Reply To: Using FOSIL outside a full inquiry

[Jenny Toerien Keymaster]

Hi Elizabeth and Ruth. Darryl has provided an excellent response on both a theoretical, developmental level and a broad ‘big picture’ view, which I don’t need to add to. I wanted to provide a social/emotional angle and a practical example. You have both been on this journey for a long time and are very good at what you do, so I am sure you already know much of what I am going to say below, so I am in part speaking to other readers who have less experience.

On this forum we all tend to share the very best of what we do. Our time is limited, so if we only have time for one post we tend to go for the whole inquiries that really move things forward in our schools. It is important to note that this isn’t all we do though – and even more important not to feel guilty about that or to feel that those times when we are invited in to deliver one isolated session, perhaps for students conducting a coursework inquiry, are somehow less important.

What differentiates a librarian with a concern for inquiry from one whose main focus is on the stuff that they do, whether that be information literacy, reading for pleasure, or any of our other very important functions in isolation, is stance. An inquiry librarian adopts, promotes and facilitates “a stance of wonder and puzzlement that gives rise to a dynamic process of coming to know and understand the world and ourselves in it as the basis of responsible participation in community” Stripling and Toerien (2021), enlarged from the GEN definition. This pervades all that we do – whether that is full inquiries, isolated ‘information literacy skills’ sessions, reading lessons, schemes and promotions, displays or lunchtime activities. Inquiry is not just something we do, it is fundamentally about who we are, how we view the world and what we regard our educational mission to be.

Having said all that, there are many reasons why we should be excited rather than disappointed by an invitation to deliver what we might previously have regarded as an information literacy session. The teacher has invited us into their inquiry, whether they recognise it as such or not, because they believe we have something important to offer the students. This is now an opportunity to:

• Locate this stage of what students are doing within the broader inquiry process (for students and teachers).
• Equip students with transferable skills that they will be able to bring to other inquiries (that we might or might not be involved with).
• Get a window onto what this particular inquiry involves so that we can offer support at other points (perhaps next year). I would always ask the teacher about the scheme of work/ exam syllabus and do my research into what is being asked of students, even if I am only asked to deliver a ‘traditional’ citing and referencing session. This is particularly important where there is external coursework involved. I always feel that my better grasp of the formal requirements of the coursework must be at least as good at the teacher’s, if I am in any way involved in the instruction.
• Build relationship with teacher and students. Let them know what we can offer and where else we might fit into the process.
• Gain insight into the inquiry skills that are necessary at this level and fit that into our big picture of what is being taught and practiced where. Would it help to be preparing students for this work lower down the school? Where could we do that? Are there opportunities in this subject, perhaps even with this teacher, to develop inquiries lower down the school that would feed into this one in a few years’ time? Can we let them know what is already being done so they can build on it?
• With that big picture in mind, demonstrate that our role as a vital co-ordinator and bridge between different school levels and different subject areas. ‘Do you remember when you did this in Year 9?’, ‘As some of you have seen in your EPQ course…’, ‘We did an overview of this during our Year 12 induction course, but now it is time to go deeper’. Students and staff need our experience to create a coherent and joined up educational journey – and to point out to SLT where the gaps in that journey are so we can work on filling them.