SLANSW | Inquiry Learning and the Teacher Librarian – the ideal and the reality

FOSIL Group member Lee FitzGerald will be presenting Inquiry Learning and the Teacher Librarian – the ideal and the reality on 25 May from 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm (UTC+10:00) as part of the School Library Association of New South Wales Professional Learning Programme.

FOSIL Group Member Darryl Toerien will be contributing Ten Provocations to Inquiry to Lee’s presentation.

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Lee FitzGerald believes that “getting real about inquiry learning” means sitting it alongside everything else that Teacher Librarians do as far as teaching and learning is concerned. TLs are responsible for so much, with their big focus on reading and literacy as well as programs like makerspaces and digital citizenship.  This makes it incredibly difficult to implement and sustain an inquiry learning program in their school.

In this online meetup, Lee will consider how TLs are dealing with this – is there a need to do less in our role; is there a need to prove that we have achieved learning outcomes through our efforts;  how do people prioritise the many aspects of the role, so that there is still scope for inquiry learning?  

And behind that, the question – why, if we are the essential beacons of literacy and information literacy, is the role continuously under threat?  Lee will be sharing some insights from Darryl Toerien, whose warning, “the hour for school libraries is late“, is a call to action for all of us.