Skolbibliotekarien som gränsöverskridare : en studie av skolbibliotekariers roll i skolans praktiklandskap

Sammanfattning: Studies show that collaboration between teachers and school librarians has a positive impact on students’ learning. However, the school librarian’s function and integration in the school’s educational activities can strongly vary. The librarian’s professional role has furthermore been a question for debate by both librarians and academics. Consequently, the role of the school librarian is indistinct. The purpose of this study is to identify cross-border encounters between school librarians’ and teachers’ communities of practice, in order to discuss the school librarians’ professional role. We interviewed seven school librarians and used their experience of guided inquiry as an exemplification of collaboration. The study is based on a practice theoretical approach, with Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger’s concept of communities of practice in focus. We also used theory of professions to examine the role of the school librarian. We identify the school librarians as part of a community of practice with a library and information science based domain. They are part of a complex landscape of practice within the school environment and they often cross the boundaries into the teacher’s communities of practice. The school librarians in the study work across boundaries, either with influences from what Wenger-Trayner and Wenger-Trayner call brokers or systems conveners or both. We furthermore identify guided inquiry as a possible boundary object that can facilitate the translation between the school librarian’s and the teacher’s communities of practice and thereby clarify the role of the school librarian. It can also create contact areas in the boundaries in the school’s landscape of practice and promote further collaboration. We argue that in order to make the school librarian’s professional role more distinct, the role must be based on library and information science and research and not solely dependent upon the effort of the individual school librarian. This additionally becomes a question of equal educational opportunity for all Swedish students and hence a matter of democracy.