A New Role for Museum Educators shows how learning happens in communities, how volunteers and professionals approach their work, the underlying principles and philosophies that guide the work of museum education, and how these practices are always evolving to remain relevant.
Museum education in its most expansive definition is about communicating messages, creating learning experiences, and, at its most aspirational, promoting human development for people of all backgrounds, abilities, and circumstances. This edited volume revisits the legacy of museum education practices, reflecting on the changing context of community and the role of cultural institutions, and provides insights into new directions that museums can take with a visitor-centered mindset. It provides foundational concepts around educational philosophies that guide practice, applied methods and approaches for implementation, and the ethos of an educational institution intended to support community learning and engagement that are essential to provide for the wide-ranging needs of all audiences. International perspectives from a variety of museums are considered, including art museums, children’s museums, history museums and historic sites, science museums, botanical gardens, zoos, and aquariums. Chapters include thought-provoking reflections on contemporary practices, concrete examples from across the globe, and useful tools for anyone working with public audiences.
Grounded in practice and informed by research, this volume will be a go-to resource for arts and cultural organization practitioners, particularly those working in Museum Education. It will also be essential reading for students of Museum Studies, Education, and related fields
Introduction; Part One: Museum Educators and Education and their Purpose Past, Present, and Future – 2. Relevance, Inclusion, and Interaction in Museums from Peale’s Perspective: Not Yet Enough; 3. Education and Discipline: Deviant Objects and Dissenting Bodies at the Horniman Museum; 4. Tilden, Now and Then; 5. Why Not a Temple AND a Forum? 6. Teaching in the Art Museum: A Classic Reframed; 7. Learningscapes and the Visitor Experience; 8. Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy in Museum Education; Part Two: Essential Methods and Approaches – 9. Designing Experiences for Audience Diversity: A guide for audience-centered program design; 10. Meeting the Needs of All Museum Visitors through Family-Friendly Design; 11. Tools for Interactive Inspiration: Beyond Buttons and Flip Labels; 12. Experiencing Objects in the Museum; 13. Selecting, Implementing, and Adapting Educational Methodologies to Support Interpretation; 14. Scaling the Ivory Tower—Creating and Managing Collaboration with the University; 15. Museum Educators as Curricular Innovators: Women & the American Story, a Case Study; 16. Amateur, Audience, Agent: Participatory Culture and Docent Roles; 17. At the Crossroads of Tradition and Transformation: Docents in the Art Museum; Part Three: The Museum Educator Mindset in the Community and in the Field – 18. Art on the Mind: Creative Aging at the Frye Art Museum; 19. Museums as Sites for Culturally Responsive and Sustaining Teacher Preparation; 20. How do we want to live? Collaborative curation of a special exhibition on sustainable futures at the Senckenberg Natural History Museum Frankfurt; 21. Claiming Space, Cultivating Community: Latinx and Asian American Ethnically Specific Museums in a Global City; 22. Finding One’s Way as a Novice Art Museum Educator; 23. Reclaiming our Peace: Preparing for a Career as BIPOC Museum Educators; 24. Learning Frameworks and the Museum Educator’s Role: Strategies for Long-term Relevance; 25. Gathering Together with Purpose: A New Framework for Museum Education.
Elizabeth Wood, editor, is the Nadine and Robert A. Skotheim Director of Education and Public Programs at The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California. Wood’s expertise focuses on object-based learning and connecting museum visitors to museum collections.
