The topic of this thesis is teacher and librarian partnership in literacy education. The study explores contradictions, barriers and opportunities in such partnerships. The purpose of the study is to develop new knowledge about and theoretical perspectives on the types of contradictions, barriers and opportunities that might occur in teacher and librarian partnerships, as well as how these contradictions can be resolved. Teacher and librarian partnership is an under-researched topic within educational literacy research and within the educational sciences in general
The study analyses multiple sources of data from two small-scale educational interventions involving teacher and librarian partnerships at the school level and at the inter-institutional level in Norway. The results from the analysis show that some of the conflicts and dilemmas that occur in the two interventions are manifestations of various types of contradictions within and across the activity systems of schools, libraries, and educational authorities. The study discusses how these contradictions are triggered by a primary systemic contradiction in literacy education between a sociocultural discourse and a dominant technocratic discourse.
According to the dialectical perspectives of cultural-historical activity theory and expansive learning, barriers caused by systemic contradictions need to be resolved to become opportunities for transformative change and development. The successful resolution of contradictions in local interventions of teacher and librarian partnerships relies on critical reflexive practitioners and autonomous institutional leaders. However, this study demonstrates how dominant technocratic discourses in education makes it difficult to resolve contradictions that occur in teacher and librarian partnerships solely through local efforts. The development of sustainable teacher and librarian partnerships depends on the priority given to such partnerships in educational research and policy, in curriculum development and in the professional training of both professions.