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
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
