Note
I didn't have access to all of my former colleagues over the summer since I'm switching schools and lost access to the mailing list that would have connected all of teachers at my last assignment. So I needed to survey the hodgepodge of teacher friends I have to see what their thoughts were about collaborative access to their library.
Considerations
Were this a more scientific study, my disclaimers in the survey methodology section would be all over the place. Different contexts, different subject levels, strong relationships with their current TLs, TLs who were absent from the collaboration process, stacked libraries, modern libraries, dusty libraries, etc. To make things all the weirder, many of the aforementioned contexts came up in conversation with my teacher friends in conversation but then don't present in the results that I received.
Survey
1.
The contexts were as varied as the people who responded to my survey questions. Having said all that, let's look at what came back. My questions should have been more focussed on being formative as a means to collect useful data, but I knew that I would be dealing with a bunch of different answers. I was interested in how ADST was being used and if it was being used effectively, but I was also interested to know if these teachers were likely to use the space for co-teaching at all.
Since the majority of my respondents were happy to use the library space, I decided to focus on their answers:
Problem 1: Our library learning commons has a great TL but is stuck with really old technology and resources.
Reframe: Current resources hinder the instructional potential of a great teacher librarian.
2.
The question that really showed the importance of consistent school context for these surveys was around what respondents would like to add to their LLC. Not all school budgets are created equal and so I had different answers for different teachers at different schools. Amazingly, almost all of the answers referred to the tangible or consumable elements of the library. I think that this was down to how I framed the question being asked and didn't hint towards library structure. All of the teachers (both in conversation and in the survey) seemed to assume that I was talking about the materials used in the space:
Problem 2: We can't be successful in delivering ADST instruction without new resources.
Reframe: A needed refresh of up-to-date resources is essential to inclusively meet student needs.
Problem to tackle: Resources
While respondents and their contexts were disparate, the theme of allocated available resources seemed to be recurring in the responses. I will focus on setting up a design problem related to the improvement of resource variety and frame it as it relates to opportunity, equity, and student success across our district's schools.
Design Challenge Statement
Create a district standard resource package of up-to-date hands-on learning to provide equity of access to applied skills, design, and technology instruction to all learners in our school district.
I tried to choose language in my design challenge statement that reflects the growing need to respond to disparities between achievement between affluent schools and our more vulnerable communities. Given that the BC Curriculum document for ADST asserts that design starts first with empathy, it seemed important to emphasize the need for equity of access as a part of our design.
Conclusion
In spite of what we've set up in this assignment, the final question in the survey asked the teachers if the ADST needs of their specific classrooms were being met by what was available in their respective LLC spaces. All of the respondents (again, a caveat on the small sample size) seemed to settle for what they had available to them this past year and no one suggested that their needs weren't actually being met by what the library and librarian had access to.
Works Cited
“Introduction to Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies.” Building Student Success - B.C. Curriculum, Government of British Columbia. 2016, curriculum.gov.bc.ca/curriculum/adst/introduction. Accessed 12 July 2021.
Rendina, Diana. “How to Identify and Reframe Design Problems in Your Library Space.” Knowledge Quest, 22 Apr. 2016, knowledgequest.aasl.org/identify-reframe-design-problems-library-space/. Accessed 12 July 2021.
Comments