MUSEUM STUDIES

Preselected USF Researchers, Teacher Leaders, and Teaching Artists travel for museum studies to investigate museum institutions.

In the first project years, teacher leaders and teaching artists traveled together to participate in museum studies and research. The purpose of this museum  study and research was to provide rigorous, intellectual, as well as deeply emotional experiences  that will contribute to the educators developing a shared vocabulary and ways of knowing about histories that will underpin the arts integration content and  practices of REACH. Throughout the trip the teachers, teaching  artists, and museum study and research facilitators will participate together in  reflective discussions. The trips will culminate in “creativity” sessions during which the teacher leaders and teaching artists will apply what they have learned and experienced together by i) creating a work that is expressive of how the experience has impacted them; ii) developing an  arts integration unit; and (iii) writing a strategic arts action plan. These knowledge artifacts will  all be uploaded to the WebPortal for sharing and further refinement. Their learning will also  inform subsequent PD sessions, and individuals from these research trips will act as PD  facilitators to build the capacity initiative-wide for utilizing these processes for leveraging museum studies to support the curriculum design.