Focused on the role of curriculum theory in museum education, this essay considers William Pinar's suggestion that curriculum be understood as a "complicated conversation." An examination of "The Price of Freedom: Americans at War," an exhibit at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, Behring Center, offers an example of how…

Besides being a content expert, it is critical for today's museum educator to be a marketer, a collaborator, and to understand how people learn best in a museum environment. This article provides a list of six books that the author recommends as essential references for today's museum educator who must wear many hats. (Contains 3 notes.)

Museum educators enter the field from a variety of backgrounds, not all rooted in visitor studies. In this article, the author discusses his experiences making the transition from university academics to the science center arena, and his struggles to define his role as an educator. A turning point for this search was his collaboration with exhibit…

What draws practitioners into the field of museum education? Why do many remain in the field long-term and how do they grow professionally? What challenges reinvigorate the practice or persuade educators to leave the field? Using examples from the course of my career and anecdotes from colleagues, this article identifies common experiences that…

This article is an example of the use of an autobiographical curriculum theory approach which centers on the production of multiple educational lifelines across time and subject. Reactions to and questions about a late Medieval painting at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC are used to raise issues concerning what it means to be taught…

The Museum of Molndal is a municipal museum located in an abandoned factory along the rapids of Kvarnbyn, a national heritage area in Molndal, just south of Gothenburg, Sweden. It is known for its innovative work based on cooperation with the local inhabitants, schools and other organizations, by involving them in creating exhibitions or…

This issue focuses on heritage education, the goal of which is to introduce the historic built environment directly into elementary and secondary school curriculums. Kathlyn Hatch discusses how heritage education's linkage with historic preservation can help students relate to society. Earl Jones assesses the status of heritage education,…

This issue contains articles on characteristics of the older adult population and how one museum program addressed them; an analysis of sensory changes in older adulthood and their implications for museum facilities and programing; what older adults can contribute to the museum; older adults as museum volunteers; and case studies of museum…

This issue focuses on the interpretation of built environments, from Washington Irving's 19th century home in Tarrytown, New York, to structures in contemporary Chicago. Barbara Carson, Margaret Piatt, and Renee Friedman discuss the interpretation of interior and exterior spaces and explain how to teach history with objects instead of teaching the…

Six museum education and learning researchers discuss the need to study how people learn and behave in museums and what kind of current research studies should be undertaken. Mary Ellen Munley, in "Back to the Future: A Call for Coordinated Research Programs in Museums," describes the differences between the terms "evaluation,""audience research,"…