Dear Museum-L Members,
Last month, I posted a survey for current museum educators in preparation for a session at the AAM Annual Meeting. Thank you all for your interest and support in that project. I would like to send an additional thank you to the respondents. I appreciate your participation and the thoughtful comments I received. Thank you, again, for your time.
Many asked me to post the results of the survey to this list serve; the summary is below. Once again, I apologize if the formatting makes this difficult to read. If you contact me directly, I would be happy to email you the Word document.
Thank you again for your support,
Andréa M. Morrill
Assistant Educator in Interpretation
Saint Louis Art Museum
[log in to unmask]
(314) 655-5192
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Teaching Museum Teachers:
Issues in Undergraduate Preparation of Museum Educators
AAM Annual Meeting
May 2, 2005 at 9:00 a.m.
Andréa M. Morrill
Assistant Educator in Interpretation
Saint Louis Art Museum
(314) 655-5192 or [log in to unmask]
Survey of Museum Educators
* to explore how educators have prepared themselves for this work and what experiences were the most beneficial training
* performed in April of 2005
* sent to the Museum-L and Museum-Ed discussion lists and circulated to Saint Louis Art Museum educators and previous co-workers
* 114 responses collected from staff at art museums, science centers, botanical gardens, history museums and historic houses, children's museums, and more
Summary of Responses
1. Do you have a college undergraduate degree?
yes-114
2. If you answered yes, in what subject area?
Art History-24
History-20
Education related-18
Fine or Studio Arts-14
Natural Sciences-14
Anthropology-11
English-9
Museum Studies-5
Communication related-5
Archaeology-4
3. If you searched for museum education work-including internships or volunteer opportunities-immediately after your undergraduate work was completed, how long did you search before you were successful? Please choose one:
1-3 months-22
4-6 months-8
7-9 months-1
9-12 months-2
over 1 year-6
could not find work-3
did not search for museum work-72
4. If you were successful, what type of position did you find?
full-time, paid-12
volunteering-11
part-time, paid-10
internship, paid-2
internship, unpaid-2
internship, compensation not specified-1
fellowship, paid-1
5. Have you earned or are you currently pursuing a post-graduate degree?
yes-92
6. If yes, in what area?
Museum Education-21
Museum Studies/Science-19
other Education-related degrees-19
Art History-16
History-9
Natural Sciences-6
7. What factor most influenced your decision to pursue this degree? Please choose one:
[NOTE: Some respondents chose more than one answer.]
a personal interest in gaining more knowledge-39
to increase the likelihood of getting a museum job-32
to increase the likelihood of receiving a promotion in the museum field-22
other (including networking, searching for direction, and more)-12
to change career fields-8
8. What experiences offered the most beneficial training for your museum education job? (Please rate in order of importance with 1 being the most beneficial or use N/A for not applicable.)
[The following options were listed. The summary follows. NOTE: For each option, I counted the number of times that it was marked as the most beneficial experience. I also counted the total number of times that each option was listed within the range of 1-4, with 1 being the most beneficial.]
______college education
______post-graduate education
______internship
______volunteering
______previous job experience in related area (for example: teacher/artist)
______on-the-job museum training
______other __________________________________________________
[graph inserted]
EXPERIENCE, total as most beneficial, total within rating of 1-4
College Education, 9, 66
Post-graduate Education, 17, 78
Internship, 16, 61
Volunteering, 6, 40
Previous job experience in related area, 17, 66
On-the-job museum training, 43, 92
Other, 0, 15
9. Respondents were invited to contribute additional comments. Many were submitted on topics such as education, training opportunities, and salaries. Two comments made in relation to experience are included below.
* "I believe the following skills are essential for success in museum education jobs regardless of formal training or education:
1. ability to write very well
2. ability to construct and manage a budget
3. ability to write grants that are clear, concise, and passionate
4. ability to work with volunteers; preferably also having been a volunteer
5. attitude that no job is beneath you; in other words, you need to be willing to serve cake and take out the trash!
6. genuine curiosity
7. ability for communicating your ideas to others"
-from a director of youth education with 12 years of museum education experience
* "... the most important factor, I think, is a passion for museum work. I don't believe any work experience is unrelated to what I did in the museum. I was an educator, but I also needed to be a salesman to sell our programs, to be a service provider to work with the public, be a mediator as I worked with other departments and institutions, be a researcher as I evaluated programs. What I loved most about my work was how diverse it was. Nothing and everything prepares you for that at the same time."
-from a graduate student in science education with four years of museum education experience
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