Research into Practice. Supporting New Teachers: Interview with Rita Reinsel Soulen

by Rebecca J. Morris , September 2020

In this issue, we interview Dr. Rita Reinsel Soulen, assistant professor of library science at East Carolina State University. Her latest research study is, "School Librarian Interventions for New Teacher Resilience: A CLASS II Field Study," published in the March 2020 issue of School Library Research.

Research Article Recap by Dr. Soulen

The AASL Causality: School Libraries & Student Success (CLASS) initiative was developed to promote causal research in the field of school librarianship. As part of the CLASS II: Field Studies, I was awarded a grant to investigate new teacher resilience using interventions by school librarians. I also received mentoring support from a team of CLASS II researchers.

I developed three research questions:

• To what extent do new teachers who receive standardized interventions from the school librarian differ in their scores on a resilience scale from October to March of a school year?
• To what extent do new teachers who receive standardized interventions from the school librarian differ in scores on a resilience scale in March of a school year as compared to new teachers not formally supported by the school librarian?
• To what extent do new teachers who receive standardized interventions from the school librarian differ in scores on a burnout inventory in March of a school year as compared to new teachers not formally supported by the school librarian?
• To what extent do new teachers who receive standardized interventions from the school librarian differ in their intent to return to their current teaching position as compared to new teachers not formally supported by the school librarian?

Research Framework

I focused on resilience, which is "the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or significant sources of stress" such as workplace stressors. This not only involves "bouncing back" but also personal growth (APA 2020).

I developed the Continuum of Care model based on Loertscher's and Montiel-Overall's models of teacher-librarian collaboration. The Continuum of Care identifies interventions that librarians provide for new teachers over the course of four months, moving from mentoring to collaboration. The goal is to engage and empower new teachers, then partner and co-teach.

Methods and Data Collection

At the start of the school year, all of the first-year teachers in the district were surveyed. This was to match the new teachers who received interventions to a comparison group of new teachers who did not. From November to the following February, the school librarians worked with their new teachers using the specific strategies outlined in the Continuum of Care model. At the close of the study, all of the teachers were surveyed again for level of resilience, burnout, level of mentoring/collaboration received, and intent to return to their position the following year.

At the close of the study, I also interviewed three librarian-teacher pairs—one elementary, one middle, and one high— to bring forth the lived experiences of the participants.

Data Analysis and Results

I used software to analyze the quantitative data from the two surveys. I ran tests to compare the treatment group's level of resilience from the beginning to the end of the study, and I compared them to the comparison group. Then I coded the qualitative interview data to identify emerging themes and patterns.

Results showed that new teachers in the treatment group received significantly higher levels of mentoring and collaboration than those in the comparison group. There was a significant effect for the interaction between level of resilience for the treatment group and age. School librarians and new teachers valued their relationship and voiced the effect on resilience, burnout, and retention. Four themes arose from the qualitative data: Isolation/Connection, Provision of Resources, Modeling Teaching Behavior, and Looking Back/Looking Forward.

Interview with Rita Reinsel Soulen

Rebecca Morris: Dr. Soulen, thank you for taking some time to talk with SLC about your research. Can you tell us about your interest in studying new teacher support?

Rita Reinsel Soulen: The topic of new teacher resilience as it relates to retention was highly personal. I had been a new teacher in varied contexts—as an enthusiastic college graduate in my first teaching position, then as a young wife in a new city, and again after time spent at home raising my children. Having experienced first years in differing settings and at differing times of my life, I sought out training to become a mentor to new teachers. Eventually, as the librarian I was responsible for leading the mentoring program in my school. Through this process I discovered that the librarian occupies a unique position to offer support and resources for early career teachers. Mentoring also opened longer term opportunities. The teachers who I ushered through their first (frequently painful) years often became my best collaborators. Through my research I learned that the first five years are crucial to long-term commitment to teaching, that acquiring resilience skills can mitigate burnout, and that librarians can play a vital role in supporting new teachers and improve the ecology of the school.

RM: Your study draws from psychology research on the topic of resilience. How did research in teacher resilience shape your approach to this study?

RS: Initially I discovered a research framework which demonstrated that mentors can encourage new teacher retention by fostering resilience (Doney 2013). This led me to other studies showing that beginning teachers need support from mentors, colleagues, and administration to boost their commitment to the profession (Beltman, Mansfield, and Price 2011; Johnson and Down 2016; Tait 2008). I soon learned that research in the field of new teacher resilience was limited, causing me to expand my research to include resilience of teachers at all career stages and studies of teacher burnout, which is assumed to be the inverse of resilience.

Also central in my research was the American Psychological Association roadmap (https://www.apa.org/topics/resilience) for building resilience by not only adapting to stressors, but also emerging stronger than before. This gave me an outline for developing the interventions for new teachers. Then, when the ALA Center for the Future of Libraries published Rebekkah Aldrich's mini-book Resilience, I knew that there was a larger interest in the library's role for building community resilience.

RM: Can you tell us more about the Continuum of Care model?

RS: I met weekly with my advisor, Dr. Gail Dickinson, to identify the theoretical framework of resilience and then to develop the conceptual framework that became the Continuum of Care. We discussed research in the field of nursing, which led to developing a series of interventions by school librarians for new teachers over a span of four months.

I identified the interventions by scouring the literature on mentoring new teachers for activities that were a good fit for the role of the school librarian. The first two months of interventions focused on mentoring, while the second two months moved the relationship toward collaboration. Some examples of mentoring interventions include a classroom visit to determine the new teacher's needs, scheduling a library activity for the new teacher's class, and connecting the new teacher to others who can support the new teacher's development. For the collaboration phase, the librarian and new teacher worked together to plan, implement, and assess co-taught lesson(s).

RM: Would you share some memorable experiences from the interventions with new teachers?

RS: Most memorable to me is how invested the librarians were in mentoring and collaborating with their new teachers. From the beginning, they all recognized that they could make a difference, and they were highly motivated to contribute to new teacher retention as a way to invest in the next generation of teachers. Feedback from the librarians showed that they found the experience to be meaningful and that they grew in their own mentoring and collaboration skills as a result of the process.

It was surprising to me how well this study aligned with district-wide initiatives, not only for induction and mentoring but also for college and career readiness and supports for military families. This underscored the value of promoting a collaborative school culture.

RM: What were some of your findings, and what might practicing school librarians take away from your study?

RS: From the four themes which arose from the qualitative data, we can conclude that librarians can have a positive effect in connecting with new teachers who feel isolated in their classrooms or peer groups, can provide targeted resources in a timely fashion to support instruction, can model teaching behaviors, and can look forward to continuing the collaborative relationship for years to come.

RM: What's next for you? Will you continue to investigate this topic?

RS: I am working on a program evaluation of my field study. This consisted of a survey of the fifteen school librarians who worked with new teachers and evaluated assessment of needs, program theory, program process, impact, and efficiency. There were also open-ended questions addressing barriers and enablers to applying the Continuum of Care model. The results look promising and the comments indicate that this was a highly worthwhile project.

I would love to continue investigating the topic of new teacher resilience because I believe that school librarians have unique skills and resources to support new teachers. If possible, I would want to expand this study to cover three years of teacher supports and include teachers in rural, urban, and suburban schools so the results would be more generalizable.

With some collaborators, I have also investigated resilience of school libraries rebounding in the aftermath of trauma and tragedy, which suddenly became highly relevant when COVID-19 arrived. This literature review is currently undergoing the referee process, so I hope to see publication soon.

I am really interested in applying rigorous causal research methodology in the field. It is so important to identify the actual contributions that school librarians make to the ecology of the school. To me, the best way to advocate for our profession is to demonstrate that the actions of school librarians cause better teaching, improve the school environment, and most importantly increase student learning.

RM: Dr. Soulen, thank you for sharing this important work with us. We are excited to follow your research, and to consider school librarians' opportunities to work with new teachers.

Works Cited

Aldrich, Rebekkah Smith. Resilience. Neal-Schuman, 2018.

Beltman, Susan, Caroline F. Mansfield, and Anne Elizabeth Price. "Thriving Not Just Surviving: A Review of Research on Teacher Resilience." Educational Research Review 6 (2011): 185-207.

Doney, Patricia A. "Fostering Resilience: A Necessary Skill for Teacher Retention." Journal of Science Teacher Education 24, no. 4 (2013): 645-664. doi: 10.1007/s10972-012-9324-x

Johnson, Bruce, Barry Down, Rosie Le Cornu, Judith Peters, Anna M. Sullivan, Jane Pearce, and Janet Hunter. Promoting Early Career Teacher Resilience: A Socio-Cultural and Critical Guide to Action. Routledge, 2016.

Loertscher, David. Taxonomies of the School Library Media Program (2nd ed.). Hi Willow Research & Publishing, 2000.

Montiel-Overall, Patricia, and Anthony C. Hernandez. "The Effect of Professional Development on Teacher and Librarian Collaboration: Preliminary Findings Using a Revised Instrument, TLC-III." School Library Research 15 (2012).

Tait, Melanie. "Resilience as a Contributor to Novice Teacher Success, Commitment, and Retention." Teacher Education Quarterly 35, no. 4 (2008): 57-75.