Docent programs are in flux. Many institutions have rethought their programs to encourage more diverse voices: some have eliminated the docent role, while others have changed their structure and offered additional training. When The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens decided to invest in its docent program as part of an…

Recent literature on mentoring revises the long-held notion of a dyadic, master-apprentice affiliation to better reflect the fluid, flexible, and even non-hierarchical dynamics that occur between mentors and mentees today. Relational mentoring, intersectional mentoring, and co-mentoring models offer frameworks for reconsidering the role of…

In this article, I explore how relationships can change the teaching practices of museum educators and strategies of entire organizations by empirically studying conversations museum educators have every day in meetings, in the hallways, and all the places where they talk about their work. I present the possibilities of reciprocal telling…

Research into teaching and learning in science museums has led to innovations in pedagogy, exhibits, and educational programming. Science museum facilitators play a critical role in advancing the educational missions of their institutions, yet the roles that these facilitators have in academic research projects aimed at understanding learning…

Formal museology education makes up a very small, if any, proportion of a museum professional's working life. It is not possible for that limited an experience to fully equip someone for a life of anti-oppression work. More than formal pedagogy, museums need lifelong anti-oppression learners in the field. This article presents two frameworks from…

In an increasingly globalized world, the ability to engage with science meaningfully to make decisions on small and large scales is essential to be an informed citizen and to create a more equitable world. To engage with science, people need to develop a science identity. In this study, science identity, or feeling like a science person, includes…

As schools collaborate with other educational and cultural institutions, students, families, and teachers benefit from expanded learning experiences. In 2020, digital technology learning was added to the New Zealand school curriculum so that every student, beginning at five years of age, would develop an understanding of computational thinking and…

Background: This study explored science teachers' participation in a professional development partnership with informal science institutions (ISIs) designed for urban middle school science teachers, known as the "Urban Advantage Science Initiative." The teacher training involved a whole school focused approach, providing teaching…

Our museum-based participatory research (PR) project was a collaboration between researchers and educators in an out-of-school time STEM education program for young people that positions STEM as a tool for community social justice. This project drew on literatures on reflective practice in museums and on research-practice partnerships. Yet…

This article reports on Year 2 of a three-year project to assess historic site-based teacher professional development programs. The intended focus was assessing pre-post Q-sorts and interviews of 29 teachers regarding how they see their work at historic sites affecting their professional development. However, data analysis revealed exceptionally…

This article introduces neurodivergent museum educators and their neurotypical allies to ways we can build supportive, inclusive environments, develop interpersonal engagement skill sets, and deconstruct ableist notions of learning by imagining museum education experiences centered on the concept of attentive "facilitation." In this…

We describe the impact of an African American history centred collaborative teacher study group (CTSG) professional development experience on the cultural competence of 20 secondary Social Studies and English Language Arts educators. Using mixed methods, baseline data indicated slight movement from the colourblind to the cultural pre-competence…