A number of important points to pick up on.
For interest, CWICER, if it is not obvious, stands for Connect, Wonder, Investigate, Construct, Express, Reflect, and is the same model of the inquiry process by a different name. Elizabeth was the earliest adapter of FOSIL and we have been collaborating since 2013. For more on the origin and evolution of FOSIL, see E&L Memo 0 | Developing inquiring minds: a journey from information through knowledge to understanding.
While Chris is correct that, up to a point, “FOSIL provides a framework that allows teachers and librarians to collaborate together in their support of pupil inquiry without a shared technical vocabulary,” and both of you are correct to warn against unnecessarily complicating matters through language, the absence of at least a basic shared technical vocabulary will hamper effective collaboration going forward. The question, then, is what words belong in this vocabulary? Clearly we need ‘inquiry’ and ‘information literacy’, and I would be prepared to make a case for ‘acquiry’, even if we don’t ultimately accept it. To facilitate discussion of this emerging vocabulary we have created a Glossary.
The distinction between ‘graduate/executive technician’ and ‘professional’ is interesting and highlights a pressing issue facing school librarians, which Elizabeth touches on, which is that there is not a body of professional knowledge underpinning school librarianship in this country. This means that even though we may be professionally qualified, we are not able to put into effect shared rules for school library practice, because they do not exist, let alone consult the theory that generated the rules in the first place. Inquiry complicates this further, because I’m guessing that inquiry does not form part of the professional knowledge of teachers in this country?
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