Global Perspectives: Exploring School-Based Brazilian Librarianship Through Institutional Ethnography

Abstract

Exploring the practices of school-based librarians in other countries fosters new knowledge, contributing to global communities of practice. In 2013, researchers conducted an institutional ethnography study of school-based Brazilian librarianship in South Brazil. Themes identified were: collaboration, literacy, instruction, technology integration, and the learning environment. Themes reflect common challenges faced by Brazilian school libraries such as institutional barriers to collaboration, division of instructional duties, access to materials, and staffing . Themes also speak to distinct ways in which Brazilian school libraries reflect the social and economic disparity between private schools and government-funded public schools, as well as Brazilian society at large.