School library professionals’ perspectives on current and future workforce challenges

Abstract

While school library professionals work across many nations, supporting student learning and wellbeing, there is limited current research capturing shared issues faced by this educational workforce. The International School Library Workforce Survey collected insights from 971 respondents across 63 countries derived from analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data. Findings suggest that in an international context, school library professionals are experiencing notable issues that impact upon their morale and their ability to enact their professional roles. Respondents were more likely to disagree then agree that school library professionals were typically valued in their country. While the vast majority of respondents had strong collaborative relations with at least some colleagues, only 58.7% agreed that it was easy to build new collaborative relationships with classroom teachers, and analysis indicates that the classroom teacher is the key social agent to be won over if collaboration is to thrive between school library professionals and classroom teachers. Concerning levels of deprofessionalization were reported, with more than two thirds of respondents noting that retired school library professionals were often replaced by less qualified staff in their country. The majority of respondents (87.6%) had concerns about the future of the school library profession in their country. Current and future challenges at school and country level were related to funding and resourcing; training; policy and politics; and role clarity and valuing. Equity is an issue; less wealthy public schools are reported as being far less likely to have them than private schools in some countries. Inadequate staffing at school level may be related to limited initial training pathways at country level. Physical, economic and legal threats to school library professionals for providing access to diverse materials were raised. Findings highlight the need for immediate steps to secure workforce stability and growth into the future.