Co-existing or Co-operating? – Module 4.2

Schools are generally thought to be institutions of learning. From the days of Aristotle, young people were sent to learn about the mysteries of life from their revered elders. Today’s schools are very different from their ancient counterparts but the essential core is the same. Schools are learning organisations with their primary purpose to educate the new generations and prepare them for their future. Kools & Stoll (2016) identify seven dimensions that characterise a school as an organisation of learning. These include; a shared vision; staff learning opportunities; promotion of collaboration among staff; establishing a culture of inquiry and innovation; information collection and knowledge exchange; partnerships with community and modelling positive leadership (Kools & Stoll, 2016, p11). All these dimensions serve to build a positive teaching and learning environment for both students and staff.

Humans are social in nature and learning is a social construct. When individuals learn in a social context, the knowledge is constructed as a group has more significant learning outcomes than when knowledge is constructed individually. Most educators agree that the efficacy of learning is improved in collaborative groups, but they rarely extend that principle to themselves collaborating with their peers. Kools & Stoll (2016) even go as far as to argue that the practice of teaching is larger than an isolated teacher in their classroom. They surmise that collaborative practice encourages a professional growth experience in which teachers learn and teach simultaneously with each other. It is in the sharing of expertise and knowledge that has the greatest potential.

Unfortunately true collaboration is often missing in a school dynamic. Team activity is commonly confused as collaboration (Kools & Stoll, 2016, p40). Ezard (2019) points out that co-existence and coordination are often mistaken for collaboration as well. Rather, it is in the co-creation and collective capacity that is the basis of true collaborative practice. For a partnership to be symbiotic, there must be a willingness to think and act together. Ezard (2019) highlights three main requirements of a collaborative relationship including, a growth mindset, a compelling environment and authentic dialogue. Lack o these will only inhibit teaching and learning practices.

The reality is that many classroom teachers are reluctant to work in partnership with their teacher librarians and or any other staff members outside their department for a variety of reasons. One reason is that teachers are often pigeon holed into subject silos or year level cohorts. Their level of expertise is viewed at only applicable to that year level and subject. The other major reason is fear. Fear of failing, fear of judgement and shame. Many teachers reject a culture of observation as they fear they will be deemed as falling short of an ideal practitioner. This is especially true in a world where many teachers are on contracts and wish to still have employment in the next teaching cycle. There is a true sense of fear that any mistakes or miss-steps could result in unemployment. So these teachers often hide themselves away in their isolated silos and inadvertently distance themselves away from collegian relationships as a protective mechanism. This distance, and lack of connection further exacerbates the inability to collaborate. After all, collaboration without connection is just compliance (Ezard, 2019).

Time is another most common reason why staff do not collaborate. It seems futile to ask staff to work together constructively but not actually give them release time to do so. This is especially true for primary schools where teachers rarely get any time off during the day to co-create units of work. Another aspect that executive can assist with collaborative practice is to create a safety net for staff thus allowing them to try new pedagogical practices. Teachers who have job security are more likely to be willing to take risks and try new teaching and learning programs as they do not fear unemployment. Heads of department and senior teachers can encourage the try a variety of teaching styles and thus enable, enourage and motivate them into trying new ventures. Staff that know that they will have a safety net if they fail are more likely to attempt big and wonderful things.

Teacher librarians can affect a collaborative change in other ways. Firstly they can use their position in the centre of the school and as a curriculum leader to create multidisciplinary units of with in collusion with their peers. Due to their access and knowledge of resourcing, TL are able to obtain resources that require teachers to co-create their units of work. TL are also able to create productive learning environments, by promoting learning in an environment that embraces opportunities. They can also be curious rather than defensive when assumptions are challenged. TL can co create a vision that appeals the the whole school, by modelling best practice. Due to the nature of the position, TL can set an example of classroom observation and encourage staff to face their fears of judgement and shame. Ezrard (2019) suggests changing the dynamics of shame and failing to compassion and learning. Afterall, it has been proven that regular classroom observation only seeks to improve the increased professional learning of the teacher.

Whilst teacher librarians can affect some level of change, the biggest influence of collaborative practice within schools is in leadership. Executive teachers can influence teaching and learning practices a great deal as they are the ones that control a great deal of the factors that affect staff, for example, collaboration time for teachers. Teachers get to meet each other and have a dynamic productive relationship.

Ezard, T., (2019) Leading the Buzz in your school. ASLA 50th Conference. Canberra

Kools, M. and Stoll L. (2016), “What Makes a School a Learning Organisation?”, OECD Education Working Papers. No. 137, OECD Publishing, Paris. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/5jlwm62b3bvh-en

What hat to wear today? – Module 3.2

JCamargo / Pixabay

The teacher librarian wears many hats in their position in a school library. Each hat offers a different set of priorities and task that fall under the umbrella of jobs. Whilst established TL instinctively know how to effortlessly wear the correct hat for the occasion, new and floundering TL often struggle to decide which role is most important. This struggle can often lead to feeling overloaded and beset with inadequacy. Teacher burnout is real, with almost 50% of new graduates not making it past five years in the classroom, it is a worry of mine. I am 3 years into this gig and quite frankly I am tired. Not just the tired that comes with being a parent with young children, or the tired that comes from a big week at work. I am talking about the immense emotional and mental load that sucks the joy right out of you. Right now, being a bus driver is looking like a great career.

Herring (2007) defined eleven facets in the role of a teacher librarian, Purcell (2010) indicates that there are five major components and Lamb (2011) has seven listed. Each of these facets comprises of a different task that a TL is responsible for. But it would be physically exhausting to even attempt to do all these roles at the same time, and if TL did try to, they would burn out very quickly. Both Lamb (2011) and Herring (2007) prioritise the needs of the clientele. This is consistent with ASLA/ALIA (2016) mandate that a school library should have teaching and learning as the main focus of their collection. Summarising ASLA (2003), Herring summarises that there are three roles out of that original eleven that need particular focus. These roles are curriculum leader, information specialist and information manager. The three roles manage different aspects of the TL role.

Lamb (2011) agrees that a TL has multiple roles with many of them evolving rapidly in the recent past. The budgetary squeeze has added pressure onto TL to adapt their roles to ensure their viability in the school context. This adaptation has redefined the role of the TL from a archivist and curator of knowledge into facilitator of knowledge in both the physical and digital worlds. This facilitation ranges from the acquisition of materials that build a school collection, text and digital, and the implicit and explicit teaching of life long skills

The importance of connections with people is highlighted in (Lamb, 2011, p.4). Whilst these connections can be both F-T-F, there is far more importance placed on electronic communication. A TL must be able to connect to the school audience, which includes its students, teachers, parents, board members and community. In doing so, the TL firmly installs the library, and its programs as a cornerstone of the school. These connections, also known as clever marketing, will promote the value of the library to its patrons and its financiers. Whereas Purcell ( 2010) defines a TL as a leader, in that they are tasked with being involved with the school hierarchy and extended community. They can see the big picture of the school community and identify what trends are occurring within the school.

Gellinger / Pixabay

Herring (2007) argues that for a TL to prove their worth to a school context, prioritising the inclusion of instructional partner is essential. In this role, TL collaborate with their colleagues to implement the pedagogical practices that benefit the student cohort (Purcell, 2010). This is because there are a multitude of studies to highlight increased educational outcomes when TL plan teaching, learning and assessment with their colleagues. This increase in outcomes is often measurable and can be used to highlight the efficacy of the library programs amidst budget cuts and cranky principals. The dynamics of a TL allows them to engage in curriculum design and create assessments that promote higher order thinking. Due to their experience and knowledge, a TL is able to create learning opportunities that are often beyond the scope of a classroom teacher.

It was odd that Purcell (2010) classified teacher as the last and theoretically least important, the role of a TL. This correlates with the view that many principals and teachers do not believe that teacher librarians are in fact teachers simply because many do not have face to face time. The modern TL is challenged to do so much more. TL need to model correct information seeking behaviour in the digital world. They also need to teach it. TL need to teach literacy skills, critical thinking skills and and at the same time model best practice to their fellow colleagues. Teaching teachers is essential to a TL as it is impossible for a librarian to closely monitor and instruct all the kids in their learning. But if the classroom teachers know the skills, then they can re-iterate the teaching and learning to their students (Purcell, 2010, p.33). TL are the model of 21st information seeking behaviour. As the information specialist, a TL is able to seek, find, use and create information with ease.

The irony is that Purcell (2010) places the role of information specialist above teaching. But libraries have evolved significantly in the past fifty years from print, microfilm, newspapers, to print, ebooks, databases and websites. The internet revolution has permanently changed how adults and children seek information. The advent of technology has speed up the rate in which this information seeking behaviour has changed. This facet of being a TL means that they have to assist students in the seeking of information across multiple modalities as well as ensure that resources within the library support the curriculum.

I honestly do not know how to prioritise the roles and which aspects of my job I should let slide. There are some days when I do not get time to even have a bite to eat as I am flat chat run off my feet, let alone plan for what aspect is more important than another. Yesterday was one of those days. Between prepping book boxes for classes; explicitly teaching information literacy and supervision during recess/lunch, I sat down for the first time at our staff meeting at 4pm. Book boxes for classes we cannot fit into the library, as we are currently fully booked out, so now we prepare resources for classes that cannot get a booking and run the lesson in their room. Most classes have a range of abilities so I had to hunt for some hi-lo texts as well as find some interactive websites and digital resources for the classroom teacher. We do make an extra effort for graduate teachers to ease them into teaching. What we don’t want is them leaving the profession. So we do try to make their lives a bit easier.

So the only thing I gave up this week was lunch. Unfortunately, that is not translating to a svelte figure but rather the scoffing of snacks between classes and the 3.45pm biscuit binge.

ALIA and ASLA (2016) Statement on Teacher Librarians in Australia. Retrieved from https://asla.org.au/resources/Documents/Website%20Documents/Policies/policy_tls_in_australia.pdf

Herring, J., (2007) Chapter 2 – Teacher librarians and the school library. LIbraries in the 21st Century, Charting Directions in Information Services. Topics in Australasian Library and Information Studies. Pp. 27-42. DOI: 10.1016/B978-1-876938-43-7.50002-8

Lamb, A. (2011). Bursting with potential: Mixing a media specialist’s palette. Techtrends : Linking Research & Practice To Improve Learning, 55(4), 27-36

Purcell M. All Librarians Do Is Check out Books, Right? A Look at the Roles of a School Library Media Specialist. Library Media Connection. 2010;29(3):30-33

Kachel, D. (2017). The principal and the librarian: Positioning the school library program. Teacher Librarian, 45(1), 50-52.

Benign or Malignant? How do you diagnose? – Module 2

Scientist diagnose cancerous cells using a set of predetermined criteria. As a practicing cytologist for over a decade, I used certain characteristics to determine if a cell was benign or malignant.

Parameters such as presence of a nucleolus and or mitotic figures, nucleus to cell ratio, cytoplasm pigmentation and or irregular arrangement were the most common identifying characteristics of a tumour cell. If these markers were detected within a cell or among similar cells in a sample, then a report written up and a diagnosis made.

Now as a teacher librarian, I use predetermined criteria to determine which resources to add to the collection. These predetermined criteria are listed in the collection development policy so I do not have to come up with them, but rather I have to apply them to the books, magazines, ebooks and multimedia that flow into our information centre.

Selection in the school, are professional concepts that guide T/Ls to what resources are appropriate to the school collection that meet the teaching and learning needs of the school community. Unlike public libraries, school libraries have to also meet curriculum demands. To put it bluntly, in a school context, the needs and requirements of a school community are the driving force for resource selection.

So whilst I was contemplating this fact, I then thought about what selection criteria I would create. Whilst I agree with Hughes-Hassell & Mancall (2005) with the criteria present in their diagram, I disagree with the idea of a flow chart, as not every resource will follow all steps and thus even great resources could be excluded. This is especially true for high school libraries where often specialist information may be required for niche teaching and learning contexts.

The criteria I came upon was loosely based to the criteria in Hughes-Hassell & Mancall (2005) flow chart but I had four general categories with sub sections. Resources do not have to match all the specific criteria, but must fulfill the major ones of teaching and learning needs; curriculum needs; school requirements and school ethos. This system will give more flexibility to the TL in creating a school collection that is balanced yet addressing the needs of the community.

Cassia Beck – Used with permission from Flickr

Selection Criteria – My way.

Teaching and learning needs
1. Resources are of high quality and appropriate. Have authority, accuracy, validity and currency.
2. Meets scope of learning needs and styles – including recreational reading
3. Integrates digital technologies ie multimodal resources in print, media, audio and ebooks that enrich T&L
Curriculum needs
1. Provides information about curriculum content
2. Addresses other curriculum requirements ie cross curricular priorities, capabilities and learning outcomes.
3. Challenges thinking about past, current and future global issues.
School needs
1. Supported by current IT network and library management system
2. Cost efficient
Consistent with the values of the school
1. Consistent with the values of love, compassion and respect.
2. Acknowledge diversity of religion, ethnicity and languages.

I included a subsection on challenging thinking on past, present and future global issues’, because of the framework decided by the MCEETYA (2008) . The policy desires that “All young Australians (are to) become successful learners, confident and creative individuals (and) active and informed citizens”. It is a personal belief, but in order for students to become the active and informed citizens that our society needs, they need to be able to critically analyse and evaluate the maelstrom of information that besiege them constantly. They need to be able to seek and use information critically and ethically.

Maybe we should be structuring our selection criteria based on what we want our learners to be. Active, engaged citizens who are able to seek and use information as well as think critically and logically, and who are able to make informed opinions. I wonder how that selection criteria will look

Hughes-Hassell, S., & Mancall, J. C. (2005). Collection management for youth : Responding to the needs of learners. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

MCEETYA (2008) Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians. Curriculum Corporation. Australia. Retrieved from http://www.curriculum.edu.au/verve/_resources/national_declaration_on_the_educational_goals_for_young_australians.pdf

Information Society – The Second Industrial Revolution – Module 2.3 & 2.5

Society is full of catch words or phrases that attempt to manage or label an era of great advancement or stagnation.

Prehistoric generations were characterised by ‘stone age’ or ‘bronze age’ because they were defined by their advancement of particular tools.

Other times of great advancement in thinking in the history of Homo sapiens sapiens were achieved during the Renaissance and Industrial revolution. These latter two movements dramatically changed the social, cultural, political and economical landscapes of their societies. The Renaissance was dominant in metamorphing the arts, science and medical fields due to the promotion of new thinking and creativity. Erasmus’s Utopia, Gutenberg’s printing press and Protestantism were products of this time, where current thinking was challenged by new ideas. The industrial revolution sought to improve efficiency and productivity so as to theoretically improve quality of life. Unfortunately, this improvement in quality of life was divided sharply by those that could afford it or those that could not. The adage “have and the have-nots” was apt then and now as many of us would recall that sweatshops and horrible working conditions still exist in parts of the world today.

Our society is currently undergoing a digital transformation, which will be known in the generations to come as ‘the digital age’ or ‘information society’. Information society as (Rouse, 2005) details is “a society in which the creation, distribution, and manipulation of information has become the most significant economic and cultural activity… (where) the tools of the information society are computers and telecommunications rather than lathes and ploughs”. To put it in plain language, it means that the majority of society currently uses various forms of technology across all aspects of employment, social interactions and recreation. Unfortunately, like the Industrial revolution where the divide lead to great inequality of income, health and educational outcomes, the digital divide is also causing a schism within society.

Citizens of the ‘information society’ are defined by their ability to participate everyday with information intensity through workplace and organizations; possession and ability to use technology to access business, social and learning outcomes and thirdly, the ability to communicate using digital technology. Non-citizens of the information society, are elucidated most commonly by their inability to participate with the digital economy due to lack of access to hardware such as devices and or insufficient access to resources such as NBN or wifi and or their ability to communicate using the technology. The ADDII (2016) surmised that “there is a divide between people on lower incomes, compared to those on higher incomes” with sub groups of society such as the disabled, the elderly and persons of Aboriginal and Torres strait the most likely to be excluded from the digital age. This divide leads to poorer overall outcomes, especially in health and education, as the the ability to share knowledge and ideas as well as give and receive information in its various formats as an important aspect of overall well being (ABS 2012).

The role of libraries and teacher librarians is pivotal in closing this divide. In Australia there is no constitutional right to information. But, as a nation, the right to access information is implied by the endorsement of UN Human rights charter. Article 19 of the charter is defined by “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers” (UN, 1948). This means that everyone has the right to access information irrespective of their geography, finances and literacy levels.

The presence of libraries and public libraries is an attempt by various government and legislative bodies to ensure all members of society are able to participate in this digital age, and they are able to send and receive information through all forms of media (Graham 2012). The role of a teacher librarian is two-fold. The first aspect, as the information specialist within a school, the TL is required to provide opportunities for the entire school cohort access to information in all formats across various platforms. The second role of the TL, in conjunction with other educators is to ensure digital literacy programs are embedded within the curriculum. The importance of digital literacy cannot be more emphasized than this. It is absolutely irrelevant if a person has a device and access to the internet but they cannot communicate successfully using the the technology available to them. Digital literacy is becoming more and more relevant as the technology is constantly evolving and the user must be literate in order to use it effectively. Our role as emerging TLs is to understand the landscape of the world we live in and guide our students in providing access and appropriate teaching strategies to equip them for their future.

References

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). (2015). Information and communication technology (ICT). Retrieved Nov. 2016

Graham, I. (2012). The State of Censorship – Australia. Libertus. Retrieved Nov. 2016.

Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (DBCDE). (2009). Australia’s digital economy: Future directions. Retrieved Nov. 2016. Early report.

Department of Industry, Innovation and Science. (DIIS). (2016). Australia’s digital economy update. Retrieved Nov. 2016.

Parliament of Australia Joint Standing Committee First Report( 2017) The rollout of the National Broadband Network. retrieved 13/3/2019

Rouse, M. (2005). What is Information Society? Whatis. Retrieved Nov. 2016.

United Nations (1948) Human Rights Charter. Retrieved from http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/ 13/3/19

Web Finance Inc. (2016). Information Society. Retrieved Nov. 2016.

Webster, F. (2014). Theories of the information society. 4th ed. London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

Reluctant Readers – Would facts be better than fiction?

Reluctant readers. I didnt even realise this was a phrase. As an avid reader myself, and from a family of bibliophiles, the concept of people who choose not to read was astounding. Teaching and the education profession is my second career. I spent many years as a practicing scientist and reading both professionally and for recreation was common. We had many water cooler conversations about recent academic publications along with Oprah’s uncanny knack of turning an average book into a best seller. So my foray into the world of reluctant readers has been recent and startling.

Reluctant readers as people that “may struggle with reading, not show any interest in reading or simply refuse to read independently” (learningpotential.gov.au). These students in a classroom tasked with silent reading either pretend to read to avoid censure, get easily distracted or flat out refuse to read citing boredom, disinterest or illiteracy (www.k12reader.com). Some children and young teens chose negative behaviour even if it leads to disciplinary actions just to avoid reading a book. Such machinations are just a student’s way to avoid doing something they don’t like. When questioned, most of these readers describe reading as a chore and that there is nothing that interests them.

My school has just implemented a silent reading program for the year 7 and 8 students to improve literacy levels and promote reading for recreational purposes. The program is still in its infancy and we have noticed that out of the 470 students within these two year levels the majority of the students are complying. We do however, have about 50 students who have on multiple occasions been noted for failing to bring a book to class as well as others being identified as ‘fake reading’. Fake reading, as I have casually defined it, is pretending to read to avoid censure by having a book in front of them but not actually looking at it. Stereotypically, a vast majority of our reluctant readers are boy as many of them are disinterested in books as they view them as ‘unrealistic’ and ‘unnecessary’ as well as ‘unconnected’ to the real world (www.k12reader.com).

To combat this trend of disinterest, my fellow TLs and I have been searching our collection for various resources to help them find that connection to a book. The strategies we have implemented to combat the various hurdles are the following:

Short attention span: these kids are not likely to wish to read big compendiums so we have sourced shorter books that are usually completed in 10-15minutes. This means that students are more likely to read another book as they feel they have accomplished something in a short amount of time. The Libraries of Doom series have been excellent for this.

Low literacy: our school is an inclusive school and we have a wide range of literacy levels. Many of our reluctant readers have low literacy and are unable to read the plethora of young adult fiction we have. But they are also loathe to read the simpler books as they feel they are ‘not cool’ enough and self esteem is important during those teenage years. Hi-lo books have been useful in this setting. These books purchased jointly with our Inclusive education team have helped with implementation of our reading program. Hi-Lo books are intriguing to the students because their topics resonate with our students but the language used is at an appropriate level. They have been particularly popular with our male cohort of reluctant readers. We also have subscribed to Wheelers elibrary for those that have vision disabilities. These students can elect books with larger print and or use the audiobook function to participate with the reading program. In most circumstances we can also provide the print copy to help them follow the words.

Disinterested readers: these are are most challenging students. They usually rank highly on their literacy results for NAPLAN but show complete disinterest in reading recreationally as they do not find a purpose for it. Fiction books just hold no interest to them. Harper (2016) very truthfully points out “that fiction isn’t for everyone. Some readers just don’t connect with made up characters and imagined scenarios”. It was surprising though the unwillingness of the English department to support the reading of non fiction texts in the silent reading program. Granted that non fiction is not literature and will not placate the soul, but non fiction texts do lead to life long passions and career choices (National library of NZ 2014).

The addition of non fiction texts and audiobooks have assisted with most of our disinterested reluctant readers. Whilst their enthusiasm to read is still low, they are slowly coming around to the idea. The recent purchases of print texts on Formula 1 racing and sporting biographies have helped engage some of them. Others are still fighting the concept but perseverance from my fellow colleagues is making headway. We discovered with a small cohort of year 8 boys that non fiction was just not ‘cutting it’ and a suggestion from their technology teacher about sourcing dirt bike magazines has been a boon. These magazines with their glossy pictures and simple language style have had some appeal. Whilst we are unable to currently procure an online subscription to this series, we have a print copy on order. These six young men come to the library each time for silent reading and get a current or back issue and read on the very comfy beanbags in our reading area. It seems obvious that choice matters for recreational reading. Its only been a week and there have been hiccups but the future is suddenly full of hope

References

Australian Government – DET (2018) Reluctant readers, how to help. Learning Potential. Retrieved from https://www.learningpotential.gov.au/reluctant-readers-how-to-help

Harper, H. (2016) Books for reluctant readers. [Blog post] Readings. Retrieved from https://www.readings.com.au/news/books-for-reluctant-readers

K12 reader(2018) Strategies to help engage reluctant readers in reading. Retrieved from https://www.k12reader.com/strategies-to-help-engage-reluctant-readers-in-reading/

National Library of NZ. (2014). Non-fiction. National Library of New Zealand Services to Schools. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20160729150727/http://schools.natlib.govt.nz/creating-readers/genres-and-read-alouds/non-fiction

Mosle, S. (2012, November 22). What should children read? [Blog post]. Opinionator: The New York Times. Retrieved from https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/22/what-should-children-read/?_r=0

Sharrock, J (2009) Interview with Dave Eggers. Mother Jones Magazine. Retrieved from https://www.motherjones.com/media/2009/03/mojo-interview-dave-eggers/