Positioning of Science Museum Educators Within Educational Research: A Critical Review

• In Event: AERA Virtual Poster Session 9
  In Poster Session: Informal Learning Environments Research SIG Poster Session

Abstract

Museum educators (staff members who interact with visitors and lead educational programs) are key employees in promoting their institutions’ educational agendas. However, museum educators have largely been positioned as receivers of training, rather than expert professionals with insights and experiences that could impact how we understand learning in informal spaces such as science museums. Within this critical literature review, I examine the positioning, power, and labour of science museum educators within their institutions, educational research projects, and the education literature more broadly. Results highlight tensions between their high importance in institutions and educational research and their frequent deficit positionings as employees and research participants. Museum educator experiences, and their potential to contribute to new educational theory, should be studied further.

Author

• Stephanie Hladik, University of Colorado - Boulder