Gail Bush

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Gail Bush (May 2, 1952 in Chicago, Illinois) is, most notably, a librarian who does research on collaboration between educators.

Contents

[edit] Background

[edit] Education and Awards

Bush holds a Ph.D. in education psychology from Loyola University Chicago, an M.S. in library science and a B.A. in anthropology from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She was honored with the AASL National School Library Media Program of the Year Award in 1996, and was named North Suburban Library System School Librarian of the Year in 1998-99 for her leadership in collaboration between her school program and the local public library.

[edit] Work and Publications

Bush worked as the curriculum librarian in suburban Chicago at Maine West High School Library Resource Center for 10 years before accepting a position as associate professor and director of the School Library Media Program, Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Dominican University in River Forest, IL. She left the position in the fall of 2006. Most notably, she has published two books -- The School Buddy System in 2003 and Every Student Reads: Collaboration and Reading to Learn in 2005.

[edit] Collaboration

Collaboration is goal-oriented talk, discource, conversation, communication, in this case, between two or more educators. It is a way for educators to search for self-knowledge as professionals by engaging in dialogue with colleagues who share a goal for their students.

– Gail Bush, The School Buddy System, 2003.

The School Buddy System is a work written by Bush to examine the benefits of collaboration within the school system, as well as offer suggestions and a framework as to how this collaboration will be accomplished. The publication is divided into three sections: Ready -- a background and history section, Set -- a prepartion section, and Dive -- a section devoted to creating and maintaining collaboration (Bush 2003).

[edit] Ready

Bush identifies several problems preventing teachers from finding collaboration. She argues that new teachers are taught to be isolated from veteran teachers, creating a lack of communication. There is a lack of a cross-teacher dialogue and doors are shut creating an egg crate school (Bush 2003).

[edit] Set

Bush calls for several things to be in place before collaboration can be achieved (Bush 2003).

  • A collaborative mind-set that includes the following:
    • Metacognition -- self-awareness of your own thinking
    • Mindfulness -- keeping yourself open to challenges and opportunities as they come your way
    • Critical thinking -- accuracy and attention to "the text" or evidence is important
    • Creative thinking -- always trying to see beyond the standard scope of an issue or a situation
  • A framework of educator collaboration that includes the following:
    • Trust and respect between classroom teachers and resource educators
    • Individuality and leadership; more specifically a balance of the two
    • Defining and distinguishing collaboration from compromise, cooperation, and coordination
    • Community and a holistic environment
    • Structure, time, and classroom management
    • Creative and critical thinkers, active and reflective learners; together they create synergy

[edit] Dive

Bush encourages further conversation and collaboration on the topic and offers conversational prompts to start building collaboration. An example of a conversational prompt follows (Bush 2003).

Cat's Cradle: Thinking and Leadership. There are situations where thinking and leadership are completely intertwined, like a rope -- the rope is collaboration. There are other strands -- is that what these are: strands?

– Gail Bush, The School Buddy System, 2003.

[edit] Other Areas of Research/Publication

Bush is well-known for publishing on modeling for lifelong reading, poetry, information literacy, youth activism, and creativity, among collaboration (Bush 2003).

[edit] Poetry

Bush developed Random Acts of Poetry in her school library at Maine West High School, while she was the curriculum librarian. The program included sending poetry to colleagues, holding a poetry open house, and writing original poetry (Bush 1997).

[edit] References

  • Bush, Gail (2005). Every Student Reads: Collaboration and Reading to Learn. American Association of School Librarians, 7-54. ISBN 0838983588. 
  • Bush, Gail (September 1997). "Speak, Muses". School Library Journal 43: 139. 
  • Codell, Cindy Darling (February 2003). "The School Buddy System (Book)". School Library Journal 49: 175. 
  • Lefelt, Carol (August/September 2003). "Every Student Reads: Collaboration and Reading to Learn (Review)". Library Media Connection: 62.