Graduate Research Papers

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Open Access Graduate Research Paper

Abstract

The problem identified in this study was the difference in perceptions among what teacher librarians perceive their role to be and what expectations they felt principals and classroom teachers had of them. The purpose of this study was to determine why such dissonance exists between how teacher librarians perceive their own role and how administrators and teachers perceive the role of the teacher librarian.

A survey utilizing both quantitative and qualitative data was conducted to determine what the expectations were of the teacher librarian role and library support staff in school libraries. The survey was sent to 93 K-12 teacher librarians in one regional center in Iowa; 33 responded for a 35.5% response rate. Qualitative analysis allowed the researcher to determine the reasons behind the tasks the teacher librarians actually were performing and how they felt administrators and classroom teachers perceived them. Quantitative data analysis allowed the researcher to tally the results and determine actual percentages of the tasks teacher librarians determined their role to be and also the percentages of the tasks they felt administrators and teachers expected of them.

The results determined that the majority of the tasks expected from principals and classroom teachers for the teacher librarian were professional tasks. Library support staff was found to be performing duties typical of the role. However, it was also determined that there also exists some expectations of teacher librarians that are non-professional in nature, and a small percentage, 11.5%, indicated that their principal had little or no expectations of them. Further, it was concluded that some of the principals did not fully understand the teacher librarian role. While there are many teacher librarians who are collaborating and performing professional duties, there is still exists a difference in expectations in many school libraries

Year of Submission

2013

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Department of Curriculum and Instruction

Department

Division of School Library Studies

First Advisor

Karla Krueger

Comments

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Date Original

5-2013

Object Description

1 PDF file (vii, 43 pages)

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