Museum Studies/Research

In the first two project years, teacher leaders and teaching artists will travel together to participate in museum studies and research.

The primary objective:
To investigate how educators expand their understanding of the importance of museum institutions related to arts and history.

The secondary objective:

To investigate how Museum Studies can redirect the trajectory of teaching practices in the existing curricula to through arts integrated curriculum materials collected  and developed by the educators attending the REACH museums in Montgomery, Alabama and in Washington, DC,

Year One

In year one (July 2022), included 20 educators traveling to Montgomery, Alabama for a 6-day museum study to collect information and data about history related to the experiences from four legacy museums. They were guided by two professional development trainings facilitated by national consultants/expert museum docents. They were given access to curricular resources and materials. These resources highlighted and offer insights about how to incorporate these resources into their existing curricula. After receiving content and resources from the museum tours, they participated in Focus Groups; whereby, the USF researchers obtained in-depth information about the educators’ museum learning experience.

Year Two

In Year 2 (July 2023), another cohort of teacher leaders and teaching artists will travel to the Smithsonian Institution to study the storytelling oral and folk-art traditions that are the expressions of national and regional histories of people. The museum studies will include experiences from Washington, D.C.. As in the trip in Yr. 1, they will participate in museum studies, research, and ongoing reflective discussions together with specialists and museum study and research facilitators. Culminating activities include creating art and writing arts integration units and strategic action plans informed by and stemming from their joint experiences at the Smithsonian. In subsequent years, these same museum studies processes will happen locally at the demonstration and other LEA sites.