Museums are literacy-rich environments where visitors may interact with text in a variety of ways. Examining the environment for indicators of literacy learning provides insight into how the museum is meeting its mission as a cultural and educational institution, particularly for museums geared towards children as visitors. The purpose of this…

"Deep visual listening and children's art during times of crisis" explores a way to understand children's art created amidst crisis as well as the meanings we can discern from it through the lens of the "Uncaged Art Tornillo Detention Center" exhibit. In 2018, the U.S. government opened a detention center to hold youth who…

In 2018, a group of artists and educators known as Borderland Collective created an exhibition focusing on migration called One to Another. They incorporated various educational protocols, which they call "borderland pedagogies," to invite teens, teachers, and community members to better understand the complexities of migration through…

Educating the public about wildlife and conservation has long been a core component of many zoos' mission statements (Patrick, Matthews, Ayers, & Tunnicliffe, 2007). However, research has demonstrated that most patrons visit zoos to be entertained and to socialize rather than to be educated. Thus, greater emphasis is now placed on encouraging…

This semester-long activity for a "Gender Fair" project helps undergraduate students gain an appreciation of gender as a social, historical, and cultural construction that is constituted intersectionally (with race-class-sexuality, at minimum) and fundamentally through communication practices. Specifically, upon completing this project,…

People attend museums to see artifacts and learn from them! Ideally, they want to see them, touch them, and learn the story about them. Artifacts have an uncanny ability to mute the passage of time, and unite young and old on common ground. During its sixty-plus-years in existence, the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History has displayed…

Service learning is an effective means of implementing course curriculum in the real world (Driskoll, 2009). As a Carnegie Foundation classified campus for the Advancement of Teaching, Community Engagement, the University of Texas Brownsville actively promotes service learning and partnerships with community agencies (www.utb.edu/vpaa/cce/Pages/).…

This report describes collaborations between the disciplines of museum education and art therapy, which inspired the implementation of a pilot art therapy program at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art in Tennessee (USA). Because relatively limited research has been conducted on this trend, the author reviewed museum exhibits and programming, as well…

Purpose: This article aims to provide an overview of Texas State University's Common Experience, an innovative initiative that engaged tens of thousands of people in shared consideration of sustainability as a single topic during academic year 2010-2011. Design/methodology/approach: The discourse begins with an overview of the Common Experience…

As the nation's first standards-based art event, the Visual Arts Scholastic Event (VASE) is opening doors and creating opportunities for art students. VASE is the brainchild of passionate art educators who believe that high-school artists have potential far beyond the basic juried art exhibition. They believe that students should be able to create…

The HOPE Foundation (HOPE) commissioned the American Institutes for Research (AIR) to conduct an exploratory study of the implementation and impact of the Courageous Leadership Academy (CLA). In this report, the authors introduce the school reform model, describe the study methodology, present findings for each of the three research questions…

On an earlier column titled "What I learned at the NCSS Annual Meeting," the author wrote about the Internet-oriented materials and resources featured at the 2006 NCSS convention in Washington, D.C. Having received many e-mails from readers telling him that they appreciated having the opportunity to see which companies, not-for-profit,…

This publication welcomes potential students and their parents to the American Association of Community Colleges' (AACC's) Fall 2008 college fairs to learn about U.S. community colleges and study opportunities in the United States. U.S. location of participating colleges at Asia 2008 Fairs (map), overview of programs/majors offered at each college…

With increasing emphasis on multicultural art education and integrative pedagogy, educators have incorporated community resources, such as cultural artifacts exhibited in art museums, to enrich their programs. Cultural artifacts are human-made objects which generally reveal historic information about cultural values, beliefs, and traditions.…

The examination of historical trend data on the number and percent of students lost from public school enrollment prior to graduation from high school is becoming increasingly important since distinct trends are emerging on a regional basis. This study examines regional trends in Texas on the number and percent of students lost from public high…