The Role of the Principal in an Information Literate School Community: Cross-Country Comparisons from an International Research Project

An international research project conducted in Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Japan, Scotland, and South Korea investigated the role of principals in developing and supporting information-literate school communities. Principals and teacher-librarians completed three survey instruments examining the participants’ perceptions and beliefs about their current and future roles, and their views on such concerns as the strengths and challenges of the school library, the contributions of teacher-librarians to teaching and learning, the nature of information literacy, and barriers to integration of information skills. In this paper, the researchers explore the findings of the research project and present cross-country comparisons.