"The principal's support of the library as a vital part of the educational system is extremely important," Winifred B. Linderman wrote in an article entitled "What should the school librarian expect of the school principal?" in the December 1944 issue of The School Review (p. 614). This quote from fifty years ago could easily have come from a much more recent source. The school library literature from its earliest years contains discussions of the role of the principal in school library programs, often centring around the notion of principal support. Research shows that, although teacher-librarians generally view principal support as critical to the success of the library program (Haycock, 1992), they often have low expectations of principal support (Lewis, 1991; Campbell, 1991) and rarely engage in the kind of activities that would increase their principals' understanding and support (Edwards, 1989).
          This study examines the meaning of the concept of "principal support" from the point of view of seven teacher-librarians in two Alberta school districts. It also explores the different ways in which these teacher-librarians went about increasing principal support for the school library program and for their role as teacher-librarians. The findings have been derived from the analysis of data collected for two studies involving aspects of teacher-librarian practice, earlier reported at IASL conferences.
          The paper begins with a brief review of relevant professional and research literature and a discussion of the research methodology. Several of the themes from the findings are then explored. Implications for the education of teacher-librarians and for further research conclude the paper.
Contents |
Support for the School Library | Professional Literature | Research Literature |
Working directly with   teachers - expectations - professional   development |
Austrom et al., 1989; Baker, 1980; Carson, 1989; Davies, 1979; Fox, 1982; Loertscher, 1988; Lundin, 1983; Podemski, 1990; Yesner & Jay, 1987 | Charter, 1982; Hellene, 1974 |
Demonstrating personal   commitment - explicit valuing of   program - using program in own   teaching - visible in library |
Carson, 1987; Davies, 1979; Fox,1982; Grant, 1988; Kuehn, 1975;Loertscher, 1988; Lundin, 1983; Morris, Gillespie & Spirt, 1992; Prostano & Prostano, 1987; Yesner & Jay, 1987 | |
Enabling the program - materials/clerical staff   budget - flexible scheduling - includes program as an   integral part of school's   curriculum work   (planning, evaluating) |
Austrom et al., 1989; Baker, 1982; Browne & Burton, 1989; Carson, 1987; Davies, 1979; Fox, 1982; Hamilton, 1983; Kuehn, 1975; Loertscher, 1988; Lundin, 1983; Morris, Gillespie & Spirt, 1992; Podemski, 1990; Prostano & Prostano, 1987; Yesner & Jay, 1987 | Charter, 1982; Dekker, 1989; Hellene, 1974; Shields, 1977; Turner, 1987; Wilson, Blake & Lyders, 1993; Yetter, 1994 |
Support for the Teacher-Librarian | Professional Literature | Research Literature |
Providing visibility/   importance - makes time for meetings   with TL - trusts TL's knowledge   and expertise - encourages TL's   personal and   professional development |
Baker, 1982; Carson, 1987; Davies, 1979; Hamilton, 1983; Kuehn, 1975; Morris, Gillespie & Spirt, 1992; Yesner & Jay, 1987 |
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          The first study (LaRocque and Oberg, 1990) examined the role of the principal as one element of school culture that facilitated the successful establishment of school library programs. In a small urban school district reputed to have exemplary school library programs, the research team interviewed twelve individuals--at the district level, the superintendent and school library consultant, and at the school level, the teacher-librarian and the principal or vice-principal from five of the districts' schools. The interviews, about an hour each in length, were audiotaped and transcribed. Over 300 pages of interview transcripts were available for analysis. The transcripts were analyzed using a content analysis approach. Five themes were identified relating to the role of the principal in supporting school library programs: believing in the school library program; recognizing the importance of the teacher-librarian; ensuring cooperative planning time; providing appropriate staff development; and monitoring implementation of the school library program.
          The second study (Oberg, 1992) examined the experiences of two teacher-librarians as they struggled to establish a library program in a school where the program was new to them as well as to the teachers and the principals of their schools. The same research team as in the first study interviewed the two teacher-librarians over a three-year period. The teacher-librarians were interviewed jointly three times in their first year of practice and then separately once yearly in the subsequent years. The seven interviews varied in length from over two hours to under an hour and resulted in about 150 pages of interview transcripts. Five themes were identified related to learning to be a teacher-librarian: academic preparation; previous teaching experience; personal experiences; consulting the experts; and first-year experience as a teacher-librarian.
          The notion of principal support emerged frequently as a major focus in the first study and as a frequent sub-text in the second study. All of the original transcripts of interviews of the seven teacher-librarians, five interviews from the first study and seven interviews from the second, a total of about 175 pages of transcript data, were reviewed to locate references to principal support and to construct from these references an understanding of what teacher-librarians meant by principal support and of how teacher-librarians acted to obtain principal support. Because the two studies involved teacher-librarians from two different stages in their professional lives, it was possible also to compare their understandings and actions in relation to principal support. The five teacher-librarians in the first study, who are termed in this paper experienced teacher-librarians all had worked as teacher-librarians for more than 10 years; the two teacher-librarians in the second study were just beginning their professional careers, novices in their first three years of practice.
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          The teacher-librarians indicated that the principal shows support for the program in three ways: by working directly with teachers to develop their understanding of the program; by clearly demonstrating personal commitment to the program; and by using the management role of the school leader to enable the program.
          In working with teachers, the principal makes clear that teachers are expected to be involved in the school library program, both during the hiring process and on an ongoing basis. The principal also encourages teachers' professional development in relation to the school library program by providing inservice and by providing time for the program in staff meetings. The following quotes from the interview transcripts are examples of how the teacher-librarians saw this kind of principal support:
I've had all I wanted [from my principal] in terms of setting future expectations, expectations for teachers . . . [My principal] incorporated into his interviews with teachers questions like 'How would you work with a teacher-librarian? Have you worked previously with a teacher-librarian?' That immediately sets the expectation that if that person comes on staff, that's one of the things that they'll be expected to do. . . . He was visibly behind the program, specifically by asking teachers to include in their long range plans how they were going to teach research and making it clear to them that they had two choices -- they either taught it themselves or they worked with me. And very visible, like there was, you know, no see-sawing about it. He really set the expectations for the staff that this was to happen. (B-Experienced TL)
With the other teachers, [my principal] will just casually say, 'Well, you could do that with [the teacher-librarian], you know.' This will be in the staff room. 'You could work with [the teacher-librarian] on this, or maybe [the teacher-librarian] knows what to do with that.' She will just mention these kinds of things to get me more involved with the staff. (F-Novice TL)
When it came time to inservice people on [the new library policy], there was no question that I got the half day and that every teacher would participate in the inservice including himself. (A-Experienced TL)
          The teacher-librarians stated that the principal demonstrates active personal commitment for the school library program by making explicit statements about the value of the program, by being visible in library, and by being a model for teachers by using program in his or her teaching. The principal interprets the role of the school library program to students and parents and to district level personnel and other principals. The following quotes are examples given by the teacher-librarians of their principal's active personal commitment to the school library program:
[Our principal] decided she really wanted [teacher-librarians in her school]. She went to district administration and made a proposal . . . [She]wanted us there so much she was willing to make a proposal and go through all that just to have us in the school . . . because she felt that we could benefit them I think with a knowledge of research and a knowledge of literature . . . she had the courage to hire us. (F-Novice TL)
[The vice-principal] and I had some wonderful units together last year, probably the best ones of the whole year and I did twenty-five units last year with teachers. . . . [The principal] and I just finished a unit on Ancient Greece. . . . [The principal] has made it known to [the district library consultant] that this school works and that one of the aspects of this school's culture is the library program. (D-Experienced TL)
          The principal, in his or her management and administrative role in the school, supports the school library program by ensuring the provision of adequate program budgeting for materials and for clerical help and by arranging for the flexible scheduling that allows cooperative planning time. The principal also ensures that the school library program is integrated into the planning and evaluating structures of the school. These quotes provide examples of how principals enable the school library program:
[The principal] is very supportive first of all in giving me the time. I was just flabbergasted when he came to me and said, last summer before we even started school, 'I hear you have a good program but you had some constraints last year.' . . . I was providing preps in the morning so therefore by cooperative planning was down to about one-third of my time. . . God knows how he does it, but he finds the time or the money to give the teachers preps through a part time teacher who was hired in September which gives me all flexible time. (D-Experienced TL)
It's our principal who continues to make this a successful program. . . . Every two months we [teachers] have a special form that we need to fill in and then it's followed by an oral interview with one of our administrators . . . it says to highlight things you've done in each of your grades. Typically teachers are saying that one of the neat things they did is that they did a cooperative unit. . . .In the timetables, we have what we call 'Day Zeros' here. Every two weeks we have a half-day when students aren't present and our calendar spells our exactly what happens on those days. It's cooperative planning in conjunction with department head meetings. (E-Experienced TL)
          The principal shows support for the teacher-librarian in providing the teacher-librarian with an element of visibility and importance. The principal makes time for meetings with the teacher-librarian. The principal trusts the professional knowledge and expertise of the teacher-librarian and gives consideration to her ideas and suggestions. The principal encourages the personal and professional development of the teacher-librarian.
[My principal] said at one time to another principal in the foyer of the school, 'Having [the teacher-librarian] is great. I wouldn't be without a teacher-librarian.' (G-Novice TL)
When question came from [the superintendent] having teacher-librarians and clerks in the library, one or the other, [the principal's] opinion was that, well, she would have a teacher-librarian, definitely. So, she sees the value of the teacher-librarian and I think I could go to her at any time for support and I wouldn't feel that I wasn't going to get it.(C-Experienced TL)
[The principal] comes in and supports me personally by saying, 'You know I like what you're doing. I like this and I love this library.' She'll just walk in here and say, 'I love this library, don't you?' . . . She said, 'We are so lucky to have you.' It made me feel so good, so I think she appreciates the work I do. (F-Novice TL)
[The principal] supports me by including me on his department head agenda where we report on the units that are being done or in the works. . . . And he also has a regularly scheduled meeting with me once a week to report on those units . . . we cover a lot of ground in those meetings, right down to facility, and problems too. (E-Experienced TL)
A supportive principal would encourage me to go to different schools and seek more professional development, encourage that continually, provide funding for that so I see new ideas and see different things and it encourages me to try different things. (G-Novice TL)
         The novice and experienced teacher-librarians demonstrated similar understandings of the concept of principal support for the school library program and for the teacher-librarian; they differed, however, in their understandings of how they might engender that support and in their actions to ensure that they had that support.
          There has been over the past twenty-five years a number of articles in the professional literature, directed to teacher-librarians, suggesting how they might go about developing principal support, for the school library program and for their role as teacher-librarians (see, for example, Haycock, 1981; Miller & Spanjer, 1985). The novice teacher-librarians, in the interviews held midway through their first year of practice, were aware of the need to gain principal support but were not actively seeking that support:
We really have to educate the principals . . . you have to get your administration on side. (F-Novice TL)
I think [our principal] has an idea in her own mind that might not agree with what we think [about what teacher-librarians should do]. . . . We would like to know how [she] perceives the library program and the role of the teacher-librarian. . . . I don't remember sitting down and saying, 'We'd like to do this,' with her. . . . I think it was partly making assumptions. I don't think we actually sat down and clarified. (G-Novice TL)
          In their second and third year of practice, the novice teacher-librarians were no longer working together. One (G) remained in their first school and the other (F) moved to a new school that was just being opened in the district. During their second and third years of practice, the teacher-librarian in the new school (G) continued to experience difficulties in gaining principal support but the one who had remained in their first school (F) was beginning to more actively work to gain the principal's support, as the following quotes show:
[The principal] should be aware of [the school library program]. I tried to explain it to her. She was receptive, but I'm not sure she really understood it. (G-Novice TL)
I've been talking to [my principal] more about the way I think the library should go. Just in little subtle ways. . . telling her how the library should go. . . sometimes I go in on the weekends and I have really good talks with her. I just tell her what I'm doing and what I think is important . . . I'm approaching her in a different way           The experienced teacher-librarians as a group were much more direct in their communication with their principals and more active in gaining the support of their principals (although there were variations among the five). There was also an awareness that support from other administrators, such as vice-principals and district level administrators, was also important:
I asked [my principal] if I could do an inservice at one of our first staff meetings because at our staff meetings we are allowed a certain amount of time for professional development. So I asked if I could do that at the September one, and I had a short inservice, an overview of cooperative planning and teaching. (C-Experienced TL)
When I'm having a cooperative planning unit with a teacher who is not quite as aware of the [library] program . . . , I'll tell [the principal], 'I'm planning with so-and-so this week. Why don't you drop in and see how we're doing?' So she drops in. That's the kind of support she gives . . . subtle but really important. (B-Experienced TL)
[Principal support] has got to be active support and it's got to be support that understands what the cooperative program is all about. Part of that is education. When we have a [new] vice-principal on staff I make good and sure that they know how . . . cooperative planning works and I involve them in as many units as I can, because they're going to grow up to be principals. If they don't know how to run a library, if they don't know what's involved in a library program, chances are when they get a school, they're not going to be any different from what we've got already. And I make no bones about it. I always tell them that they're in training! (B-Experienced TL)
A lot of input on what the library program [in our school district] would be came from a group of us [teacher-librarians] . . . We had no policy and that disturbed me a lot. . . . we wrote our own policy and we just happened to be writing it and getting it done at the right time. . . . [The superintendent] went with that policy and took it to the Board . . . in that policy are a lot of things that are necessary to establish a decent library program. (A-Experienced TL)
          The novice and experienced teacher-librarians were quite similar in their understandings of what principal support entailed but they were quite different in the ways in which they acted to ensure that support. The novice teacher-librarians, like the experienced teacher-librarians, understood the need for communication with their principals in order to gain support for the school library programs and for their role as teacher-librarians. However, in their first year of practice, the novices did not have success in communicating with their principal. The experienced teacher-librarians (and one of the novices in her second and third years of practice) were assertive in asking for communication with their principals and they were not hesitant about educating their principals, when it seemed to be needed, about the program and role of the teacher-librarian. They were clearer than the first-year novices about their professional needs and about the goals of the school library program; they were more perceptive of and accepting of their principals' views; and they were more patient and accepting of the evolution of the program.
          How might these differences be accounted for? The explanation for those differences in teacher-librarian practice might be sought in the nature of their education, their personalities, their years of experience, their school context, their district context, or their professional context. Among the seven teacher-librarians, there appeared to be few differences in their school library education and, in fact, the homogeneity of their understandings of the concept of principal support suggests similarities in their education. Even a casual observer of the seven teacher-librarians would be able to discern marked personality differences among them; they did not all exhibit the extroverted personalities that seem to be common among exemplary teacher-librarians (a factor for teacher-librarian success identified both in the research and professional literatures). Years of experience as teacher-librarians was an obvious difference but the one of the novices was beginning to take an active role in gaining principal support, and was acting in ways more evident in the practice of the experienced teacher-librarians. In summary, then, in this study the differences in teacher-librarian practice related to principal support did not appear to be related to their education, personalities, or years of experience.
          Finding an explanation for the differences in the three contexts (school, district, and professional) demands a much more speculative approach because each of these contexts involves innumerable complexities, not easily identifiable or separable. In general, the task of gaining principal support appears to have been much less difficult for the experienced teacher-librarians than for the novice teacher-librarians because of the different professional, district, and school contexts within which they worked. The experienced teacher-librarians had access to a strong and active teacher-librarian network, committed to ongoing professional education and mentoring as well as to advocacy and policy development. In contrast, the novice teacher-librarians, the only teacher-librarians in their district at that time, did not have ready access to a professional network. The experienced teacher-librarians worked in a district where the expectations that principals provide support for the school library program and for teacher-librarians were well institutionalized, from the superintendent and board of school trustees down to the school level. There were no such expectations for principals in the district where the novice teacher-librarians worked. Both experienced and novice teacher-librarians worked in schools where library use and collaborative work were encouraged by the principals but only in the district of the experienced teacher-librarians was library use and collaborative work actually reinforced by district policy and administrative structures.
          What is most interesting is the case of the novice teacher-librarian who, even in the second and third years of practice, did not learn how to, or was not willing to take the risk of, assertively and specifically asking for her principal's support. She knew what was involved in principal support and she knew how important it was to her role and to the school library program but she could not get the principal's attention, let alone support. There were indications that the principals in the schools in which she worked were more willing to give support than she realized. In fact, in her second school, she was asked by the principal during the September staff meeting to give an presentation on the school library program. She found herself in the position of having to do, as an impromptu talk, totally without warning or preparation, the staff's introduction to the library program and to her role in the school. This was the inservice for staff that she knew needed to be done and that she had hoped eventually to convince her principal to allow her to do. By the end of her second year of practice, this novice teacher-librarian had not been able to get the library program initiated and shortly thereafter she left the teacher-librarian role. The situation of this committed, well-educated teacher-librarian struggling to gain principal support alerts us to the difficulties that can be experienced by novices in getting principal support for the program and for the teacher-librarian role. What made the difference between the novices' ability to take action to gain principal support cannot be determined with any certainty but perhaps the explanation may lie in several contextual factors. Whereas the other novice remained in her original school, the second moved to a newly-opened school. In this new school, the second teacher-librarian had to begin anew the work of communicating with the principal and the teachers about her role and about the school library program. Gaining principal support was a very much more difficult task in this context, so much so it appears, that the novice teacher-librarian was not able to act upon the lessons from her first year of practice, nor was she able to perceive or utilize the opportunities that did occur.
          Developing principal support for the school library program and for the role of the teacher-librarian is an important task for all teacher-librarians but it is one that must be learned. For novice teacher-librarians, in contexts where school library programs are not yet well-established at school and district levels, this can be very difficult for them to learn how to do.
          Educators of teacher-librarians need to consider how they might integrate into their programs of instruction more exploration of professional practice in the area of gaining principal support. Teacher-librarians appear to have a clear understanding of what principal support entails and of the need to gain this critical support. They appear to have, particularly when they enter into professional practice, less knowledge of the strategies that they might employ to gain principal support and less assertiveness in using the strategies of which they are aware. Novices need to be aware of the difficulty of gaining principal support in schools and districts where school library programs are not well-established. They also need to be helped to be aware of and to utilize professional networks, even those beyond their work environment, early in their professional lives.
          Educators and practitioners both would benefit from more research into how teacher-librarians learn to translate their education into practice in this and other areas of professional practice. There also needs to be more research, such as that carried out by Edwards (1989), into the effectiveness of the strategies for gaining principal support that are recommended in professional literature.
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Delivered as a conference paper at the 1995 conference of the International Association of School Librarianship, and first published in Sustaining the Vision: A selection of conference papers, 24th International Association of School Librarianship Conference July 1995, Worcester College of Higher Education, Worcester, 1995, pp. 17-25.
Published with permission from David V. Loertscher of the International Association of School Librarianship (IASL) on October 17, 1997.
Actions Taken to Develop Principal Support
. . . communicating with her more just letting her know and sometimes she doesn't agree with some of the things I'm suggesting but if she supports it -- and then she'll always listen to the other side of it too. . . . I have goals and some of these have been written down. They were written down at the beginning of the year because [the principal] always likes us to state our goals and I think that's an excellent idea. I told her some of them. I'm communicating with her very well, I feel, and I want to keep that up. (F-Novice TL)
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Discussion of Findings
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Implications from the Study
          While the experiences that this research has explored come from the world of just seven individuals, two novice teacher-librarians and five experienced teacher-librarians, there appear to be embedded in their experiences some issues with broader implications for teacher-librarian educators and for researchers.
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References
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