Category Archives: ELT401 – Introduction to Teacher Librarianship

The Role of the Teacher Librarian

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The role of the Teacher Librarian (TL) within an educational setting is as varied and complex as the definition of what is “information”.  My career has seen me evolve from teaching in a Primary School setting to, being a parent relying on the Library services, to now working within a secondary school.  Through my experience with Teacher Librarians across those three aspects I have seen Teacher Librarians who are seen as critical to the operation of the school and those whose skills are underutilized and undervalued.

As a teacher, I used my Teacher Librarian as my collaborator in educating my students.  She assisted me in resourcing my elaborate ideas of units and seemed to instantly know what resource would be just perfect to help me convey my idea to my students.  We planned together and during the library lesson that I was allocated for my “non-contact time” my TL provided my class with lessons that were crucial to the development of their skills required for the unit of work we were completing at the time.   This was the teacher librarian exhibiting all three of the main roles of a Teach Librarian:  information specialist; information service manager and a Curriculum leader (Australian School Library Association, 2014).  I remember being quite shocked when I discovered that this was not how all the teachers used their time.  Many saw the library lessons as “baby sitting and borrowing”, as they had no idea what the teacher Librarian was doing with their class.  To me this was an absolute disrespect to the professional nature of the Teacher Librarian role.

Further insight into how Teacher Librarians are perceived by their colleagues and in particular administration was gained when I was a parent.  The enormity of the role of information management is often underrated and undervalued by the administration.  The extra hours and time that Library staff often has to put into to their libraries to manage their collection goes unseen.  As a parent, I would volunteer to assist in some of the menial, but crucial, tasks of covering books, sorting and culling the collection.  The continual flow of ‘hard’ resources that goes through a Primary School Library is hard to comprehend, that is until the aide gets sick and it piles up around the desk!  The only way for many Teacher Librarians to cope with this is to use volunteers to supplement the often meagerly staffed department they are in charge of, even though what is really necessary is more time and money to allow for the Teacher Librarian to embed themselves within each year levels planning meetings.

Currently I work within the secondary system, and in a world where many schools are underfunding their libraries and specialist teacher librarians running these libraries are in decline, we are endeavouring to make ourselves indispensable within the school community (Matthews,n.d.).  Despite what many schools thought when individual computers became the norm in Australian classrooms, both teachers and students needed someone to help them gain access to quality information and programs through these devices.  The overcrowded curriculum has certainly made it difficult for individual teachers to be on the cusp of all things digital, so many are turning to their Teacher Librarian for support and guidance.  This is where I currently see the role of the Teacher Librarian – acting as a conduit between the “information” the teachers, the students and the curriculum.

Works Cited

Australian School Library Association. (2014, March 2). What is a teacher librarian? Retrieved March 8, 2017, from ASLA – Australian School Library Association: http://www.asla.org.au/advocacy/what-is-a-teacher-librarian.aspx

Matthews, K. (n.d.). So where have all our school teacher librarians gone? Retrieved March 8, 2017, from Kidspot: http://www.kidspot.com.au/school/primary/real-life/so-where-have-all-our-school-teacher-librarians-gone

 

Forum 5.3-2 Share your views on Guided Inquiry (GI). What advantages, challenges and/or disadvantages do you see for a teacher librarian wishing to implement a GI approach?

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Guided Inquiry (GI) is the framework that teachers and teacher librarians use to help their students deepen their understanding of curriculum content during the information search process.  It needs time for the students to be able to choose their own topic or question that will allow them to narrow their search process.  The advantages of using GI is the student engagement in their own learning that deepens their understanding.  Through collaboration with their teachers, teacher librarians and other students, metacognition skills are also developed which will help students in their lifelong learning journey.

 

The challenges of implementing GI is time and mindset.  Firstly, time to collaborate with the teacher in designing a GI that can be implemented in class and library time that fulfils the curriculum requirement takes planning.  Assessment of open ended assignments would also be more time consuming than that taken in assessing traditional research assignments. Time for the students to find their question after the opening, immersion, exploration phases would be a challenge.  I can only imagine that students would move through the exploration, identification and gathering phases at very different paces.  Some would know immediately and progress, while others might find some blind alleys and need more time.

 

Both the mindsets of the teacher and the students would also prove to be a possible challenge.  Convincing teachers with a closed mindset that there is another way to better results is not always easy, especially if they have been using the same topic based research projects for some time.  The students’ mindset that their ideas and questions are of value and the emotions that they are feeling during the information search process are normal could be challenging, especially if their independence and resilience is low.

 

Forum 5.3 – 1  Discuss either Lupton’s or Bonnano’s  analysis and their potential impact on the need for an IL model in your school.

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Bonanno (2015) has clearly outlined the Australian Curriculum content descriptors, general capabilities and suggested the introduction of inquiry skills for F-10 in the curriculum areas of History, Geography, Science, Civics & Citizenship, Economics & Business, Design & Technology and Digital Technology, in an easy to read table format.  Included in the reading is the core skills and tools of the Guided Inquiry Design Framework with suggested web tools to assist implementation.  The progression of implementation of a school based approach to information literacy is evident in all areas.

 

When there is an information literacy model in place in a school, students would develop and build their inquiry skills to the point that the process becomes natural and transfers across curriculum areas.  Unfortunately, not all students are experiencing this progression.  Assignments tend to be topic based with little range of choice.  When the student identifies the problem or question that they want to answer on the topic they would be more deeply engaged in their learning.  However, if method of information literacy is only deployed sporadically across year levels and departments the process would be daunting, for both the teachers and the students.

 

Bonanno, K. with Fitzgerald, L. (2014) F-10 inquiry skills scope and sequence, and F-10 core skills and tools. Eduwebinar Pty Ltd.

Perspective and Context in Information Literacy

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Coloured puzzle pieces being put together by different hands.

mohamed_hassan / Pixabay

Behavioural or Sociocultural approach?  Skillset or concept?  Information literacy is a complicated and has a diversity of definitions and understanding.  What has become apparent to me through reading the literature in this module is the importance of perspective and context.  These two factors determine our view of information literacy.  If our job as teacher librarians is to prepare students for the workforce or further study, we need to focus on the metacognitive skills that will allow students to be adaptive in the changing information landscape that is determined by the context they will be engaging with it.   This will give students a broad skillset that is applicable to them in whatever context they find themselves in.

Information literacy instruction needs to instruct students using a behaviourist approach engaging them in contextual applications of the skills required to engage, but include sociocultural aspects of the world we now live in.  Context and purpose of information literacy needs to be visible to our students if we want them to transfer their school based information literacy skills into their wider life.

The aspects of skill transfer or lack of it really interested me. Herring (2010) found that although both teachers and teacher librarians recognised the importance of information literacy skills, there was not a collective understanding of what they were, how they should be taught and reinforced with students (p294).  If a school as a whole cannot define what it is they want their students to achieve, how can we ask students to be information literate?  As teacher librarians I believe that we can be instrumental in initiating and pursuing that our schools have a whole school approach to information literacy as we are specialist who see the across all curriculum covered in the school.  Only when students are getting the same instructions and similar experiences across all classes will they understand that the skills they are learning can be transferable not only across subjects but into their personal lives.

Herring, J. (2010). Year seven students, information literacy skills and transfer: a grounded theory (Doctoral dissertation, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga). Retrieved from http://bilby.unilinc.edu.au:1801/webclient/StreamGate?folder_id=0&dvs=1491002155919~448&usePid1=true&usePid2=true

 

Forum 5.1 Information Literacy – What I have learnt so far…

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Open book with random letters floating off open pages
Open book with random letters floating off open pages

Mediamodifier / Pixabay

The new formats and delivery modes or multi-modal resources do not require users to have different literacy skills, but do require extensions of the traditional literacy definitions.

The National Secretariat for the International Year of Literacy (1990) stated the “the goal is an active literacy, which allows people to use language to enhance their capacity to think, create and question, in order to participate effectively in society” (School of Information Studies, 2017, p. 1).  I believe this statement could have been written at any stage in history.  Literacy has not changed, but society, through technology has.  The fundamental skills of reading, writing, listening, speaking, viewing and understanding evolve with society.  Technology has changed how information is shared, the fundamental skills to interpret, process and use information effectively in this changing complex world essentially have not.

The world we and our students live in is more culturally and ethnically diverse than ever.  This does not mean we need different skills, but a deeper understanding of how context affects the way we process information and use it effectively in the various multi-modal methods available to us.  Throughout time there has always been variance in how language is used in context to different situations and method of delivery.   The expanding nature that technology is playing on methods of information transfer just means that we as a society need to have an understanding of the context we are in.  An example of this is having students understand the ‘netiquette’ rules may be different when emailing a teacher compared to a friend and writing your assignment in ‘netlish’ is not an appropriate use of language in that situation.

Our definitions of literacy and the literacy skills that we teach need to be seen as evolving concepts, not static, if they are going to prepare our students for the world of tomorrow.

School of Information Studies, Charles Sturt University (2017). Introduction to teacher librarianship, semester 1 Module 5 (ETL401). Wagga Wagga: Charles Sturt University.

Forum 4.2-3 Collaborative Practice

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A network of circles with a symbol for a person in each one with a human fingure pressing the central figure.
A network of circles with a symbol for a person in each one with a human fingure pressing the central figure.

geralt / Pixabay

When teachers see working with other teachers as a challenge the teacher librarian needs to act as the conduit of change.  Finding departments that are willing to work with the teacher librarian or individual teachers who are willing and focus on them, would be the perfect place to start.  Use the successes of this collaboration as an add on to other teachers if they are interested.  The teacher librarian needs to show that what they are doing supplements and assists the teachers rather than taking away from them and their precious time with students.

Collaboration as a whole school approach allows for the students to develop the fundamental skills that will enable them to thrive in the fast paced innovative world we live in.  It forces the system to have a shared vision of student learning and for all compartments within that system to be on the same page.  This is where implementing an Information Literacy Model, such as Guided Inquiry Design, across the whole school would help.  Collaboration is built into the stages of inquiry, both teachers and students learn the valuable skills of collaboration.  Teacher and teacher librarian collaborate on a professional level in planning, implementing and evaluating.

Forum 4.1 Are the acquisition of 21st century skills and the focus on accountability mutually exclusive?

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NO the acquisition of 21st Century skills and the focus on accountability are not mutually exclusive.  Of course we can develop the skills required for the 21st century and sill have accountability.  We need to have accountability in any system, the problem is what is done with the information gained from the tests we are currently using and what abilities are not reflected in these tests.  I feel as a both parent and a teacher that often the information is misused.  We have parents who started selecting schools based on lead tables and results from standardised tests.  Schools that started using standardised tests, such as NAPLAN, as a means of screening potential students.  This, I believe, has led to many schools teaching to the test or screening students out of tests to improve their results which in fact are skewing the data, and it’s not what the test results should be used for.

 

As the cartoon in Bruce Stewart’s reply shows one test cannot give an accurate depiction of a student’s ability.  It brought to my mind Howard Gardiner Multiple Intelligence Theory and a quote that is often attributed to him “it is not how smart you are; but how you are smart”.  Learners in the 21st century have the opportunity to respond creatively, collaboratively and exercise problem solving skills through inquiry based learning that will allow them to construct meaning and develop 21st century skills.  How we assess our accountability in this process is hard to measure quantitatively, but I feel is still necessary.

(Stewart, 2017)

Education System (Stewart, 2017)

 

 

Stewart, B. (2017, April 10). Forum 4.1 [Online discussion group]. Retrieved from https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/discussionboard/do/message?action=list_messages&forum_id=_84756_1&nav=discussion_board_entry&conf_id=_42098_1&course_id=_23912_1&message_id=_1116816_1#msg__1116816_1Id

Forum 3.4 Advocacy, accountability and research

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This week we were asked as part of our discussion group how we would show that we meet one of the standards outlined by AITSL.  I chose  4: Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environment.

 

4.1 Support Student Participation: I would design a libguide that linked to lists of new recommended reads for different year levels, interests and genres.

 

4.2 Manage Classroom Activities:  I would ensure that the library space design allowed for all work environments ranging from collaborative to quiet independent work areas.

 

4.3 Manage Challenging Behaviour: I would set clear student behaviour expectations so that both library staff and student body were aware of library etiquette.

 

4.4 Maintain Student Safety:  Using our libguides I would design a wellbeing page with tips and links on how to deal with the stress of being a student and teenager in todays world.

 

4.5 Use ICT Safely, responsibly and ethically: Implement a digital citizenship program that adapted with the age of the students building to include their digital footprint that employees are now vetting applicants on.

 

What are you doing to meet the standards?

Forum 3.3 – Support for TL’s

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Orande human puzzle pieces fitting together
Orande human puzzle pieces fitting together

geralt / Pixabay

A teacher librarian’s building dynamic relationships, and the relationship with the Principal is key, to being effective within the school community.

I have been lucky enough to work in schools where this relationship is beneficial to both the teacher librarian and the principal, and have seen in other schools what happens when this relationship is ignored.

Harry S Truman once said “It is amazing what you can accomplish when you don’t care who gets the credit”, and this quote works beautifully when taken in context of the library.  Does the program you want have to be a ‘Library Program’ or can it be a ‘school initiative’?  When the TL communicates effectively, works to advance the school, includes other teachers or departments in the program they will in turn have a principal who supports their commitment, allows them the time to work with other teachers, and will enable the resources needed for their programs.

If on the other hand, there is little to no relationship, the teacher librarian could be isolated from resources, relegated to the sidelines of curriculum decisions and seen as obsolete.  Sometimes you need to find out what is important to the person holding the purse strings, and work towards that before you can add your own items to the agenda.