As the "Journal of Museum Education" reaches its fifty-year publication milestone, this article traces the roots of the Museum Education Roundtable (MER) and the organization's resulting journal, both critical to professionalizing and shaping the field of museum education. Central to this publishing effort were the relationships amongst…

Science museums and similar institutions provide informal science and environmental education, both on museum grounds and out in the community. Since 2007, the Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science in Miami, Florida, USA, has run Museum Volunteers for the Environment (MUVE) program, a conservation volunteer program that is also an effective…

Volunteer programs, especially those for docents, may often be overlooked as learning opportunities rather than as a strategy for program delivery. Thinking about docents first as learners themselves, and then as partners in creating learning experiences for visitors, can create a meaningful shift in the relationship. By integrating concepts from…

I am because we are; and since we are, therefore I am. This statement from Kenyan John Mbiti, one of the first post-colonial scholars of African philosophy and religion, provides deep insight into African modes of thought. It is also valid in a universal sense. Indeed, it reflects the theme of this 50th anniversary edition of the journal: our…

The relationships between museums and schools have been strengthened in recent years but little previous research has studied the activities that museums offer for children from 0 to 6. The present article analyses the role of early childhood education in museums' programs in Catalonia. A total of 118 museums and 296 activities have been analyzed…

As part of a broader evolution of our K-12 programming, the Art Institute of Chicago transitioned our docent program into a newly designed Volunteer Program, a process that was informed by rigorous research, reflection, and evaluation of our engagements with students and teachers. This case study offers a perspective on designing a new structure…

In recent years, the role of the professionally trained volunteer docent has taken many twists and turns. Guided by institutional strategies and missions, docent programs have flexed, shifted, and altered to meet institutional needs. This article provides an overview of recent trends and practices presented at the National Docent Symposium…

The wisdom of Audre Lorde informs us that "the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house." The origins of many museum collections are that their objects were obtained by colonizers who became the masters of colonized people's cultural heritage. One of the master's tools has always been to create and benefit from a system of…

Object-based teaching (OBT) has grown in popularity in American higher education over the past 20 years and is now practiced at a broad range of post-secondary institutions, from community colleges to Research 1 universities. However, the prospects for OBT are changing. After the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic and the social justice…

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…

The use of facilitators to engage visitors in conversations at collections-based institutions has the potential to greatly impact and deepen visitor experience. The job requires the development of complex skills across specific strands of study. In this article, we share details on the strands of study in the training of youth floor facilitators…

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…

This article describes the state of museum education in Ukrainian museums after the Russian armed invasion. The research was based on interviews with museum workers from five cities in Ukraine. Museums represent different regions of Ukraine and museums of different directions. The author analyzes what changes have taken place in educational work…

Over the past 10-15 years, the Volunteer Program at the Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County has undergone an immense transition. This program overhaul tackled historical methodology that had been creating barriers to participation, addressed the changing needs of modern volunteer audiences, and worked to highlight access and inclusion in…