Research on teacher and librarian collaboration: An examination of underlying structures of models

This article reports on quantitative data collected in a mixed methods study of teacher and librarian collaboration. This practice is discussed extensively in the literature on school librarianship as an instructional strategy that positively affects student academic achievement. However, while there is much anecdotal evidence regarding successful teacher and librarian collaboration, there is little hard research that defines specific practices that lead to successful collaborations. This study provides empirical data on teacher and librarian collaboration which helps us understand the nature of collaboration and the extent to which theory and practice are integrated. Two surveys based on proposed theoretical models of teacher and librarian collaboration were used for this study. The first survey was based on Loertscger's Taxonomy. The second survey was based on a new proposed model of teacher and librarian collaboration (TLC Model) which builds on the taxonomy and expands our understanding of teacher and librarian collaboration. Participants in the study included teachers, librarians and principals from kindergarten through middle school. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was carried out on both surveys to identify underlying structures of teacher and librarian collaboration. Three factors emerged from the data identifying a range of underlying structures: integrated instruction, library and librarian as resource, and traditional role for teacher and librarian. Further research on the TLC Model with a larger number of participants and survey items is needed to examine the stability of the factor structures and to further refine the new measure.