Collaboration to Promote Student Leadership

by Suzanne Sannwald

Often, when we think about the work of collaboration as school librarians, we consider how we might co-plan and co-teach with classroom teachers or other adults. We might also approach collaboration from the lens of how we can help facilitate students working with one another so that they may develop the capacity to collaborate on their own. However, this past year, I've spent a lot of time reflecting on an awesome experience I have had collaborating directly as an adult with students. It wasn't just me serving as a mentor or coach for students. To me, the type of collaborating that we engaged in exemplified one with a balanced power dynamic, and in fact, one driven even more so by student leadership.

Key elements of the work included the following:

• Students initially identified an issue that they felt needed to be addressed within our district. It is an issue that adults have also discussed and cared about but without momentum to carry it forward.
• Given our already established relationship with students, several teacher librarians and classroom teachers were brought into their discussion about the issue.
• Together, students and adults started to meet weekly to have conversations, make plans, and take action to address the issue.
• Students defined the outcomes that they hoped to achieve, while adults helped expand students' contextual framework to include considerations such as existing processes and policies.
• Adults helped connect students to resources, including key personnel to include in discussions, but students initiated and led all contacts with these key personnel.
• In the end, the major impact of the work was students meaningfully sharing their voices in a way that prompted and accelerated positive action by adults, including administrators.

Of note, this collaboration that took place was not a curricular-based one. It was work that students and adults alike made time for above and beyond our regular "required" work, and yet it was the type of genuine interaction and learning that I feel we should ideally prioritize more often. This has made me reflect: How can we establish conditions for students to share their voices more regularly? How can we create more opportunities for students to participate as equals and as leaders in our schools and in their learning? In what ways can we as school librarians immediately collaborate with students?

For school library programs in particular, below are some starting points for collaboration with students:

• Invite, honor, and implement student ideas — At the most basic level, this is an everyday way that we can include students in shaping our school library programs. For more inspiration, see Carl Harvey's "Solving School Library Problems with Students."
• Harness student leadership potential — Throughout my years in education, I've learned that while students may in many ways lack control over their education, their voices have the greatest potential to influence change. For some research-based support, check out Michelle Maniaci Folk's and Lucy Santos Green's "Supporting and Encouraging Youth Leadership."
• Leverage student library workers — As a solo librarian, I could not possibly keep my school library program running at the level it does without the contributions of student workers, both volunteers (my "live ins") and rostered, credit-earning aides. For ideas about how to make the most of student help in the library, see Kym Kramer's "Will Work for Flamin' Hot Cheetos: My Junior Librarian Program" and Sue Kowalski's video course "Student Voice in the Library."
• Utilize student advisory boards — In her One-Question Survey "How Do You Engage Students in Planning for Your Library's Future?" having informal conversations with students was the most common response, but Gail Dickinson was most encouraged by a school librarian citing "working on a formal plan." With student advisory boards, the focus is action-oriented with students not only sharing their opinions and ideas but importantly helping design and implement plans to affect change. Advisory boards may be designed to guide everyday programming (see Liz Deskins's "Advisory Boards & Geek Squads") or for more targeted goals such as guiding collection development (see Andy Plemmons's "Student Voice & Student Choice in Our Annual Student Book Budget Project") and participatory designing (see Hilary Hughes's "Practical Charette Guide").
• Model and champion participatory learning — Whether part of or beyond the curriculum, find ways for students to drive their own learning whenever possible. We not only need to move beyond being a "sage on the stage," but we must also envision how we can be more than a "guide on the side." When we truly engage with students as co-collaborators in learning, we share power as co-learners. There are many models and examples of this type of learning. A couple to start with include Allison Zmuda's and Beth Campbell's "Growing Student Voice and Learning" and Connie Williams's "From School to Community: Inspiring Student Activism." Also be sure to check out Barbara Stripling's selection of resources on Student Choice and Voice on the Teaching Research topic page.

In closing, I will share words of advice from my students. Having decided I wanted to explore the idea of collaboration with students, I asked what they would most want adults to consider. One student chimed in right away that adults should "not try to overpower student voices," often feeling that adults communicate even without words that "you're just students, you don't know anything." This speaks directly to true collaboration being about equalization and how we as educators must be willing to share power with our students. Another student took more time to respond, but in the end timidly offered: "Talk to more than one student, because we have different views." They were apologetic that this wasn't a profound enough comment, but I think that it is indeed an insightful reminder as we seek to collaborate with students. After all, there is not just one right way to serve all students. How can we make room for as many student voices as possible? How might we level up our collaboration with students?

If you have ideas about how you've collaborated with students, please share! Share your voice—send a message about the work that you have been doing!