Sarah Crary

Date of Award

January 2018

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Educational Leadership

First Advisor

Sherryl Houdek

Abstract

Libraries in schools are changing from a place to check out books to providing access to information from a multitude of media. The specific changes needed in school libraries and the method to accomplish those changes, specifically from the perspective of teachers, is an area of research with few empirical studies. The purpose of the study was to use Fullan’s Change Theory (2007) initiation phase to identify how ready teachers are to engage in changing the way information literacy skills are taught. The researcher investigated teachers’ perception with openness to change. The researcher analyzed teachers’ perceptions about collaborative roles between a school librarian and a teacher regarding information literacy. The researcher also conducted interviews with librarians.

The researcher used the explanatory sequential mixed-methods design to analyze teacher perceptions with a quantitative survey and librarian reactions with qualitative interviews. The population was comprised of approximately 1,200 secondary education teachers in the Eastern Dakota Conference of North Dakota, with 109 participants completing the survey. Participants completed an online survey. The survey results were then used to develop interview questions for three librarians regarding their perceptions of survey data results.

Classroom teachers indicated a belief that teaching information literacy skills was the role of school librarians. However, grades, assessments, and content-related information were the role of the teacher. The classroom teachers and school librarians both reported collaboration by dividing the lesson instead of working together on standards, planning, and assessments. The school librarians were encouraged by the openness to collaboration reported by teachers but discouraged that teachers it did not include all areas of information literacy skills. According to the data, a key step to successful implementation of change is including individual teacher input on potential changes instead of telling teachers what changes they must implement.

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