Researchers will share papers exploring the SIG theme, The School Library as an Exploration Hub. This interactive SIG session includes presentation of each research paper followed by open dialogue and Q&A regarding issues raised by the papers, implications for practice, and future areas for research. The following papers were selected for presentation:
School Librarians Making Global Connections: Conjecture Mappings and Researcher-Practitioner Partnerships Kimmel, Mardis, Schulz-Jones, & Wine
How do school libraries impact learning outcomes? Conjecture mapping combined with Research Practitioner Partnerships (RPP) provides a design-based means to identify, explore, and document effective practices. Researchers share conjecture maps developed from compiled educational research to theorize school-based malleable factors to impact student learning.
Thinking Globally to Explore Dissemination of a Model of Mentoring and Collaboration for New Teachers Soulen
The AASL Standards identify collaboration as best practice and recommend building a trusting relationship with colleagues. As a causal model, A Continuum of Care: School Librarian Interventions for New Teacher Resilience provided targeted interventions for first year teachers as a special population. This study explored the effect of mentoring toward collaboration by school librarians for new teachers to increase resilience, decrease burnout, and increase retention.
Transformative learning for pre-service school librarians: Understanding experiences that enhance self-awareness and global consciousness Kammer
Transformative learning, an adult education theory, describes how a “disorienting dilemma” can significantly change one’s perspective. In this study, students in a school library program were asked to identify learning experiences that helped them transform or expand their self-awareness. Findings imply that students are impacted by the aesthetic dimension, where they actually saw different ways of doing things in the library they could connect to their own practice
