Museums are public resources that can offer rich extensions to classroom educational experiences from tours through botanical gardens to searching for family records in the archives of a local historical society. With clarity and a touch of humor, Quinn presents ideas and examples of ways that teachers can use museums to support student exploration while also teaching for social justice. Topics include disability and welcoming all bodies, celebrating queer people’s lives and histories, settler colonialism and decolonization, fair workplaces, Indigenous knowledge, and much more. This practical resource invites classroom teachers to rethink how and why they are bringing students to museums and suggests projects for creating rich museum-based learning opportunities across an array of subject areas. Book Features: Links museums, classroom teaching, and social movements for justice.Focuses on the cultural contributions of people of color, women, and other marginalized groups.Organized around probing questions connecting history and contemporary events, museum formats and content, and activities. Includes pull-out themes and resources for further reading. “It is with this brilliant new book by Therese Quinn that I have gained an entirely different framework for seeing and experiencing and valuing museums, particularly as vital resources for social-justice movement building.” —From the Foreword by Kevin Kumashiro, consultant and author of Bad Teacher! How Blaming Teachers Distorts the Bigger Picture

Over the last twenty years the educational role of the museum has come to be central to its mission. There are now far more educational opportunities, new spaces, new interfaces - both digital and physical, and a growing number of education and interpretation departments, educational curators and public engagement programmes. Despite these developments, however, higher education has remained a marginal collaborator compared to primary and secondary schools and to other forms of adult learning. This has meant that the possibilities for partnerships between universities, colleges, museums and galleries has remained relatively unexplored, especially in relation to their potential for generating innovative patterns of research and learning. This book addresses the key issues which are preventing such partnerships and examines how to enable more effective and creative connections between museums and higher education. The authors identify conceptual and practical barriers and explore whether current academic models are fit for purpose. They argue that as pressures mount on public educational resources around the world, there needs to be an urgent increase in the exchange of knowledge across these sectors and the forging of world-class scholarly partnerships. Examples of research undertaken internationally offer best practice models for collaboration and integration. This book will be compulsory reading for museum and educational specialists and those interested in engaging in museum/higher education partnerships. It will also be of interest to those involved in policy and decision-making in education, the museum sector and national and local government.

This timely book provides a critical look at one of the staples of museum education programming: the "field trip" for school groups. The K-12 audience is of major importance to museums: not only does reaching students relate directly to the educational mission of museums, but also our institutions rely on the revenue generated by school groups.

Due to the growing prevalence of artificial intelligence technologies, schools, museums, and art galleries will need to change traditional ways of working and conventional thought processes to fully embrace their potential. Integrating virtual and augmented reality technologies and wearable devices into these fields can promote higher engagement in an increasingly digital world. Virtual and Augmented Reality in Education, Art, and Museums is an essential research book that explores the strategic role and use of virtual and augmented reality in shaping visitor experiences at art galleries and museums and their ability to enhance education. Highlighting a range of topics such as online learning, digital heritage, and gaming, this book is ideal for museum directors, tour developers, educational software designers, 3D artists, designers, curators, preservationists, conservationists, education coordinators, academicians, researchers, and students.

Learning in the Museum examines major issues and shows how research in visitor studies and the philosophy of education can be applied to facilitate a meaningful educational experience in museums. Hein combines a brief history of education in public museums, with a rigorous examination of how the educational theories of Dewey, Piaget, Vygotsky and subsequent theorists relate to learning in the museum. Surveying a wide range of research methods employed in visitor studies is illustrated with examples taken from museums around the world, Hein explores how visitors can best learn from exhibitions which are physically, socially, and intellectually accessible to every single visitor. He shows how museums can adapt to create this kind of environment, to provide what he calls the 'constructivist museum'. Providing essential theoretical analysis for students, this volume also serves as a practical guide for all museum professionals on how to adapt their museums to maximize the educational experience of every visitor.

This is Volume 34, Number 1 of the Spring 2009 edition of the Journal of Museum Education with the topic of Museums and Schools. It includes articles on provoking innovations, developing a partnership between teachers and museum educators, collaboration between science centre and the science industry, online museums, Ohio program National History Day Project and an appraisal of didactic material used by high school teachers.