Museum Studies
Museum Studies/Research
In the first two project years, teacher leaders and teaching artists will travel together to participate in museum studies and research.
The primary objective:
to investigate how educators expand their understanding of the importance of museum
institutions related to race, equity, arts, and cultural history.
The secondary objectives are:
- to investigate how Museum Studies can redirect the trajectory of teaching practices in the existing curricula to equalize educational opportunities for all learners through culturally inclusive arts integrated curriculum materials collected and developed by the educators attending the REACH Civil Rights museums in Montgomery, Alabama and examining living religions in museums at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC; and
- to examine how culturally inclusive curriculum materials used in the REACH museum studies address the omitted histories, narratives, messages, and structural racism embedded in the existing curriculum and instruction, all with the end aim to improve teaching practices.
Year One
In year one (July 2022), included 20 educators traveling to Montgomery, Alabama for a 6-day museum study to collect information and data about the overt and hidden histories related to the experiences from four legacy museums (Civil Rights Memorial Center at the Southern Poverty Law Center, Equal Justice Initiative Legacy Museum, National Memorial for Peace and Justice, the Rosa Parks Museum, and the Interpretive Museum in Selma). They were guided by two professional development trainings facilitated by national consultants/expert museum docents. They were given access to curricular resources and materials. These resources highlighted and offer insights about how to incorporate these resources into their existing curricula. After receiving content and resources from the museum tours, they participated in Focus Groups; whereby, the USF researchers obtained in-depth information about the educators’ museum learning experience. In addition, the research team measured the impact of the presentations by the docents on the educators’ cultural understandings and ways to operationalize culturally-inclusive arts-integrated lessons.
Year two
In Year 2 (July 2023), another cohort of teacher leaders and teaching artists will travel to the Smithsonian Institution’s Center for FolkLife and Cultural Heritage to study the storytelling oral and folk-art traditions that are the expressions of national, regional, and ethnic histories of diverse peoples and cultures including as examples Native Americans, African Americans, Asians, and Latinx people and the peoples of the Appalachia. The museum studies will include experiences from Washington, D.C. (Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture, Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, and the Smithsonian FolkLife festival). They will also visit the Mexican Museum, a partner of the Smithsonian, with goals similar to the Montgomery trip in year one. As in the trip in Yr. 1, they will participate in museum studies, research, and ongoing reflective discussions together with specialists and museum study and research facilitators. Culminating activities include creating art and writing arts integration units and strategic action plans informed by and stemming from their joint experiences at the Smithsonian. In subsequent years, these same museum studies processes will happen locally at the demonstration and other LEA sites, and will include institutions such as the Puerto Rican Cultural Center and Chinese American Museum of Chicago, the Zora Neale Hurston National Museum in Eatonville, Florida.