Research Informing the Practice of Museum Educators : Diverse Audiences, Challenging Topics, and Reflective Praxis

Museums are institutions of both education and learning in service of society, that is, they are sites where educational experiences are designed and facilitated, and also places where visitors learn in broad and diverse ways. As such, the role of public education in museums today is highly important, if not at the centre of museum activity. As museums contemplate the growing significance of their educational roles and mandate within a changing society, so too they are increasingly in need of information about the audiences they serve and their own professional practice as they strive to achieve their educational missions in service to the communities in which they are embedded. Accordingly, this edited book focuses on informing, broadening and enhancing the pedagogy of museum education and the practices of museum educators. The chapters in this book report independent research studies conducted by the authors who have explored and investigated a variety of issues affecting museum education practice, contextualized across a range of institutions, including art galleries, natural and social history museums, anthropology museums, science centres, and gardens. These studies address a cross-section of contemporary issues confronting the field of museum education including studies of diverse audiences and their needs, the mediation of challenging topics, professional training, teaching and learning in informal settings, and reflective practice and praxis. Together these themes represent a set of topical issues germane to informing, broadening and enhancing educational practices in diverse museum settings, and will be of considerable interest to a broad spectrum of the museum and non-formal education fields.-- Provided by Publisher Museums are institutions of both education and learning in service of society, that is, they are sites where educational experiences are designed and facilitated, and also places where visitors learn in broad and diverse ways. As such, the role of public education in museums today is highly important, if not at the centre of museum activity. As museums contemplate the growing significance of their educational roles and mandate within a changing society, so too they are increasingly in need of information about the audiences they serve and their own professional practice as they strive to achieve their educational missions in service to the communities in which they are embedded. Accordingly, this edited book focuses on informing, broadening and enhancing the pedagogy of museum education and the practices of museum educators. The chapters in this book report independent research studies conducted by the authors who have explored and investigated a variety of issues affecting museum education practice, contextualized across a range of institutions, including art galleries, natural and social history museums, anthropology museums, science centres, and gardens. These studies address a cross-section of contemporary issues confronting the field of museum education including studies of diverse audience and their needs, the mediation of challenging topics, professional training, teaching and learning in informal settings, and reflective practice and praxis. Together these themes represent a set of topical issues germane to informing, broadening and enhancing educational practices in diverse museum settings, and will be of considerable interest to the museum and non-formal education fields broadly. Front Matter....Pages i-xiv Introduction....Pages 1-4 Home Educators’ Views of Museums....Pages 5-21 On Our Own....Pages 23-42 Parents’ Perspectives about Exhibit Label Content in a Science Museum....Pages 43-56 Sparks of Learning....Pages 57-75 Introduction....Pages 77-80 Navigating Sensitive Topics with Children....Pages 81-95 Children’s Attitudes Toward Specimens at the Beaty Biodiversity Museum....Pages 97-113 Museums and Marginalized Historical Narratives....Pages 115-129 Training Scientists to Communicate Science to the Public in a Science Museum Setting....Pages 131-146 Identification of Potential Methods of Professional Support for Museum Educators Working with Young Children with Cognitive Disabilities in Museums....Pages 147-160 Introduction....Pages 161-163 Representing Other....Pages 165-181 Using Informal Learning Spaces to Increase Meaning-Making....Pages 183-200 Embodied Tensions....Pages 201-213 Ecologies of Youth Art Apprenticeship....Pages 215-230 Creating Meaningful Experiences in Art Museums....Pages 231-245 Back Matter....Pages 247-256