After many searches this inquiry learning subject has me thinking with a different view – how am I going to be part of the inquiry process with the students as the teacher-librarian, rather than the literacy support or classroom teacher? Initially, I did not think of this dilemma, but as I created my first questions and began to search, I needed to be more specific about who the children were, and the role of the teacher, i.e. classroom teacher, support person or teacher-librarian.

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My initial inquiry questions did not yield many useful results, so I had to broaden my search range to include the many teacher-librarian titles, ways to identify the primary school children and questions. This led me on a path to understand how I will collaborate with the teachers at my school in the future, as my role in the library (hopefully) continues to expand over the coming years. After reading Kuhlthau, (2010), in relation to ISP, the role of the teacher-librarian is complex when it comes to inquiry. “Flexible teams of teachers and librarians with varied expertise are formed and adapted according to curriculum requirements and students’ needs” (Kuhlthau, 2010 p. 6). My inquiry search process did follow some of those described by Kuhlthau: task initiation, selection, exploration, focus formulation, collection and presentation. At one stage I did refocus to hone in on teacher-librarians and inquiry, as discussed below.

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Thinking about the goals of the Melbourne Declaration and 21st century skills and learning, and the Montiel-Overall (2010) collaborative learning paper has my mind buzzing about the potential and importance of the teacher-librarian role. After a lot of researching and re-searching, it has really moulded my thinking towards the importance of the teacher-librarian in collaborating with teachers within the inquiry model. Isn’t everything we do as teachers based on inquiry and discovery? This assignment has made me delve into the importance of the teacher-librarian in schools, and as I embark on becoming a teacher-librarian more than just one day a week in my school, possibly two next year, three the next and so on as the current teacher-librarian transitions to retirement. How will I position myself different to them in being very much a part of all the learning activities that occur across the school? This is an exciting though sometimes daunting idea to ponder, though after researching and re-searching the benefits of inquiry learning, it has definitely encouraged me to pursue inquiry learning models more efficiently in my role and into the future.  

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I need to promote myself as an inquiry partner for the students and teachers as well as the importance and role of the librarian and the “teacher librarian,” not just myself.