Educating for School Library Leadership: Developing the Instructional Partnership Role

The American Association of School Librarians and researchers in the field have identified the instructional partner role as critical to the future of school librarianship. Educators of school librarians must help prepare preservice candidates to serve effectively in this role. This research report describes a content analysis study conducted in three sections of LS5443: Librarians as Instructional Partners, an online graduate course. The purpose of the study was to investigate course features, assignments, tools, and resources that made the greatest change in candidates’ understandings of the competencies needed to enact instructional partnerships. The findings suggest dispositions, communication skills, and collaborative practices, including the use of technology tools required to collaborate with three or more classmates, influenced study participants’ previouslyheld understandings of instructional partnerships.