Volume 37 Nº 3: November 2001

A sustainable future for teacher-librarians: inquiry learning, actions and evidence

Ross Todd

This paper is a revised and edited version of a keynote address given at the International Association of School Librarianship Conference in Auckland, New Zealand on 12 July 2001.

Preparing our students today for tomorrow's unknown world, being able to predict an uncertain future, and moving into it with confidence, takes courage and conviction. Indeed, the best way to predict the future is to work towards creating it, and creating it begins today, not tomorrow. This means that although we respect and are informed by our past, we also have the courage and determination to think and act divergently. (Todd, in Markuson, 1999:9).

The fusion of learning, libraries and literacies is creating dynamic, if not confronting challenges for teacher-librarians, teachers and administrators, particularly when set against the backdrop of learning and information environments that are complex and fluid, connective and interactive, and ones no longer constrained by time and space. It is both an opportunity to evaluate and chart impacts and achievements, as well as an invitation to examining new ways of looking and thinking, being and doing. In a time of intense educational change and profound growth in accessible information, both somewhat driven by networked information technology, the challenge for teacher-librarians to chart a preferred future for the information-knowledge environments of schools is both complex and potentially confronting. This paper argues that action and evidence-based, learning-centered practice focusing on a constructivist inquiry approach, rather than position and advocacy, are key mindsets for the profession if it is to achieve its preferred future, and to be acknowledged as contributing significantly to student learning outcomes...

Formerly of the University of Technology Sydney, Dr Ross Todd has been appointed Associate Professor in the School of Communication, Information and Library Studies at Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA from 2002.