Appearance blinds, whereas words reveal.
—Oscar Wilde
One learns from one’s mistakes, and I have learned more than my share in the embedded classroom. Early on, I thought it sufficient and if I am telling the truth, quite advantageous for the students that I, as an embedded librarian, was present in the classroom. I felt rather empowered by my role as purveyor of information literacy strategies and had rather grandiose ideas about the “bridge” I imagined I would build between the students and the professor in the class. In essence, I saw my role as the “missing piece,” the one that would help to pull it all together in the classroom. After all, how could having a librarian in the class not favorably amplify a student’s experience of learning and his or her attitude toward what a librarian has to offer? I left out a crucial step. In fact, the first time that I was fully embedded in a classroom, I just showed up.
I took my seat at the long conference table and saw fifteen senior English majors. I looked around and smiled at everyone. The students smiled back. Some smiles were wider than others. Then eyes began to shift back and forth. I saw an amused shrug that one student directed to another. The professor came into the room and launched into an overview of the syllabus. Unbelievably, during that first class, neither of us had explained why I was there. The students knew who I was, and I knew them. In fact, because I am the English liaison librarian, I had encountered each of these students before in other classes, in one-on-one appointments, and over the reference desk. So why did it all feel so uncomfortable? For the simple reason that my role on that first day of class was never clarified. The students, quite frankly, simply had no idea what I was doing in the classroom. They could not see how my presence in an actual class would help them—if indeed they even thought that far. They were simply mystified.
The old adage sagely offering the fact that we teach other people how to treat us is quite apt here. Clarify your role in the embedded classroom early and often. Since such careful preparation with the professor in the class takes place long before you actually set foot in the classroom, most aspects of your collaboration including instructional design, special assignments, computer lab time, and so on, will be sorted out, and should be communicated to the students both on the syllabus and with a formal introduction. This is the best way to contextualize the librarian’s role so that students know what to expect. The librarian is a co-collaborator, but not necessarily the co-teacher—a fact that if not stated will conflate the roles, leading to miscommunications all around. For instance, because of my and the professor’s lack of clarification, I had more than a few students come to me to discuss the professor’s comments on their drafts; they wanted explanations, verifications, and validations that I could not give—I did not grade the papers! While referring students back to their professor, I caused a lot of frustration among students who felt that I was in the position to help, but for whatever reason, didn’t. Not a good way to begin. And what is not established early on is difficult or nearly impossible to establish later on. Clarifying your role, in large part, will affect the overall environment of the classroom. Ivey1 has identified four behaviors that lead to successful collaboration in the classroom: a shared and understood goal; mutual respect, tolerance, and trust; competence at hand by each of the partners; and last but not least, ongoing communication. This collaboration is at the same time a clarification of your role.
Clarifying your involvement in the class (students will be frankly baffled by the term embedded) will help you to manage your role in relationship to the student support you will be delivering. McLeod, Fisher, and Hoover identify important key elements of classroom management that include the use of time and space, instructional strategies, and the importance of building effective relationships with students.2 All of these factors influence the librarian’s impact on student learning.
• Your name, title, office hours, office phone, and e-mail address should be placed on the syllabus.
• Both a written and verbal introduction on your role in class should be given.
• Expectations of what students can reasonably expect from your presence in class should be clearly stated.
• The limitations of your role should also be stated. If you will not be grading papers, for instance, it would be fair for students to know that ahead of time in order to avoid the scenario described above.
• Reinforce the collaborative nature of your role in class, while maintaining the uniqueness of your position and your added value to the students’ experience.
The educational reformer John Dewey recognized the importance of the environment in the classroom (and to a great extent we influence that environment) by stating, “We never educate directly, but indirectly by means of environment.”3 When students know exactly why the librarian is in the classroom and what role, exactly, she or he will play, we create a climate that is conducive to learning, with no surprises and no hidden agendas.
NOTES
1. Ruth Ivey, “Information Literacy: How Do Librarians and Academics Work in Partnership to Deliver Effective Learning Programs?” Australian Academic and Research Libraries 34, no. 2 (2003).
2. Joyce McLeod, Jan Fisher, and Ginny Hoover, The Key Elements of Classroom Management: Managing Time and Space, Student Behavior, and Instructional Strategies (Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2003).
3. John Dewey, “The Project Gutenberg Ebook of Democracy and Education” (2008), retrieved from www.gutenberg.org/files/852/852-h/852-h.htm.
RESOURCES
Julien, Heidi, and Jen L. Pecoskie. “Librarians’ Experiences of the Teaching Role: Grounded in Campus Relationships.” Library & Information Science Research 31, no. 3 (2009): 149−54.
Manuel, Kate, Susan Beck, and Molly Molloy. “An Ethnographic Study of Attitudes Influencing Collaboration in Library Instruction.” The Reference Librarian 43, nos. 89−90 (2005): 139−61.
Nalani Meulemans, Yvonne, and Allison Carr. “Not at Your Service: Building Genuine Faculty-Librarian Partnerships.” Reference Services Review 41, no. 1 (2013): 80−90.
Stanger, Keith “Implementing Information Literacy in Higher Education: A Perspective on the Roles of Librarians and Disciplinary Faculty.” LIBRES: Library and Information Science Research Journal 19, no. 1 (2009): 1−6.
Zmuda, Allison, Violet H. Harada, and Grant P. Wiggins. Librarians as Learning Specialists: Meeting the Learning Imperative for the 21st Century. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2008.