fostering collaboration

Haycock, K. (1999). Fostering collaboration, leadership and information literacy: Common behaviours of uncommon principals and faculties. NASSP Bulletin, 83(605), 82-87.

I felt this article stated the obvious on many occasions. The first was when it said that "Teaching partnerships and collaborative programs occur more readily where the school itself reflects a collaborative work culture." well duh! I guess it holds more currency when a professional writes it, instead of me saying it to a friend.
It also says that the Principal is the key factor in developing an effective integrated school library program. Unfortunately many schools don't work this way and library is used for release time because of budget restraints and time tabling issues. Most of the time library is just a 'drop and shop' time where teachers drop their kids for a 30minute lesson and then come back to collect them at the end of the time not really caring what has occurred in the 30 minutes except to make sure that the students have borrowed reading level appropriate books to take home from school until next week. Hmm not really conducive for an integrated library program. If the lessons are longer then the 'research' work you do with the class is only an add on to the classroom work and not considered very important! ( Maybe that's just my experience....)
The article goes on to say that the Principal should hire the best to ensure that this occurs. As I have a job interview for a teacher librarian position next week I am hoping that the principal and panel think that I am the best TL for the job. Oh well fingers crossed and hopefully I will be able to put some of this stuff into practice.
According to this article Principals mostly operate within a framework of their personal experience, as do most teachers I have encountered.
Oh well quite an interesting read and it means I can't keep blaming principals for not having collaborative planning/teaching as the responsibility falls onto me to make changes too....