Stakeholders as researchers: A multiple case study of using cooperative inquiry to develop and document the formative leadership experiences of new school library professionals

•Cooperative inquiry, rarely used in LIS research, can foster librarian leadership.•Cooperative inquiry success stems from librarians' group facilitation skills.•Cooperative inquiry can function as both a method and a methodology.•Close adherence to the cooperative inquiry process ensures best leadership results.•Cooperative inquiry is appropriate for externally caused organizational problems.

Cooperative inquiry, a form of qualitative research used in community building, has not often been applied in educational contexts. Through the lens of formative leadership theory, the researchers studied the abilities of three new school librarians trained in cooperative inquiry and leadership to engage in collaborative problem solving for technology-related school challenges. Due to internal and external factors, participants experienced various levels of success with their challengers, but cooperative inquiry proved to be a viable methodology to evaluate the outcomes of library education for school librarians' formative leadership.