Climbing the mountain
My understanding of Information Literacy (IL), inquiry learning and the role of the teacher librarian (TL) has grown exponentially. Looking back to The Role of Teacher Librarians in schools, I began ETL401 with a limited view of the role of the TL. Interestingly, while my understanding wasn’t nuanced, I intuitively knew that collaboration was vital, which is an idea I visited later in Collaboration and Community.
My current, more-complex view of IL began with semantics. Module two was an epiphany as I had never considered the simple word ‘information’ to be so multifaceted, as explored in The future is now. The impetus for that blog post was the text “Looking for Information: A survey of research on information seeking, needs, and behaviour” (Case, 2007). This was transformational as I started to realise the depth of conceptual understanding necessary to be an IL leader. The mountain seemed impossibly high.
Previously, I didn’t know what an IL model was. On reflection, I was writing about the need for an IL model in 2.3: Information society, but I didn’t know it at the time. At that point, I still thought of IL as something stand alone to be taught in separate lessons, another example of my reductive view of this complex concept.
As I started to form a more complex understanding of IL, I found the article “Generation Y: Are they really digital natives or more like digital refugees?” (Coombes, 2009) to be a real eye-opener. I realised that my school was teeming with digital refugees! I remembered all the times I had set research tasks, only to have swathes of copy and paste returned to me. In that moment, it was clear that I needed to implement an authentic IL model at my school. My initial musings in Towards an expansive view of information literacy paved the way for my decision to use the Information Search Process (ISP) as a component of the Guided Inquiry Design Process (GIDP). In turn, I understood that IL models need to suit the educational context, and because the TL has a unique perspective within a school, I can work collaboratively to embed IL throughout the curriculum. For me, the ISP/GIDP has provided a metalanguage, structure and a series of possible scaffolds for learning. Here was a potential roadmap for my impossibly high mountain.
In 4.1b: Inquiry learning, I wrote about the vulnerability required of a teacher when implementing inquiry learning. I reflected on my decision to return to the role of a learner, and realised with my first assessment I had journeyed through the ISP/GIDP without being cognisant. I had even experienced the dip (FitzGerald, 2011, p. 27) and I cringe when remembering my Google searches of “What if I fail ETL401” typed through tears!
I asked myself, how can I embed an IL model within my school context? My answer was inquiry learning, advocacy, collaboration and leadership. As a TL, I realised I have agency as a curriculum leader. In Are school librarians an endangered species? I demonstrated a beginners understanding of the need to advocate and to carve out a professional niche. At this point, I knew that this would involve IL and inquiry learning, but I did not have the roadmap to actualise these ideas. I now realise that to embed authentic IL within the school, I need to be a strong advocate. I have already found I can create and add brilliant resources to my school’s website, but if there are few visitors to the website, my work is invisible and won’t lead to improved student outcomes. I believe that advocacy is intrinsically linked to community-building. A receptive community is a springboard for creating awareness of IL within the school and I am reminded again of Collaboration and Community. Through these connections, which lead to engagement in collaborative practice, inquiry units can be implemented.
It is probably too early to tell if I will see the top of this impossibly high mountain. I have noticed a growing confidence in my writings, as seen in 5.3a: Information literacy models, as I begin to find my leadership voice within this context. I know I will face challenges, as highlighted in 6.2: Management skills, but I can now visualise what I am working towards and see the breadth of my role as a TL. I am ready to start climbing.
Reference List
Case, D. O. (2007). Looking for information: A survey of research on information seeking, needs, and behaviour, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Coombes, B. (2009). Generation Y: Are they really digital natives or more like digital refugees? Synergy, 7(1), 31-40.
FitzGerald, L. (2011). The twin purposes of guided inquiry: Guiding student inquiry and evidence based practice. Scan, 30(1), 26-41.