Open AccessPractices and Barriers of Inter-Professional Collaboration with Teacher-librarians and Teachers: A Content Analysis
Author(s) -
Paulette Stewart,
Mark-Jeffrey Oniel Deans
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
school libraries worldwide
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2816-3788
pISSN - 1023-9391
DOI - 10.29173/slw8255
Subject(s) - thematic analysis , workload , curriculum , content analysis , professional development , psychology , process (computing) , medical education , pedagogy , medicine , qualitative research , sociology , computer science , social science , operating system
Thematic content analysis was used to identify the practices, and barriers of inter-professional collaboration among teacher-librarians and classroom teachers. Twelve structured research were identified and information regarding the themes was extracted verbatim. The data collected on practices were analysed to see how they correlated with to Loertscher and Koechlin’s (2016) conceptual framework for collaboration and co-teaching among teacher-librarians and classroom teachers. The barriers were examined and analyzed to gain an understanding of suitable recommendations to alleviate same. It was discovered that the involvement of school administration in the collaborative process; the presence of curriculum integration; and the provision of a common space for teaching were important practices for successful inter-professional collaboration. On the other hand, the lack of understanding of the role of both professionals and the workload of teachers were identified as some of the barriers. It was recommended that these can be alleviated if each professional spends time to know about each other’s job description and learn how to integrate the library seamlessly into the curriculum so that the workload of the teacher is not increased.