Collaboration with school librarians as mentors to student teachers

Lauren Frederick

Hunt, R., & Luetkehans, L. (2013). The Insider: School Librarians as Part of a Blended Professional Learning Community for Student Teacher Development in Technology Integration. School Libraries Worldwide, 19(1), 13-27.

In the last decade, state professional teaching standards and federal mandates have required teachers to enter the field proficient with technology integration skills. Concurrently, the American Association of School Librarians urges collaboration between teachers and school librarians. Based on previous research recommending teacher-school librarian collaboration begin as early as student teaching, this study looks at the contributions of school librarians as members of a blended professional learning community established to mentor student teachers as they prepare for a technology integrated lesson.

Results revealed that  the  definition of collaboration was consistent between librarians and teachers. Briefly stated, collaboration was defined as “shared thinking, shared planning, and shared creation of something new” (p.150). Using this definition, this investigation explored how school librarians and pre service teachers might collaborate in a blended professional learning community during student teaching.

The data showed many trends in supporting student teachers with technology integration by bringing together their peers, university faculty, classroom cooperating teachers, and school librarians in a blended professional learning community.

Notably the data found that School Librarians offer a value added in the blended professional learning community by having the contextual advantages of the Classroom Cooperating Teachers; knowledge of curriculum requirements; and the skills to integrate technology into the curriculum, making them a potentially significant participant in the professional learning community.