MUSEUM NOTES
Jeanne Vergeront
Vergeront Museum Planning
Photo Credit: Anagram Bookshop
Fresh from a recent 2-hour Zoom with my Thursday morning thinking group, I
wondered what I would do without them and, for that matter, without my Wednesday
afternoon talk group. For years these lively, meandering conversations have
excited my mind, introduced me to new ideas, and dislodged me from some brittle
certainties. They have sharpened my thinking for some Museum Notes posts. To be
honest, these rich collegial conversations (along with videos of babies and
dogs) have recharged and delighted me over these pandemic years.
Learning happens everywhere, all the time and over time. All of us, from all walks of life,
throughout our lives, learn in everyday moments, casually, in virtually every
setting we are in. We learn at home, work, school; on-line, in the garden and on
walks; when we talk to neighbors over the fence or travel the world. We are
constantly adding to, tinkering with, or revising our thinking and learning.
That’s just the way it is in this world and it's just the way we are as humans.
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| Photo: Portland Children's Museum |
We are so wired to learn from birth that we almost have to try to not learn.
Still, we do have to work to continue learning in meaningful, relevant ways to
stay abreast with our dynamic world and changes in our jobs, museums,
communities, and ourselves. We encounter new technologies, theories,
perspectives, relationships, vocabulary, health research, etc. all the time.
How
do we prepare ourselves as individuals and as professionals for these changes?
How do we keep up with, be invigorated by, and enjoy the changes we encounter?
Discover and explore new ideas? I can’t think of another way than to grow
ourselves as active, engaged learners, the kind of learners we hope our visitors
are.
Of course, we all grow somewhat as museum learners, but I am certain we could grow
more as self-directed, supported learners if we were more intentional and viewed
our learning more broadly. I have found myself thinking about the following
questions.
• How do we square our explicit museum commitment to advance learning
without also committing to being active, intentional learners ourselves?
• What
limits supporting vibrant learning communities among colleagues?
• How can we
engage and support learners in a vibrant, on-going museum learning community?
•
Why not get started right now?
How do we square our explicit museum commitment
to advance learning without also committing to being active, intentional
learners ourselves? This is a critical question to address honestly. Museums
liberally sprinkle their visions, missions, and values with learning; life-long
learning; education and educational. Learning is at the heart of other ideas:
expanding public knowledge, an ever-deeper understanding, or engage, educate,
and enlighten. Museums identify as places of informal learning and as part of
the learning ecosystem. They focus on family learning, early learning, and
experiential learning. Websites highlight how museums accomplish their learning
interests—educational outreach, field trips, teaching strategies, innovative
learning experiences, and PD workshops for teachers. Museums often talk about
co-constructing experiences with visitors, but less so about co-constructing
knowledge among colleagues.
Being true to museums’ roles and responsibilities
means seeing ourselves as learners, infusing our work with an energy around our
learning as well as visitors’. It means working in a state of curiosity,
questions, ideas and making meaning together. This is a responsibility of both
the organization and its staff and volunteers.
What limits supporting vibrant
learning communities among colleagues? Time, always scarce, is inevitably the
big hurdle in growing a robust learning community among colleagues. We are busy,
often carrying large workloads which hardly allows enough time to cover
everything; schedules vary. Unfortunately, time is also critical for growing a
community of learners. It is necessary for reading, reflecting, and discussing
articles, studies, and ideas; for exploring complex issues in a meaningful way;
for following ideas and integrating practices into the museum’s work; for
tracking impact; and, for building trust. Professional growth during brown bag
lunches simply doesn’t communicate that the activity is valued as much as saving
time is.
Funding is also critical to staff learning being a priority.
Realistically, professional growth isn’t likely to reduce costs. More likely it
will add costs and compete for time with demands of job responsibilities.
Fortunately, other benefits accrue: improved staff satisfaction, innovative
strategies, greater collegiality and long-time friendships; and increased
capacity and impact.
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Mini-YMEC reunion at ASTC:
Paul Richard & Paul Tatter |
How we see
ourselves as thinkers and learners plays out here as well. While we come into
our positions with expertise and skill, we may not question 5 or 10 years later
how sharp our skills are. When confident in our expertise and experience in our
area, we may not challenge assumptions, consider new scholarship, or try new
practices. So busy doing, preparing, and moving to the next set of deadlines, we
assume our work has a beginning and end rather than fits into repeating cycles
which invite reflection and learning.
Responsibility for professional growth may
receive inadequate attention in a museum, as an afterthought, or tucked into
“other duties as assigned.” A patchwork of responsibilities in HR, department
budgets, or director’s choice means required training tops the list and annual
conferences are automatically approved. Midyear budget trimming takes a bite out
of it.
A robust professional growth and development program is not an item on a
checklist, but an expression of a museum’s values, its commitment to its people,
a belief in its impact, and its investment in its future. It takes time,
resources, collaboration, and imagination.
How can we engage and support museum
learners in a vibrant, on-going museum learning community? Conjure up the most
powerful professional learning experience you’ve ever had, something that really
inspired you, changed your perspective, or energized you to do something
differently. Was it discovering a new practice? A deeper understanding of a
familiar concept? Glimpsing how to engage more effectively with visitors? And
what about it was so valuable? Navigating diverse perspectives? Extended time
with colleagues? Time to consider ideas critically? Moving at your own pace?
As
informal learning settings, museums start with an advantage in creating learning
experiences that are participatory, learner-directed, offer choice, and reflect
an understanding of adult learners. Then, museums limit themselves to a few
formats like trainings and conferences to deliver targeted professional content.
This contrasts with museums encouraging staff to shape experiences that reflect
their own learning interests.
These interests vary widely across any museum.
Staff may be brand new or long serving; have a museum background or not; have
practical or philosophical inclinations; be drawn to local or national issues.
Still, everyone deserves access to professional learning and growth
opportunities that suit them. The following examples (many of which are,
unfortunately, no longer active) illustrate just how wide-open learning
opportunities can be, opportunities where museum learners adapt formats, play
with group size, and modify along the way.
Thinking Groups, self-forming groups
of practitioners, are connected by an interest such as facilitation, design
thinking, assessment and documentation, early years, or cultural competency.
Thinking groups are flexible. Small or large, they may be contained within a
museum or reach across museums, link with academic or other settings. Familiar
in museums as communities of practice (CoP), members get together regularly
around a shared concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do
it better together.
Thinking—or working—groups may be formed to address museum
as well as field-wide needs such as
regional support networks,
leadership development; and exhibit resources.
Thirty years after two groups of children’s museums formed YMEC (Youth Museum
Exhibit Collaborative) and MC2 exhibit collaboratives (Midwest Children’s Museum
Collaborative), members still talk about how much they grew professionally
through their involvement, sharing with others, and solving problems together.
Extended Inquiry is not just for evaluators and researchers, not just for
scientists, and not just for grants. Rather, on-going inquiry can be carried out
with colleagues at a museum and in other places with shared interests. Do you
have a chewy question? Most everyone does—about their practice, learning,
observation, the power of objects that can be explored through various
approaches.
Team-based Inquiry and
collaborative action research are two just examples of processes.
Years ago, I facilitated several groups of K-12 teachers engaged in year-long
action research projects. These teachers spent the school year questioning,
observing, introducing new strategies, reflecting, and changing their practice
in areas of importance to them. They were invigorated by formulating research
questions that mattered to them, critiquing their own classroom practice in
order to change it, and thinking with colleagues.
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| Small group reflection in Reggio 2013 |
Study Tours, focused
group-learning experiences, combine travel with an extended investigation of an
approach, set of practices, or other settings. A 2013 museum study tour allowed
52 participants on 9 museum teams along with partners from research, higher ed,
design, and early childhood to participate in an 8-day study tour of the
municipal schools of Reggio Emilia (Italy). With daily presentations by early
childhood specialists, educators and studio teachers, visits to the
infant-toddler centers and preschools, a tour of the Documentation and
Educational
Research Center, and facilitated reflections, the study tour allowed
extended amounts of time for exploring and reflecting which is typically absent
from professional learning experiences. Study tours can involve less time and
money while maintaining the benefits of exploring other settings with group
visits to arts organizations, libraries and nature centers, or behind-the-scene
tours of museums.
• Museums have book groups for their members
(http://www.museumedu.org/museum-book-clubs/); why not for staff? Reading groups
can take many forms: be small or large; sample topics or deep dive into a
subject; be in-person or virtual; include one or multiple departments or
museums; be facilitated or open-discussion. What they have in common is a shared
experience with varied perspectives, new research, content connections; and time
for lively discussion.
In the mid 1990’s ASTC fielded an NEH-funded project for
staff in museums in 3 areas, Boston, Twin Cities, and the Bay Area to read a
number of classic books paired with science exhibits. Books included Plato’s
Meno, Swift’s Gulliver's Travels, Shelley’s Frankenstein, and Keller’s A Feeling
for the Organism. Discussions were facilitated in seminars by St John’s College
tutors including Tom Simpson. A participant in the project, I found the readings
and discussions both strenuous and invigorating. This project stands out as rich
and multi-layered, an impressive invitation to learn together.
What many, if not
most, of these professional growth opportunities have in common is that personal
choice and external support are built into them. They involve shared interests,
growing relationships, continuity over time, building trust, and offering a
sense of comfort and safety.
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Design Thinking Boot Camp:
Minnesota Children's Museum |
Why not get started right now? The list
doesn’t
have to end there. Be inventive;
shape your own professional learning experiences.
Be bold! What about a boot camp, your very
own think tank, or a symposium? Start with
what sparks your curiosity. What you want
to know more about: adult learning? the
socio-cultural context in learning? tinkering
for elders? What topics in articles, journals,
and blogs have made you light up thinking,
“Yes! I’ve been waiting for that!” Look
below at some resources that might move
you and your colleagues forward and build
some momentum towards a museum
professional learning community.
Form a group, even a small group of two or three. Name it to
help get it going. I once started a group called “The Little Big Ideas Club”
with two friends. We had ideas for projects that we wanted to explore; they
weren’t big or remarkable project ideas.
Join an existing talking or thinking
group like NISE Network’s Team-based Inquiry.
Check-out the following links or
websites. These resources are for different audiences, evaluators, scientists,
educators, the problem finders, and the curious. Most resources link to tools
and more resources. You will surely find something.
Before labelling something as a failure, we should consider what’s happening for the child. For instance, what does a child experience as a setback? And what does that mean to them? Especially for young children, an adult idea of success or failure is irrelevant. Children don’t know about failure until we teach them about it, often with sharp words, a look of disappointment, or a rush to fix everything. In play, children often incorporate setbacks into a play narrative, a new construction, or the rules of a game. When a child plays, tinkers, or putters, they don’t have a checklist or time frame as adults do in many areas of child development and education. “Shares with a friend.” CHECK. “Carries a bucket of sand without spilling.” CHECK. 
