Inherited Bias: Thinking Critically about Female Labor and the Value of Museum Education
Arryn Davis, Education Collection & Program Coordinator, Pamela Maldonado, BurkeMobile Manager, and Luanne Wilson, Burke Box Manager, Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture
Museums are often seen as static collections, quiet galleries, and untouchable institutions. But that stereotype is (slowly) starting to change, in large part because of the agile work of museum education departments. Education programs reach thousands of community members, demonstrate that museums are active participants in social dialogue, and play a critical role in ushering museums into a responsive, socially aware 21st century. However, the value that museum education brings to its institution is often obstructed by implicit biases, inherited from a gendered occupation and the recent emergence of museum education as a field.
As female museum educators, we’d like to examine these historical biases, how they affect the perceived value of our work, and why exactly education programs should be — and inherently are — a core asset to museums. We will provide some examples from our own institution, the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture in Seattle, while also considering statistics and trends in museum education as a whole. Education programming is often receptive and reactive amidst a relatively static institution, and can adapt to, respond to, and reflect changing societal values much faster than the museum as a whole. Today, in an increasingly polarized society, these values are more important than ever. Communities are looking for signals that we as museums are staying relevant; that we’re acknowledging current conversations in social dialogue around racial equity, decolonization, climate change, gender gaps, and more. Education programming has the power to reflect, integrate, and most importantly to demonstrate that we are listening.
Education is traditionally female, and brings that baggage with it
“Nurturing,” “caring,” and “supportive team-player,” are personality stereotypes frequently prescribed to women. These qualities are valued in jobs and positions that are more commonly held by women, such as nursing, reception, service, and education. Teaching is historically, and continues to be, a female-dominated profession. Whether it’s because education was one of the first professions open to women, or because it deals intimately and primarily with child development, this trend continues to persist. In 2017, 77% of American school teachers were female (Loewus, 2017). Museums, and museum education especially, have congruent statistics. Museum staff as a whole are more than 60% female. The 2015 Andrew W. Mellon Foundation survey on art museum demographics found that over 80% of education staff were female-identifying. Museum education is, statistically and historically, still a female dominated profession, and we inherit certain biases with this. Culturally, our society does not value female-dominated work the same as male-dominated work. “Female work” relates to service and the home, typically revolving around childcare, teaching, emotional caretaking, housework that supports the family, and other domestic tasks (Daniels, 1987). Since this work typically takes place in the home or at school, is supportive and nurturing, and is part of daily routine, it’s separated from what society typically considers professional, valuable work. Because a large swath of education programs are geared towards children, and museum educators are mostly women, our museum colleagues often make the assumption that we are teachers. Museum educators feel the effects of this perception, and our labor comes with the same gendered stigmas as traditional teaching roles. We are often viewed as teachers first instead of integral and multifaceted members of an evolving museum workforce.
Museum education is not just teaching. We don’t just “work with kids.” Museum education is its own specialized discipline that requires a combination of skills in research, child development, collections, community building, event management, and visitor service in addition to teaching. Historically, the objective of this profession is to engage visitors’ curiosity and interest in the objects and collections within our museum’s walls. Even the wikipedia page for museum education defines it as an intermediary between collections and the public. We touch on every branch of our institutions to bring the cumulative knowledge of our collections into the public’s view. Educators work with collections and research staff to interpret their work into public programs. We create experiences that apply principles of child development and public school state standards. We have the emotional stamina and practiced charisma to address large groups of all ages, to both transfer knowledge and deliver customer service. Our job requires a complex spectrum of knowledge and skills that are often overlooked.
On top of the side effects of gender bias, museum education is also a relatively young field within museums, and last in the line to vie for resources. Prior to having designated departments with paid staff, education programs were often led by docents and volunteers who did the work of interpreting museums to children and families on their own time. While museum collections in the United States have existed in many different iterations since the 19th century, it wasn’t until the 1970’s that education started to take hold as a formalized field of work (Kai-Kee, 2012). The creation of professional networks marked a shift towards formalizing the field, with groups like the Museum Education Roundtable (MER) in 1969, the Committee on Education (EdCom) in 1973, and the NAEA’s Museum Education Division in 1981. The newness of our field means education also has less of a foothold compared to the centuries-old work of collections and exhibits. Additionally, our history of being powered by unpaid, donated labor has set a precedent that the work of education has little monetary value. This precedent has been detrimental to the way our institutions perceive our work. In many ways we’re still defending our place, arguing our worth, and negotiating with our institutions over where we best fit into an antiquated hierarchy.
Education is central to our missions
At the same time, museums position education to be an integral part of their public identity and impact. Our own mission at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture states that we “care for and share natural and cultural collections so all people can learn, be inspired, generate knowledge, feel joy, and heal.” If we think about museums from the perspective of the visiting public, the “share” aspect of this statement is realized through the work of education. Through the people we reach with our tours to the public, outreach to classrooms, after school programs for youth, public school teacher support, and family days. We see similar aspirations from other mission statements like the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Portland Art Museum, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and more. It’s likely that your own institution’s mission emphasizes public education in some form. In 1992, the American Alliance of Museums even mandated that mission statements contain some variation of equal parts “collect and preserve history,” and “educate the public” (AAM Report, 1992). Although the academic research happening in our institutions is also a form of education, it isn’t directly accessible to the visiting public. In fact, education’s role in the museum is to bridge this gap by creating programs that use, translate, and are informed by the research done by our institutions. The “educate” aspect of so many mission statements is fulfilled, in large part, by the work of museum education departments and the volume of audience we are able to reach.
While museums put forth education as a core element of their identity, the reality is that museum educators still face the prejudices that come from the combination of female labor and a relatively new professional field. Educators are some of the lowest paid museum staff, coming in just above security officers. We acknowledge that this salary pattern is indicative of the privilege of museum education as a career; low pay for a job with high emotional reward is typically only an option for those benefiting from at least one source of privilege. We are consistently asked to defend our need for space, money, and resources amidst higher priorities of the institution, all while education lies at the frontline of the museum’s core values. Educators also do an immense amount of social and emotional labor, both within their institutions and with the communities they serve, to negotiate respect for their work. All this is not to say that education isn’t appreciated or commended in the short term. Day-to-day appreciation comes in the form of verbal praise, parties, and other superficial rewards. However, this type of support does not directly translate into palpable value like career advancements, resource allocation, and pay raises. Like teachers, museum educators are often given reverence for their work without tangible reward.
Education is an agile force for the museum
Despite all these challenges, education programs should be seen as a powerful part of the museum, if for no other reason than the sheer volume of people our programs reach. Aside from an independent visit, education programs are the second largest touchpoint the public has with a museum. For example, the Burke Museum saw 100,000 visitors 2017–18. In the same year, education department programs served an additional 49,325 students onsite and across Washington state. The number of people we serve is nearly 50% of our annual visitorship. To broaden the scope to our region, in 2017 the Museum of Flight’s education department served 166,168 people. The Portland Art Museum served 27,000 school students in 2017, and in 2013–14 the Seattle Art Museum served over 42,000 students and teachers. Each year, thousands of community members interact with museums solely through the work of education departments.
It’s not just that museum educators reach a massive public audience. Education programs are responsive. Our lessons, tours, and experiences are adaptable and agile by nature. Our work can respond to societal values, by way of the programs we offer and how we build them. For example, in 2014 the Burke Museum created a program called “Girls in Science,” in response to the growing statistics that women are a minority in STEM fields. Within this program we’ve been able to address contemporary issues like climate change, pollution, genetic modification, and evolution with over one hundred female-identifying middle and high school students.
As a museum of both natural history and culture, we’ve also re-developed our cultural education programs in an effort to decolonize the way Native cultures are presented to students. The mainstream public is becoming increasingly aware that the traditionally stereotyped and colonial treatment of Indigenous histories is no longer acceptable. By looking to the recent work of Amy Lonetree (2012), we’ve incorporated Native voices into our lessons. We commission contemporary Native artists, carvers, and weavers to create new materials specifically for our lessons, and we now partner with surrounding tribal nations to co-present at schools on their ancestral lands. Teachers, students, and the community recognize that we’re trying to change and respond with a new responsible way of teaching that prioritizes Indigenous voices. The beauty of informal education is that it can always, and should always, change. Lessons and curriculum can be altered, updated, and created to reflect our changing social landscape.
All of these factors contribute to the state of museum education today. This field is no longer ancillary, and has become an integral part of a museum’s public identity. Museum educators — as well as classroom teachers, for that matter — have long since outgrown the antiquated stereotypes that come with our work. Our programs reach thousands of learners of all ages, and we do an immense amount of labor to adapt them alongside an evolving social dialogue. In a rapidly changing world, education programs show that museums are keeping up, and that we’re listening. Museums need to reflect on their perceptions and valuation of education, and whether they are simply being superficially appreciated, or truly given what their contributions merit. We believe it’s time for value, and not just reverence.
Arryn Davis
Arryn has been an educator at the Burke Museum since 2011, where she oversees the education collection and coordinates various youth and family programs. She also has experience from the Cleveland Museum of Art and Bilinear Art Gallery as an intern, and Whidbey Life Magazine as a freelance writer. She has recently become the museum’s first Education Collection Coordinator, and is working towards developing best practices for the education collection. She has a B.A. in art history from the University of Washington. @ArrynDavis
Pamela Maldonado
Pamela started working in the Education Department at the Burke Museum in September where she manages the BurkeMobile program. She is a recent graduate of the University of Washington Museology Graduate Program and worked at the Burke Museum during her studies. She holds a B.A. in Art History and a B.A. in Business Administration from the University of Florida.
Luanne Wilson
Luanne has worked in the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture in the Education Department since January 2016 where she manages the Burke Box Program. Prior to her current role she worked at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at UC Berkeley as a curatorial assistant and ran outdoor education and naturalist programs in San Francisco, CA for three years. She has a B.A. in Integrative biology from the University of California Berkeley.
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