Ivy Strickler wrote:
> Perhaps the problem
>is one of perceived value--people who teach museum studies courses may need
>to develop ways to show the professional museum community that these
>courses are valuable and on target. How to accomplish this? I don't know,
>but in publication management courses I try to incorporate real-life guest
>speakers, use professional books rather than textbooks, and generally try
>to involve the publishing community in our courses. Is there any way this
>would work for museum studies?
Yes, it does.
We use guest speakers from the profession frequently, because they're the
ones who are "pushing out the envelope" with their own practice. We pay
those who are not salaried (e.g. freelancers / consultants) but do not
normally pay those who are in salaried posts.
We don't set text books for our students. Instead, we provide "Selected
Readings" that are drawn from the existing published literature - books,
journals, even the daily press when issues are very fresh. This way, our
course materials stay up to date (revised annually, and supplemented if a
"hot" issue emereges in the literature during the semester!), and the
students are made aware of the range of publications on museum matters.
Hopefully, these broad reading habits will continue into their working
lives.
Our university requires each course of study to be reaccredited every 4 or
5 years - and part of the process involves approval by an external panel
that includes industry representatives - i.e. museum practitioners. So we
stay relevant to the needs of the profession.
To pick up on an issue that's perhaps also relevant to the MA/PhD thread as
well - we offer a coursework Master's degree that allows a student who is
already woprking in a museum to use a real-life work project as an
alternative to a 15,000 word minor thesis. Students have to document their
project fully, and also to write a reflective essay on the project. The
work-place supervisor becomes a co-supervisor alongside the academic
supervisor. Performance indicators for assessment have to be agreed on by
both academic and workplace supervisors, at the start of the project. A
full-time student would do this project over one year maximum; a part-time
student can take two years.
Note: all our Museum Studies students are "post-graduate" i.e. they have a
Bachelor's degree or equivalent, OR at least 3 years work experience in a
museum or heritage organisation, before commencing with us.
Our employment record suggests that the course addresses the industry's
needs: here's the results from the 1994 cohort of graduates:
Of 21 students who completed the Graduate Diploma course in Dec 1994, the
11 who had been studying full-time have now all moved into museum work -
most within three months of graduating. Nine of the other 10 had museum /
cultural jobs already; two of these nine have gained new and better
(museum) jobs since graduating. (The tenth took time off for knee surgery,
and is only now beginning her job search.)
Regards,
MARGARET BIRTLEY
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Phone + 61 3 9244 7353 (BH)
Fax + 61 3 9244 7480
Email [log in to unmask]
Postal Museum Studies Unit
Deakin University, Rusden
662 Blackburn Road
CLAYTON VIC 3168
Australia
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
|
