The school library and democracy : an interview study ofschool librarians’ approach to their democratic role

The purpose of this thesis is to examine school librarians approach towards the democratic role of school libraries. Semi-structured interviews with five high school librarians’ were conducted to illuminate how school librarians work to fulfill this role and further examine any differences in their approach. The theoretical framework consists of a broad interpretation of democracy to highlight difficulties in a precise definition of this term. Deliberative democracy and enlightened understanding is included in this framework in an attempt to establish a more precise setting. With a thematic analysis of the interviews the results were divided and coupled with the research questions. The results show information literacy as the primary democratic work described by the school librarians and an overall general vagueness regarding the school libraries as well as their own democratic role and further pertaining work