Professional development and the teacher-librarian: An internship report

The purpose of this report is to describe the results of an internship study of the role of the secondary school teacher-librarian as it pertains to the curricular integration of technology through staff development. Three basic questions were explored: (a) What do we know about educational change and staff development? (b) How does this knowledge relate to the curricular integration of technology in secondary schools, particularly as it pertains to the role of the teacher-librarian? and (c) How do schools obtain funding for the curricular integration of technology?;Chapter One explains the rationale for the choice of internship setting, outlines the internship experiences, describes the evaluation and supervision procedures, and provides background information to the research component. Chapter Two is comprised of a review of the literature on educational change and staff development as it pertains to the curricular integration of technology. The results of this review indicate that staff development can be an effective vehicle for educational change when it is conducted at the school site, incorporating elements of the school vision, school culture, and the teachers' acquired knowledge of their professional practice. Transformational leadership appears to be an effective leadership style for educational change. Chapter Three describes the plan for technology implementation at Bishops College, the on-site multimedia research project, and the staff development program. This chapter concludes with a description of the role of the teacher-librarian as observed at Bishops College and a discussion of the role of the teacher-librarian as a transformational leader within the school.