"Vi ska ju finnas där för eleverna" : Skolbibliotekariers användning och erfarenheter av biblioterapi för en tryggare social skolmiljö

Sammanfattning

Pupils’ sense of safety in Swedish schools has decreased, with many feeling unsafe and experiencing bullying. In addition to teaching knowledge, the school’s mission includes supporting pupils’ social development, a sense of belonging, and feelings of security. The school library and the school librarian are not always utilised in this work, despite the potential of bibliotherapy as a tool to promote safety and a positive social school environment. Bibliotherapy is a form of therapeutic reading combined with supportive discussions with a bibliotherapist, who could, among other professions, be a school librarian. The aim of this study is to investigate how school librarians in Sweden experience their work with bibliotherapy among pupils in primary and middle schools, and how they perceive the impact it has on pupils’ sense of safety and the social school environment. The study adopts a qualitative approach, in which empirical data were collected through semi-structured interviews with six school librarians and analysed using thematic analysis and Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory. The results show that the school librarians to some extent work with bibliotherapy, although none had previously used the term to describe their practice. Bibliotherapeutic activities primarily take place in group settings, using fiction literature, and are conducted through book recommendations, reading aloud, and reading groups. The majority report positive effects of their bibliotherapeutic interventions on school safety and the social environment, but also identify a lack of time, resources, collaboration, and understanding from colleagues and school leadership. Both the study’s empirical findings and previous research indicate that school librarians can work bibliotherapeutically to promote a safe and a positive social school climate by integrating therapeutic conversations about literature into their existing reading-promotion practices.