I’m exceptionally lucky to be a supportive HS that sees the value of the library and the teacher librarian. This being said, the opportunities for integrated information literacy instruction have been limited. In my time at the school (currently 2 terms), I’ve taught maybe 3-4 lessons on the research process. I’m typically given ONE lesson to cover everything, and sometimes not even this, as teachers want students to have the opportunity to immediately put their skills into practice. This is not the teacher’s fault though — the curriculum is already so packed, and while taking 1 lesson out to address information seeking and/or referencing is fine, taking 3 or four out is not.

It’s also not realistic for me to integrate myself into the instruction of multiple KLAs. Firstly, I do not have expert knowledge of every KLA and their curriculum. Secondly, I do not want to repeat similar or the same lessons to identical students multiple times. So instead, I’m going to start looking at how I can embed IL — and myself by extension — into the HSIE faculty. I’m History-trained, so this seems like an obvious choice. Additionally, IL skills and processes seem natural to the historical inquiry process, and overlap significantly with the ‘historical’ skills being taught in History classes, i.e. evaluating sources for bias etc.

At this point in time, I’m confused as to what integrated information literacy instruction would look like across all KLAs. I mean, as obvious as it is for me in History, it is not at all obvious for me in regards to Science, or English.

One way a TL might help the school move toward integrated information literacy instruction is to workshop it with staff at staff/faculty meetings. This has the added bonus of developing collegial and professional relationships with staff members, which obviously help to build teaching partnerships between the TL and teachers in the long-run. My current HT is actually the Instructional Leader, so maybe I should bring it up with them at an appropriate time?

There are obvious challenges to integrated information literacy instruction, beyond the unique challenges that my personal circumstances present. Namely, it’s very easy for ‘Information Literacy’ to be seen by teachers as a fad. Even though IL skills/processes have been around for decades and since its ‘birth’, a concern for Education systems around the world, it’s been growing in recognition and popularity in recent years. And like other fads, without being constantly pushed by staff, it may eventually die out. We only have to look at the General Capabilities. A few years ago, this was a big push by the Department to work skills and processes — LIKE INFORMATION LITERACY — into all curriculums. However, as a relatively recent Education graduate (2017), I sheepishly admit that I had never even really heard of the general capabilities. I certainly did not explicitly work them into programs or lessons I was teaching beyond anything that wasn’t tokenist.

Another challenge might be reflective of my own perceptions — how is IL relevant for ALL subject areas? It obviously is, and for some subjects more than others simply by the nature of the innate processes involved.

I think it’s important to note that Fitzgerald (2019) and Fitzgerald & Garrison (2017) acknowledge that the processes involved Guided Inquiry (an IL model) do eventually become transferable for students, but only with repetition. This means to be truly valuable, IL skills and processes must be constantly practiced and reinforced in teaching, particularly across KLAs and different teachers. To avoid dying out, a TL must be knowledgeable in at least one IL model and be working with teachers across the school to integrate the skills and processes involved into their teaching. But in saying this, I circle back to one of my first observations expressed in this post: the curriculum is already packed. And must I do this alone?

Bibliography

Fitzgerald, L. (2019). ETL401: Introduction to Teacher Librarianship – Module 5.1 – Information literacy models in practice [Course notes]. Retrieved from https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_42381_1&content_id=_2899468_1

Fitzgerald, L. & Garrison, K. (2017) ‘It Trains Your Brain’: Student Reflections on Using the Guided Inquiry Design Process. Synergy, 15(2).

I did my first assessment for ETL401 on Information Literacy, so this is kind of an area that I semi-understand — can anyone really ever know what ‘information literacy’ is when there are no agreed-upon definitions of it? The way I like to understand is that information literacy is and are the processes by which a learner finds, understands, evaluates, and applies information for specific purposes (Abilock, 2004).

I’ve definitely noted that in schools I’ve been at, ‘literacy’ is often just a term thrown around by people to refer to traditional literacy, that is, reading, writing, viewing, speaking, listening and understanding. As far as I’m aware, it’s very rarely used to refer to any other sort of literacy — whether that’s information literacy, literacy with ICT, etc. I fully believe, however, that for students to be considered ‘literate’ in the 21st Century, they must be able to do more than read and write, but also locate and critically evaluate information — from all sorts of texts — to gain their own understanding and meaning about a particular concept or piece of information. Assessing understanding, particularly in younger students, is quite difficult to do though.

I went out with some colleagues after work last night, and at one point, they began bemoaning the fact that in their assignments, they were encountering so many students who clearly do not know how to locate information, and when they do, reference it correctly. This is obviously something that I can attempt to address in (at this point in time) one-off lessons, but staff haven’t been reaching out despite my previous offerings. I am reluctant to force my services upon them. I’m also curious as to why they are seemingly not addressing these things in advance of handing out assignments. Surely when they go through an assignment with students, they include notes on how they want it presented, referenced etc.? Especially given that so many of our assignments at school seem to be independently-research focussed.

There’s more work to be done here, and as the current TL, I have to be — and will be — on the ground floor.

Reference List 

Abilock, D. (2004). Information Literacy: From Prehistory to K-20: A New Definition. Knowledge Quest, 32(4), 9-11

‘Guided-Inquiry’ has been this buzz-phrase that I’ve been hearing since I began my TL journey earlier this semester, and I’m really interested to explore it in more depth. I get the premise and ideas behind it — allowing curriculum and student interest to intersect, and allowing learning to be student-driven, etc. but I want to know more about how the teacher and TL can actively support and scaffold this. I’m particularly interested in how I might work towards implementing this in my current school, as I’m concerned about students’ being able to direct their own learning while being on-task.

I definitely think I’ll be looking at GID as part of Assessment 3, because I think GID is becoming the favoured model for student-driven learning in HS curriculum and schools. I’ve unwittingly been using the NSW IL model for information seeking and use, but I’m concerned about how much students take away from this model.