future of the library media centers and how will the learning-commons strategy affect them? The Turkish government is about to release a new version of Intellectual Property Rights. School librarians and all educators should stress the importance and the necessary practices in order to go hand in hand with the global world.

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