A video presentation of this proposal can be viewed above or at this link.

A handout to the slides is also available here.

This presentation can be viewed live at this link.

Study Overview

This qualitative research study seeks to understand how librarians connect to each other and use those connections via social media as a form of professional learning. This study will focus specifically on Texas public school librarians, and interviews with Texas public school librarians will be the primary source of data. This research study proposal consists of an overview of the theoretical framework, research questions, literature review, and proposed methods of analysis. The theoretical framework and the research questions can be found below and the literature review and proposed analysis and methods can be found on the following pages.

Theory

Because the purpose of this research will be on school librarians using social media as a means of professional development, connectivism as an online learning theory will be the theoretical framework. “Connectivism…was initially based on a concept of self-organized learning but evolved over time into an emphasis on network-organized learning: the idea being that a networked environment without instructors and course structure can facilitate and achieve learning among participants” (Harasim, 2017, p. 81). Connectivism will be used to study the connection of librarians as they use social media as a form of professional learning.