August Cultural, Arts, and Museum Education in Review

Tangible Education
Sep 3, 2018 · 6 min read

Hello again!

In this series, I discuss a few cultural, arts, or museum education articles that you may have missed or didn’t have time to read in the past month. All of the resources are publicly accessible.

This month features an article about something a bit more practical: How do supervisors and museum guides interact when discussing the guide’s work? In “Post-observation conversations in the museum”, Mark Schep et al. tested out museum guide-initiated conversations to see if they could initiate a healthier and more productive post-observation conversation. Also, this month, I highlighted a more brainy, conceptual article (“Teaching as Dialogical Conceptual Art”) — it’s a provocative and worthwhile read, but also slightly mind-boggling (hence, only one highlighted article this month). Finally, I’ve included another gem from the Te Papa Museum this month on “How to design an exhibition for teens? Co-create it with them”.

Enjoy!

(P.S. If you can’t access one of the articles or if you find something interesting that you’d like to have included in next month’s newsletter, send me an email!)

FEATURED ARTICLE

Post-observation conversations in the museum: using the self-evaluation of the supervised as the starting point”, Mark Schep, Carla von Boxtel, and Julia Noordergraaf, 25–30 minutes

Summary: This article, based on the larger research that Mark Schep conducted for his PhD, focused on post-observation conversations between museum guides and supervisors, with guide self-evaluations as the starting point for conversations.

Main points:

  • post-observation conversations are common in teacher training and are becoming increasingly common in museum education as museum education is becoming more professionalized (p. 1–2)
  • recently, post-observation conversations have shifted from evaluative (from the supervisor’s perspective) to more focused on the personal development of the supervisee (p. 2)
  • factors that can negatively impact post-observation conversations: “supervisee resistance”, “asymmetrical role relationship”, “supervisee anxiety”, and “supervisor dominance during the conversation” (p. 3)
  • factors that can positively impact post-observation conversations: “manage the expectations of the supervisee … careful planning, mutual trust, clarity about the goals, a supervisor’s good communication and interpersonal skills, and when the supervisee adopts an active role” (p. 3)
  • self-reflection and self-directed learning are essential for museum guides’ professional development (p. 3–4)
  • common rubrics or documents can help to facilitate conversations between supervisors and museum guides — they serve as a common point of reference; however, a self-evaluation can also serve the same purpose (p. 4)
  • in this study, guides used a common self-evaluation tool based on handling groups in the museum, communication skills, knowledge and pedagogy, and professionalism (p. 5)
  • post-observation conversations were structured with the guide discussing each competence first, then the supervisor contributed, and moved along to the next competence, ending by setting goals; the educator brought a copy of the guide’s self-evaluation to the conversation without having read it beforehand (p. 6)

Major takeaways:

  • All who participated in post-observation conversations initiated by the guide’s self-evaluation “thought that the conversation was a more accurate indicator … and was not based on only one tour in particular” (p. 9); one guide pointed out that conversations without the self-evaluation as the starting point might focus on one aspect of a particular tour, rather than tendencies that a guide has
  • These conversations were more balanced — the participants felt this way, but it was also backed up by the data (p. 11)
  • Using the common rubric between the guide and the educator/supervisor provided a sense of objectivity to the post-observation conversation (p. 14)
  • Guides were more invested in improving their tours and more open to criticism, opinions, or advice after completing the self-evaluation (p. 14)

HIGHLIGHTED ARTICLES

“Teaching as Dialogic Conceptual Art”, Eugene Matusov and Ana Marjanovic-Shane, 30+ minutes

Summary: The authors explore teaching as a form of conceptual art, meaning that it is more of an exploration and exchange among participants than a path from ignorance to knowledge. The examples she gives at the beginning of the article (pp. 1–9) illustrate how teaching about practical concepts such as 2+2=4 can become more conceptual discussions.

Main points:

  • Teaching is a dialogic conceptual art (p. 9), meaning that teaching is 1. a “deliberate critical deconstruction of the given: culturally given, socially given, politically given, economically given …” (p. 9) and 2. “rooted in ‘internally persuasive discourse’” (p. 12)
  • Teaching should allow for themes, topics, events, etc. to be critically examined from multiple different perspectives and within different frameworks (p. 9)
  • Teaching can provoke internal conflicts and should encourage students to confront these internal conflicts as part of the learning process (p. 12); for example, students may have to come to terms with the given that they had internalized and accepted when confronted with new perspectives
  • Because teaching as dialogic conceptual can provoke internal conflicts, teaching and learning extends beyond the traditional classroom, as students bring these internal shifts and resolutions with them later (p. 12)
  • Education should not be used for utilitarian purposes (p. 13), but as a mode of fulfillment and self-actualization
  • Teaching can embody 3 different art forms: 1. teaching as an art of scripted performance (or “instructionalism”); 2. teaching as improvisational performance, which allows for a unique path to a predetermined endpoint (similar to discovery-based learning); and 3. dialogic conceptual art, which is discussed/argued for throughout the article (p. 14)

Major takeaways:

  • Kids can handle provocative and deep questions!
  • This form of teaching is a really good example of a way in which a critical conversation can be initiated and facilitated by a teacher
  • This is also serves to show how students can be initiated to discuss and contemplate deeper meanings and concepts than the surface value of (some forms of) education; for example, we know that 2+2=4, but what about 2 infinities+2 inifinities=1 infinity?
  • The goal of teaching as dialogical conceptual art is to examine existing culture critically “to transcend it rather than acquire, competently master, or socialize in it” (p. 15) — I find this to be a really important concept to understand when teaching in and about the arts, because art is oftentimes about breaking boundaries and questioning the pervasive or accepted culture

*If you’re interested in this article, I would really recommend reading through the 2 examples at the beginning (pp. 1–9). There’s value in reading those through firsthand.

Fun Fact: During World War II, spies had to blend in with the country there were infiltrating — down to their buttonholes and seams. Since fashion varied much more in the early 20th century depending on local fashion and customs, seamstresses and tailors (often refugees) were hired to design and make countless custom-made clothing for British spies, whose lives depended on not appearing too British.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

“Een bezoek aan het Stedelijk Museum maakt dementerenden gelukkiger” (“A visit to the Stedelijk Museum makes people with dementia happier”): A close look at the benefits of the Overgetelijk (Unforgettable) program at Dutch museums, which presents special tours specifically for people with dementia, specifically the social contact and personal touch.

“How to design an exhibition for teens? Co-create it with them”: Another example from Te Papa of a practical solution they found: how to work with teens to co-create an exhibition. They started with the teens’ chosen artworks and discussed from there which themes would be important to highlight and how to do this.

“Cleveland Museum of Art unveils first ‘Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Plan”: This is important because the museum is making efforts in many different directions, including marketing, hiring, tours, and even a new community arts center.

MUSEUMS & PARTICIPATION READING GROUP

The Museums and Participation reading group is an informal reading group focused around the topic of museums and audience participation, offering a friendly forum to exchange ideas, raise questions and develop thinking around participatory practice (and of course meet like-minded colleagues!).

We meet once a month in a cafe after work to talk about one or two papers, book chapters, evaluation reports or blog posts and take these as a starting point for the discussion. Our next meeting is 26 September. If you’d like to join, please email Lorna Cruickshanks. All are welcome!

Tangible Education

Written by

Cultural/arts/museum education & research based in Amsterdam.

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