Re: Interview questions for principal

[Lyn Hay <lhay@CSU.EDU.AU>]

Hi Patricia,

I am responding to your request for ideas for your school's team of
five teachers involved in interviewing candidates for a 7-12 grade
principal.

You stated that:
>Our first "assignment" is to develop a list of desirable
>characteristics/attributes to look for in a candidate.

James Henri and I are lecturers in teacher librarianship at Charles
Sturt University in Australia. Last year we completed a small
qualitative research project on the principal's role in developing
and supporting an information literate school community, which
focused on the relationship between the teacher librarian and
principal in a number of school reputed to have a successful whole
school integrated information literacy program. Some of the
attributes of the principals in these schools included:

* they could articulate their whole school vision of what an
information literate school community was and had a whole school
information vision
* they had very clear views/ideas concerning what role the school
library and TL plays in the delivery of whole school information
services, in particular (a) providing students with the skills to become
independent information users and (b) how information technologies
can be used to achieve this
* they had high expectations of what the teacher librarian
could/should be achieving in terms of information service delivery,
professionally developing staff (as well as themselves), and working
with staff to ensure information skills are integrated into
teaching/learning programs in classrooms
* they were aware of the need to support the TL with adequate
finances and personnel to achieve the information goals/outcomes of
the school library program
* they relied on/expected their TL to keep them up-to-date with TL,
school library and information service, and IT issues

James and I recently published an article in the journal 'School
Libraries in Canada' Fall, 1995 issue which is based on our findings.
If you require further information I could email you a copy of a
conference paper we presented at the Australian School Library
conference in Fremantle, Western Australia last year which has more
detail than the above article.

You also wrote:
>We also want to formulate a list of questions and topics for
>discussion that will guide us during the interview process.

As a teacher librarian on an interview panel, I would love the
opportunity to ask the principal candidates:

1. What would you regard as key features of an information literate
school community?

2. How could you as principal support and develop a whole school
information literacy program?

3. As a principal, what are your expectations of the teacher librarian
in supporting the educational outcomes of the school?

Hope this helps your interview team out. I'd be very interested in
the interview questions you decide to use (and even better, the
answers to the questions of the principal who is appointed!)

Good luck,

Lyn






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*       Lyn Hay                         <lhay@csu.edu.au>
*       School of Information Studies, Charles Sturt University
*       Locked Bag 675, Wagga Wagga, N.S.W. 2678
*       Australia       Phone: (069) 332808     Fax: (069) 332733
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