July 25, 2006

Practitioner research?

Are you an educator doing research on the practice of museum/gallery
education or interpretation? Will your data be presented directly as a
new program, training event, workshop, curriculum, or plan for change?
(Rather than as a more traditional report, article, or dissertation.)

MUSEUM EDUCATION MONITOR (MEM), the e-newsletter, is now compiling a
list of these and other ongoing research projects on questions relating
to museum/gallery education or interpretation for our upcoming August
2006 issue. 
 
We invite you to list your research. Please send an e-mail to
[log in to unmask] that includes:
- name of project
- research question(s) [no more than 50 words, please]
- how the data will be presented [report, article, dissertation,
program, training event, workshop, curriculum, plan for change, etc.] 
- principal researchers
- site(s) where research is being conducted
- time span
- contact information
- key words to describe the project [no more than 4 or 5, please]
Deadline for this issue is *Friday, August 11, 2006.*

Listings are, of course, free of charge. Submissions are included in the
current MEM and catalogued afterwards in our archives. Full access to
the MEM Archives is available only to subscribers. However, time-limited
guest passes are available to students and other researchers by
contacting MEM at [log in to unmask] .

FYI, the following research projects were listed in MEM, June 2006:

- Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Science Centre Impact Project
(Australia and many other countries)
- Imágenes de ciencia y tendencias educacionales en Museos de Ciencias
[Representation of science and educational tendencies in Science
Museums] (Brazil)
- Updating provincial museum notes on education and interpretation
standards(Canada)
- The social regulation and roles of art museum education in China and
Taiwan: a comparative study (China/Taiwan) 
- Communicating scientific knowledge in informal learning environments
(Germany)
- Use of the Museums for Educational Purposes: School-Museum Days
(Turkey)
- Museums and Social Exclusion: The Geography of School visits to
Museums (PhD Research) (UK)
- Three Times Three: How can collaboration between museums, schools and
creative practitioners enhance working relationships and maximise the
interpretation and learning potential of museum collections? (UK)
- Art Ambassadors: How can we create an open dialogue with young people
to find out what they want, need, & require from galleries and public
art projects and how can we use this information to engage young people
to devise & develop ideas for future events for public programmes we
deliver? (UK)
- Contemporary Art Practice and Pedagogy: an investigation of the
Artist-Teacher Scheme (UK)
- Student’s experience of galleries (UK)
- Creating Collaborative Partnerships with Cultural Institutions to
Support Teacher Growth: Mapping the Partnership Process (USA)

A complimentary copy of the June 2006 issue of Museum Education Monitor
noted above is available upon request to [log in to unmask] .   

Please get in touch for more information about this call or to discuss
your research. We look forward to hearing from you!

M. Christine Castle, Editor, Museum Education Monitor 
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
[log in to unmask]                
For more information about Museum Education Monitor, please go to
http://www.mccastle.com       

(Please excuse cross-postings. We do try to get the word out as widely
as possible. Inevitably, some of us are subscribed to several electronic
discussion lists related to museum education. For those who are, your
patience is appreciated. CC.}