Engelbrecht, Shannon

CO

Montiel-Overall, P., & Jones, P. (2011). Teacher and School Librarian Collaboration: A Preliminary Report of Teachers' Perceptions about Frequency and Importance to Student Learning. Canadian Journal Of Information & Library Sciences, 35(1), 49-76.

Summary: This article is a bilingual (French and English) detailed statistical analysis of the results of a sixteen question self-adminstered survey for classroom teachers. It addresses four research questions regarding teachers' perception of the frequency and importance of teacher librarian collaboration and the value to students.

Evaluation: This article includes an extensive literature review that is the basis of research questions and the survey questions. Two conclusions struck me:

• "...teachers perceive all collaborative practices as important to student learning."

and

• "...teachers generally do not perceive that they frequently engage in collaborative endeavors..."

Their overall conclusion, aligned with previous studies, showed that:

"...a considerable amount of time working with teachers in traditional ways was needed to develop relationships and trust with teachers. Once these relationships and trust were established, high-level collaborative efforts between teachers and school librarians were more likely to occur."

Rather than deprecating the traditional work that is the daily work, it can be understood as the bridge to higher level collaboration.