Starting out, I had a narrow understanding of the various roles and responsibilities of teacher-librarians. Comparing my blog posts reveals my developed understanding (Lysaught, 2021a cf. 2021b). I had never heard the terms information literacy or fluency, and although I am working in a TL position in a school with inquiry units, they’re mainly PBL units concentrating on the product rather than directed by an information literacy model focusing on the process.

This unit emphasised that students need multiple strategies to help them find, evaluate, and apply information in their lives so they can actively and ethically participate as lifelong learners in the workforce and global community. While nominally “digital natives”, our students aren’t inherently equipped to navigate information, often taking easy solutions, giving up, or believing misinformation (Coombes, 2009; O’Connell, 2012). This unit illustrated schools must explicitly teach information literacy to develop independent, responsible, and respectful information users (Berg et. al., 2018; Kulkarni, 2021). Students must understand their rights and responsibilities as global citizens and cannot do this effectively without the necessary preparation (Lysaught, 2021c).

Information Literacy, embedded in the Australian Curriculum as the oft-forgotten and poorly implemented General Capabilities, develops the 21^st century learning skills our students need to navigate increasingly popular internet and social media platforms (Jacobson, 2010; Common Sense Media, 2019; Australian eSafety Commissioner, 2021). Our Generation Z/Alpha students look to their parents as trusted news sources (Notley et. al., 2020), a problematic approach given Generation Y’s ineptitude (Coombes, 2009, p.38). Government legislation has failed to keep up with the evolving information landscape and unethical behaviours (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, 2020, para.70). Schools must step in to fill this void.

This subject proved “information literacy is at the heart of inquiry learning” (Fitzgerald, 2015a, p.17). I now know inquiry units framed by an IL model support Generation Alpha’s preferred learning styles (McCrindle, 2019), accelerating social/emotional learning and learner autonomy (Consortium for School Networking, 2021). Inquiry learning framed by IL models benefits students, teachers, librarians, educational leaders, and parents (Maniotes et. al., 2015 p.212-215). Teacher-librarians should be familiar with multiple models to flexibly serve the learning needs of their students and so I expanded my awareness of inquiry learning models by exploring Big 6 (Big6.org, 2015), PLUS (Herring et. al. 2002, 2007, 2011), the NSW (2020) ISP and Information Fluency Framework (Wall, 2018, 2019, 2021; Cook, 2021; Grimmett, 2021). This gave me a deeper grasp of research processes, my own research methods, and an appreciation for the confused frustration that our students feel!

The ISP/GID model struck me as most useful for my context due to its emotional stages and collaborative practice (Lysaught, 2021d). My research expanded my comprehension of the way GI moves away from unenjoyable imposed questions (Gross, 2006, p.31) to promote the Third Space Merger (Maniotes et. al., 2015, p.22-23) and authentic learning for an authentic audience (Sorensen, 2019, p.30). Crucially, GI encourages transfer of skills across learning areas (Garrison & Fitzgerald, 2017). I envisage GI being successful at my school, though I need to ensure adequate time, planning, resourcing, and staff buy-in: “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go slow” (Leung et. al., 2021).

One prevailing misconception is teacher-librarians primarily focus on books and reading (Lysaught, 2021a). While improving literacy is important, it isn’t the teacher-librarian’s sole responsibility (Herring, 2007, p.29). Bonanno (2011a) states we should promote our specialist services, look for ways to be relevant, and “claim our space” to avoid becoming an “invisible profession”. I’ve learned teacher-librarians, as information and curriculum specialists, are uniquely positioned to teach information literacy explicitly and develop transliterate communities in ways other teachers are not (Lysaught, 2021e). Research repeatedly shows the positive impacts trained teacher-librarians have on student achievement (Bonanno, 2011b). Active teacher-librarians – supported by and collaborating with their colleagues – act as the glue connecting otherwise disparate learning areas (Lysaught, 2021e, 2021f).

As a result of my work in ETL401, I can now see many ways to positively contribute to my school’s Strategic Improvement Plan goals to enhance learning culture and wellbeing to improve student engagement, results, and belonging. In addition to improving student achievement, collaborative teaching of information literacy through inquiry learning draws together both aspects of our position – our teacher hat and librarian hat – and allows us to increase our visibility, advocate our value, and change public perceptions about our roles. What has struck me throughout this unit is the power of social media/networking as a promotional tool for teacher-librarians; as I move forward in this role I intend to continue learning from colleagues and triumphantly claim my space.

To conclude, I leave you with one final wordcloud of my ETL401 posts:

Word Count: 746

 

Bibliography:

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. (2020, August 5). The ACCC’s Digital Platforms Inquiry and the need for competition, consumer protection and regulatory responses. https://www.accc.gov.au/speech/the-acccs-digital-platforms-inquiry-and-the-need-for-competition-consumer-protection-and-regulatory-responses

Australian eSafety Commissioner (2021). eSafety research: the digital lives of Aussie teens. https://www.esafety.gov.au/sites/default/files/2021-02/The%20digital%20lives%20of%20Aussie%20teens.pdf

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Lysaught, D. (2021f, September 7). 4.3 the TL and the curriculum. All You Read Is Love. https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/allyoureadislove/2021/09/07/4-3-the-tl-and-the-curriculum/

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