Formación y Rol del Educador; Importancia de la Mediación

In response to the ubiquitous yet poorly defined nature of the term “collaboration” (discussed in Chapter 1) and what she saw as the great potential for collaboration between classroom teachers and school librarians to improve student achievement, Patricia Montiel- Overall undertook an extensive literature review in the early 2000s to develop a theory of teacher-librarian collaboration, hereafter referred to as TLC Theory (Montiel-Overall, 2005a, 2005b). Drawing from the work of social constructivists such as Dewey, Jerome Bruner, and Vygotsky, Montiel-Overall based her work on the assumption that meaning and knowledge are co-constructed via social interaction. Montiel-Overall reviewed definitions and models of collaboration from a number of disciplines including LIS, education, management and organizations, and community development. Based on these sources as well as “discussions with teachers and librarians and direct observation,” (Montiel-Overall, 2005a, p. 26), Montiel-Overall developed the commonly cited definition of teacher-librarian collaboration discussed in Chapter 2:

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a trusting, working relationship between two or more equal participants involved in shared thinking, shared planning, and shared creation of innovative integrated instruction. Through a shared vision and shared objectives, student learning

opportunities are created that integrate subject content and information literacy by co- planning, co-implementing, and co-evaluating students’ progress throughout the instructional process in order to improve student learning in all areas of the curriculum. (p. 32, emphasis in original)

Having established this definition, Montiel-Overall then described four distinct models or “facets” of working relationships between classroom teachers and school librarians: Coordination, Cooperation, Integrated Instruction, and Integrated Curriculum (2005a, b). Montiel-Overall initially insisted that coordination and cooperation were distinct from collaboration, stating that the former “may evolve into full collaboration but they serve markedly different purposes” (2005b, Section B, para. 2). However, in later writings,

Montiel-Overall removed this distinction, referring to all four models as “a type or form of collaboration” (2005a) with coordination and cooperation representing lower-level

collaboration. The models vary along several dimensions: intensity, focus on student achievement, purpose, types of activities involved, and requirements for success (Montiel- Overall, 2005a, b; 2007). See Figure 4 for a graphic depiction of the entire model.

 Facet A – Coordination: Coordination is a low-intensity collaborative effort that is characterized by a minimal amount of involvement between the teacher and librarian. Typically, the focus of a coordinated effort is not on student achievement but rather on efficiency (although increased student achievement may still be observed as a result of coordination-level efforts). While Montiel-Overall (2005b) suggested that friendliness and congeniality are facilitators of Coordination-level collaborations, projects at this level do not require high degrees of trust or communication. An example activity at this level would be gathering resources and scheduling use of the library space for a spelling bee or science fair.

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Figure 4 Montiel Overall’s Model of Teacher-Librarian Collaboration (TLC). This diagram was developed by the author based on Montiel-Overall (2005a, 2005b, 2008).

 Facet B – Cooperation: This facet is characterized by higher levels of communication between teachers and librarians and by integrated work toward a common goal. Unlike in Facet A, student achievement is the focus of cooperative efforts and both partners share some responsibility for the project or lesson, although the division of labor is typically unequal. At the Cooperation level, the school librarian and library serve as supports for classroom instruction, but are not fully integrated into that instruction as equal partners. Each partner may be responsible for teaching a

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particular part of the lesson or unit, but planning, teaching, and evaluation are often developed independently. Collaborations at this level are most successful when there is an atmosphere of mutual respect and open dialogue, but again, only shallow trust is required (2005b). An example of collaboration at this level would be a librarian independently planning, teaching, and evaluating a lesson on web searching that takes place at the beginning of a classroom research project, or a librarian creating an online pathfinder for students to use during a unit that is taught by the classroom teacher.

 Facet C – Integrated Instruction: At this level of collaboration, teachers and librarians work together as equal partners to plan, implement, and evaluate instruction that integrates library (information science) curriculum into content area instruction. High levels of trust and respect are required to achieve student learning goals. In addition, Montiel-Overall (2010) found that shared knowledge of collaboration and each partner’s roles, flexibility, individual and shared motivation, and deep thinking around instructional concepts also contributed to the success of collaborative efforts at this level. An example of collaboration at this level would be a classroom teacher and librarian working together to plan an inquiry-based research project incorporating both information science and content area skills and standards; the unit would be co- taught and both the classroom teacher and the school librarian would share

responsibility for evaluating student work.

 Facet D – Integrated Curriculum: At this level, integrated instruction occurs at all grade levels and in all content areas across the school. This facet is characterized by a school-wide culture of trust and respect that facilitates teacher-librarian collaboration.

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The principal is key to establishing and maintaining such a culture. In a school at the Integrated Curriculum level, the school librarian is involved in the “big picture” view of curriculum design, implementation, and evaluation, and information literacy content is integrated in every subject area at every grade level. Facet D is

characterized by high levels of mutual trust and respect among collaborators and an intense focus on student achievement. Consequently, Montiel-Overall has predicted that collaboration at this level has the greatest potential impact on student learning (2005a, b).

Taken as a whole, this model comprises an explanatory theory of teacher-librarian collaboration. Shirley Gregor (2006) defined an explanatory theory in LIS as one that “says what is, how, why, when, and where” (p. 620) with the goal of promoting greater

understanding of some phenomenon of interest (in this case, teacher-librarian collaboration). Explanatory theories explore relationships among various concepts related to the central phenomenon (Gregor, 2006). In the case of TLC theory, these concepts include:

 Intensity of the collaborative effort: Montiel-Overall described the intensity of a collaborative effort in terms of the “degree of involvement, commitment, or participation among participants” (2005b, Section B, para. 3). Intensity may also relate to the amount of time required for the collaborative activities (Montiel- Overall, 2005a).

 Collaborative activities: This refers to the numerous activities that might

collectively comprise a collaborative effort, for example sharing resources, jointly implementing instruction, or shared problem solving. Different facets of

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result, observing collaborative activities is one way to classify a particular collaborative effort as representative of a particular facet. These activities are listed in the lower half of Figure 4.

 Trust between collaborators: Montiel-Overall defined trust in the context of TLC as “believing that when an individual mutually agrees carry out a responsibility it will be carried out as promised” (2005b, “Trusting, working relationship”

section). When collaborative efforts are lower-intensity and there is little at stake, outcomes for either partner are contingent on the other person to only a limited degree, and therefore low levels of trust are required. However, as collaborative relationships increase in intensity, greater trust is required since each partner’s actions (or inaction) will strongly impact the outcomes for both partners.  Focus on student achievement: Montiel-Overall (2005a, b) proposed that higher-

intensity collaborative partnerships would be more likely to feature a shared concern for student learning, broadly defined. Consequently, these higher-level partnerships are theoretically more likely to result in student achievement gains (also broadly defined).

While not fully predictive in the sense that TLC Theory does not lay out explicit testable propositions (Gregor, 2006), this theory does include the hypothesis that higher-level teacher-librarian collaboration will result in increased student achievement (indicated in Figure 4 by the vertical axis at the top right of the diagram). Montiel-Overall has not yet tested this prediction, nor has she operationalized the meaning of “student achievement” as a measurable outcome variable. She has, however, worked to develop a survey tool that could accurately assess the level of collaboration among teachers and librarians (Montiel-Overall,

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2007, 2009; Montiel-Overall & Hernandez, 2012), thus laying the groundwork for testing this proposition in the future.

Much of Montiel-Overall’s recent work has concentrated on validating that the model’s facets accurately reflect the actual practices of teachers and librarians. This research has largely confirmed the model’s validity. A qualitative study of highly collaborative teachers and librarians (Montiel-Overall, 2008) did result in one refinement of the theory: rather than each facet always being carried out in isolation, Montiel-Overall observed that in higher-level collaboration, multiple facets often work together in a non-linear fashion with each contributing to the success of the whole. For example, a collaborative effort at the Integrated Instruction level may also involve some degree of coordination and/or

cooperation. This refinement is reflected in Figure 4 by the list of collaborative activities, which specifies that higher-level collaborations may also incorporate collaborative activities from lower-level facets. Additional work has begun to explore the process of teacher-

librarian collaboration itself and the factors that contribute to its success or failure. This work has also resulted in extensions of the TLC theory and will be discussed below.