The Collaboration Conundrum between School Librarians and Mathematics Teachers

Westcoat, Megan

CO

Subramaniam, M. M., & Edwards, A. R. (2014). The Collaboration Conundrum between School Librarians and Mathematics Teachers. Libri. International Journal of Libraries and Information Services, 64(2), 185-209.

SUMMARY:

 I have not had the opportunity to teach at many schools, mostly sticking to the same district for the past decade, so I can speak only from my own experience: I have yet to see a middle school math teacher in the library (or the librarian in a math teacher’s room) for a purpose other than a) checking out text books b)using technology.  To say that collaboration is often difficult is true, to say that collaboration between a teacher librarian and math teachers is non-existent, might also be true.  This issue was tackled as a research project by two University of Maryland professors, which leads me to believe it isn’t just my district that is seeing this issue.

The research, which was conducted at a highly-resourced school district (so as to eliminate the variable that lack of access to technology was the reason behind lack of collaboration), outlined  findings in terms of collaboration, cooperation and coordination.  They found zero true collaboration between the librarian participants and corresponding math instructors.  They found some evidence of cooperation, but that most consisted of math teachers using the library space and/or technology.  They also found small bits of coordination, usually for teachers with students with special needs or the librarian’s attempts to “sneak” math into other lessons they for other areas of the curriculum (science, for example).  All in all, they found a pretty dismal state of affairs. 

Much of this lack of co-teaching came from general lack of communication and deeply embedded pre-conceived notions.  For example, most math teachers tend to think of technology as being fun or entertaining not necessarily ways to advance their curriculum.  Meanwhile, they also tend to view the librarian as either a text or tech resource, neither of which they feel they need.  Teacher librarians, in turn, tend to view teaching math as isolated and have self-doubts about their own math skills, therefore doubt their ability to co-teach.   More inhibitors were also explored, such as lack of time, professional development and support from administration.

In the end the researchers outlined a few steps to draw math teachers and teacher librarians together.  Long-standing perceptions can be notably hard to change, but the authors suggest that joint professional development sessions can “provide opportunities to explore relevant technology and media for mathematics learning and co-plan lessons for technology based mathematics instruction that they will then co-teach” (2014, p. 196). Basically the more math teachers and librarians understand each other and work together, they more likely they are to co-teach together.  These relationships need to be encourage and incentivized by school administration and there needs to be allotted time built into the schedules to allow for collaboration. 

REVIEW:

As was previously mentioned, I have seen first hand the issue addressed in this research first hand, so weirdly it was reassuring to know it is a common problem, while also being dismaying to know it is so widespread.  On the surface their suggestions seem so obvious; of course the two parties need to meet more and of course they need to understand each other better.  Still, the psychology and perceptions unearthed in the research provide good insight into the specific issues. 

Perhaps my favorite part, and an area to possibly refer back to at a later date was a chart provided in the report that outlines the common factors that hinder/support collaboration between school librarians and teachers.  Alongside each common factor, such as  “flexible scheduling” is a description and a couple of articles that provide related research.  For anyone who needs evidence to support a collaboration based argument could use page 189 of this article as a starting place.