Society for History Education is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The History Teacher. http://www.jstor.org Society for History Education Museums in Education: The Changing Role of Education Services in British Museums Author(s): G. M. Candler Source: The History Teacher, Vol. 9, No. 2 (Feb., 1976), pp. 183-195 Published by: Society for History Education Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/492285 Accessed: 17-08-2015 02:16 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/ info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. This content downloaded from 143.107.252.121 on Mon, 17 Aug 2015 02:16:59 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Transcript
Society for History Education is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The History Teacher.
http://www.jstor.org
Society for History Education
Museums in Education: The Changing Role of Education Services in British Museums Author(s): G. M. Candler Source: The History Teacher, Vol. 9, No. 2 (Feb., 1976), pp. 183-195Published by: Society for History EducationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/492285Accessed: 17-08-2015 02:16 UTC
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/ info/about/policies/terms.jsp
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
This content downloaded from 143.107.252.121 on Mon, 17 Aug 2015 02:16:59 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Museums in Education: The Changing Role of Education Services
in British Museums
G. M. CANDLER American Museum in Britain
ON A WARM September day a force of Confederate infantry was making its way uphill toward a Union artillery battery. Explosions shook the ground as the troops slowly advanced, using whatever cover the trees afforded. Eventually they scrambled up the final slope with a roar and amid the thunder and smoke of combat overran the Union position. Two or three Confederate troops then returned to help a fallen companion. Fortunately his injuries were slight-bruised ribs caused by a heavy fall on to his water bottle. But the episode would undoubtedly horrify many museum curators, not least because the water bottle was an original battlefield relic, more than a hundred years old, and the "battlefield" was the grounds of a museum in Som- erset, England.
Such are the hazards of"living history," as this increasingly popu- lar activity would be termed in the United States. Purists would say there are many others, though they would probably be impressed by
Mr. CANDLER is Director of Education and Deputy Director of the American Museum in Britain, Bath, England. He received his B.A. in History from the University of Hull and his certificate in education from the University of Bristol. Prior to joining the staff of the American Museum, he worked as a teacher and history department chairman in British secondary schools and as a lecturer in history and government at a college of education.
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The Southern Skirmish Association re-enacts an American Civil War battle on the grounds of the American Museum, Bath, England. This annual event attracts many visitors, who can also see a temporary exhibition of original Civil War uniforms and weapons, listen to the music of the time, and talk about the war with members of this growing band of enthusiasts. (Photographs accompanying this article are by Ron Sprules, Trowbridge, England.)
the original American Civil War material painstakingly collected by this group of English enthusiasts and mounted as an exhibition to support their martial vigor.
This kind of activity is one example of a change in the way mu- seums in Britain function. Certainly there has been a growing aware- ness of the need for change. Many museums have begun to alter their previously unflattering images, whether by broadening the appeal of the past or by adopting a more professional approach to display. Equally important is the recognition of the importance of a properly organized and responsible museum education department. As one re- cent report said, "the whole concept of education in the museum is changing. Former traditional methods of talks, lectures and displays
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no longer suffice. Its role has become more complex and includes prob- lems of administration as well as modern techniques of communica- tion."1
How far then has the concept of "education in the museum" devel- oped in Britain in recent years? In what ways, for example, can mu- seums help the classroom teacher? Is museum education keeping pace with changes in teaching techniques? What are the barriers which remain between the museum and the school? These are some of the questions I would like to consider, particularly in relationship to the teaching of history.
Progress, or indeed change of any kind, is not a characteristic many teachers in Britain would associate with museums. By their very nature they can become fossilized institutions, especially since they often lack the educational vigor and enterprise which character- ize some American museums. Yet museums are not mere depositories of historical material; they are functioning institutions. They grow and develop because of-and sometimes in spite of-the ideas of the founders and of the people who work in them. But they also change as a result of the demands of the customers, those who use them. Some education services in Britain have been established through the inter- est and effort of local teachers.
Participation of this kind in educational development is not yet widespread, though there is now in Britain an association that is doing much to remedy this situation. The Group for Educational Services in Museums (GESM) is responsible for coordinating work in museums and art galleries. Until its foundation in 1953 the development of educational services was a slow and haphazard process. As a relative newcomer to museum organization, the GESM has also had to contend with the occasional hostility of curatorial departments, whose mem- bers did not always regard school groups as the most welcome of visitors. Nevertheless, the annual conference of the GESM in Septem- ber 1974 gave some indication of how widespread its interests have become. The conference considered the results of a large number of regional discussions on the general theme "The Next Five Years," divided into five topics: museum services, and teacher training; the requirements of a new education service; art museums and their role in museum education; museums and the untapped public; and mu- seums in resource-based learning.
It would take too long to detail the results of these discussions here, but two examples of an attempt to meet the needs of the class- room teacher can be given. Many museums in Britain have increasing- ly become resource centers for more than original material, producing
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books, slides, work packs, models, replicas, and other items. While there was some opposition in the discussions to this development- particularly in the case of replicas-there was also a realization that preparatory and back-up material are essential to the teacher who wishes to incorporate museum work in the curriculum. Here the teachers' requirements have in general overcome the objections of those who feel that museums should be concerned almost entirely with original rather than reproduction material.
The second example concerns the considerable time and effort that have gone into not merely publicizing museum services, but mak- ing their use an integral part of teacher training, including in-service training. Discussion on this topic covered the use of teachers' centers, liaison with advisory staff, assignment of teachers to museums, and the organization of courses, particularly those involving teacher train- ing colleges. One of the problems faced by any education service is that whatever efforts are made to integrate museum visits into the cur- riculum, the museum experience is all to often a very fleeting one. It is important therefore that student teachers are given the opportunity to see how effectively museum resources can be used. In my own experience this can best be done through the in-depth residential course. At intervals over the past few years, for example, a group from the first teacher training college in Scotland to enable students to major in American Studies has carried out a week's "field work" at the American Museum.
It is, I hope, apparent from these brief examples that members of the GESM are concerned with interpreting "museum education" in the widest possible sense and not limiting themselves to particular educational groups or teaching methods. The aim is to achieve a part- nership between teachers and museum staff in making effective use of museum resources. Furthermore, since partnership implies a two- way effort, many museum staff now teach in schools, providing a preparatory or follow-up service for museum work and at the same time hopefully keeping in touch with educational developments with- in the schools.
In addition to the work of the GESM, several reports on museums in education have been produced since 1970 by, for example, the Mu- seums Association, the Department of Education and Science, and the Schools Council.2 The organizations involved here indicate a growing awareness of the educational value of museums. More than this, the last two are very much concerned with recent developments in teach- ing methods and take their starting point as the classroom. All three reports concentrate for the most part on the practical use of museum
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resources. It is from these reports, observation of the work of other museums, and my own experience in the American Museum in Brit- ain, that I would like to draw some general comments and specific examples of what museums have to offer the history teacher.
The main benefit a museum can offer in terms of history teaching is direct contact with the physical remains of another age-the tools, weapons, utensils, furniture, costumes, and many other artifacts that give a particular flavor to that age. The experience of this contact can add another dimension to history teaching. As Molly Harrison has noted, the past is often difficult to believe in. Through the visual and tactile evidence they leave behind them, the people of the past can become real flesh and blood.3
Nor can this contact be replaced by other forms of "visual aid." This term is all too often limited to photographic material of one kind or another, while the visual aid with the most immediate impact is the object itself. As a Museums Association pamphlet puts it, "The strong- est reason for studying original material is that no photograph or reproduction can be as good, and there is absolutely no substitute for the experience of handling and the awareness which this engenders."4 A teacher makes the same point this way:
The authenticity of the genuine article backed by the exper- tise of the museum staff can vividly bring to life appropriate parts of the curriculum, create the keenest interest, and stimulate the mind and the imagination to a far greater ex- tent than other visual aids on film or tape, which are in com- parison 'secondhand'.5
Though the original material has a special contribution to make, the development of museums as resource centers in a broader sense, mentioned earlier, has resulted in some very interesting programs run by museum education services. One such program involved a volun- teer group of secondary school students in a post-examination period, who chose (with expert advice) individual topics to study over a period of three days at the National Maritime Museum. Here much of the material was in document form-ships' logs, personal letters, dock- yard reports, and so on. These documents were backed up by three- dimensional objects such as models and relics, and also by maps, prints, and paintings, while funds were available for photographs of these items. Something of the wealth and variety of historical evi- dence a major museum can offer, provided prior consultation has taken place, is evident here. Equally important is the way the material is used, which in this case emphasized "individual involvement and discovery." A Schools Council report underlines what this method can
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Craft demonstrations of many kinds are often held in museums. This one at the American Museum was concerned with textiles. The demonstration alternated with children's songs and dances from America. The children were invited to join in both activities.
achieve-"to help children acquire effective habits of investigation, to use expert evidence, to evaluate opinions, to try imaginatively to see other points of view, to perceive relationships between facts."6
The "expert evidence" of the archives is, of course, familiar to many history teachers. Less common is the use of three-dimensional objects as historical documents. To take one obvious example, techno- logical change over the past two hundred years has made tremendous differences to the environment, yet the impact of this change is not often brought home to the student, whether in the museum or the
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Figure 3.
Children in reproduction costumes recreate the atmosphere of an eighteenth-century tavern at the American Museum. This is one way children can participate in the interpretation of a historical setting.
classroom. It can be done through the imaginative use of very mun- dane objects such as chairs. A plastic or metal classroom chair can be contrasted with a hand-made wooden chair of an earlier period, a resource item which in Britain at least is not difficult to find. Here is a direct contact between the present and the past. The visual and tactile evidence can reveal much about changes in the use of materials and methods of production, and indeed provide the starting point for a discussion of the whole range of social and economic factors connect- ed with industrial and technological development.
Museums themselves have sometimes been guilty of creating ar- tificial boundaries between different types of historical material. A chair is first and foremost a useful object, and one with which every- one is familiar. Yet for purposes of studying the past, furniture often comes under the misleading heading of "decorative arts." To show how diverse and extended an interpretation can be made from a single
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artifact, another program based on the National Maritime Museum might be mentioned. In this case a junior school group carried out a project involving several visits to the museum, with the unlikely start- ing point of reading Chaucer's Treatise on the Astrolabe. The children saw examples of astrolabes at the museum, discussed how and why they were made, and were given a demonstration of their use. "From Chaucer to mathematics, from mathematics to history, from history to the planetarium; these were the kind of steps the children took. Others were captivated by the Nelson and Captain Cook sagas, the Voyage of the Bounty, London's Rivers, Clippers, and a variety of other topics." If this list appears to meander alarmingly from any central theme, the report discussing it does at least conclude, "The most noticeable thing in their classrooms at school and in the museum was the evidence of their ability to discipline and compile information for themselves."7
While programs of this kind cross the boundaries of disciplines and are therefore in line with developments in teaching, museum education can also cross boundaries of a different sort within the school system. For the stimulus which museums can provide is not confined to students of a particular age or ability range. This stimulus may come from traditional research methods, and it has been sug- gested that sixth forms may soon be demanding facilities for this type of work in both the exhibited and the reserve collections.8 It may, on the other hand, come from the many activities now organized by museums and related to the exhibits, including craftwork, music, and drama.
Sometimes one is surprised by how much a museum can offer to a group with special limitations. A visit by blind children to the Ameri- can Museum may serve as an example. Very few museum staff have the kind of expertise required to prepare for such a visit, but inquiries revealed that a great deal of help was available: from a leading repre- sentative of the Royal National Institute for the Blind, from the Secre- tary of a local school for the blind (who was himself blind), and from teachers at the visiting blind school. All of these people helped the museum staff to prepare for the children's visit by the choice of the most suitable parts of the collection to cover, the rearrangement of furniture in some period rooms, the lighting of a fire and the cooking of gingerbread, and the provision of taped music in areas such as the American Indian Room. For museum staff and teachers alike the visit was an exercise in the difficult art of achieving balance between giving a lead and encouraging exploration. It was also a lesson in the remark- able development of the other senses which occurs when one has
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The tactile experience is an important part of a museum visit. Here secondary students are handling items from the "Please Touch" collection in the eighteenth-century tavern at the American Museum.
atrophied. The examples of schoolwork mentioned so far have all involved
museum visits, which may present problems of time and money. Yet the increasing demands on museum services have also led to a move away from the static situation represented by permanent exhibitions. The National Museum of Wales has been forced to some extent by its geographical problems to adopt this approach. Situated in the south- east corner of Wales, it has responsibilities to the whole of the country and has developed something much more ambitious than the usual loan service or circulating exhibitions, though these also play an im- portant part. This is the "museum workshop," designed especially for a particular area, involving a temporary 'exhibition, preparatory material for teachers, and appropriate activities for children. A com- parison might be made here with the "neighborhood" museums which have developed in the United States.
This breaking down of distinctions between the museum and the
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school or other local center as settings for display may also be illus- trated by a particular example in England. A secondary school in Surrey recently organized its own temporary exhibition on the Ameri- can Indian. Material was borrowed from a wide variety of sources, transport and insurance being provided by the school, and the display of original artifacts was augmented by the children's work in the form of paintings, models, and costumes. A catalogue was produced and other schools and members of the public were invited to visit the exhibition, which they did in large numbers. If this project be seen as too expensive in time and money to be practical, it should be pointed out that similar temporary exhibitions are held in the same school every year.
While conservation and research remain primary functions of museums, there is, then, a movement to provide for the needs of what has been described as a "vast new public." The result has been a "general policy to promote education, to popularize, publicize, and integrate the museum more fully into everyday life."9 Yet one impor- tant barrier remains between the school and the museum, and it is not the physical and financial difficulties involved in museum visits, which are often exaggerated. The real barrier is within the classroom itself. It is the predominantly conceptual character of education in general and history teaching in particular. The problem lies in the experience of many history teachers who may wish to use primary resource material of a non-literary kind. The years of specialization in school and university rarely include frequent visits to historic sites, art gal- leries, and museums, let alone training in the use of these resources. As the Department of Education and Science Survey has pointed out,
Graduates in history can emerge from our universities with- out having been guided to visit a museum as part of the course and without having their attention directed to any other kind of evidence than the written word. Some teachers leave our colleges of education and university departments of education without having advice on, or experience of, using museums as a source of material for their own studies, for teaching purposes or as places to which they would as natu- rally take children as they would to a library.
The practical effect of this lack of experience is familiar to museum education officers. Even when a teacher has made a determined effort to use available resources, he often conveys the conceptual character of his own education. So the student visitor to the museum will turn "at once to the label or to the lecturer for help. When he has read the information, or heard it, he is satisfied; he has understood it, and notes
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The British Westerners Society presents an annual exhibition of Plains Indian artifacts, together with traditional songs and dances, at the American Museum. This English group devotes a great deal of time to studying the Plains Indians and displays material in many different locations, including schools.
it in his book."10
I was reminded of this rejection of visual learning-the inability to look at and appreciate an object both for its own sake and for the way it can instruct-by an incident that occurred during the second
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half of the Anglo-American History Teachers' Conference held in York in July 1974. Several days were spent visiting some of the historic sites which abound in York, my particular group being concerned with parish churches and the Minster. Each day we roamed the streets of York with a guide, looking at and hearing about evidence of its medie- val past. On one occasion, while we were examining the exterior of one of the parish churches, two masons were at work a few feet away, preparing stone for restoration. No reference was made to the two men, no notice taken of what they were doing, and no attempt made to ask them about their craft. Had they appeared in a fourteenth- century glass window we would no doubt have marveled at the sight. Yet there they were, working in much the same way and with much the same tools as the masons who, centuries ago, had built the parish churches and the Minster. The ability to look may not be such a simple matter as it would seem.
If museums in Britain are changing, a great deal has still to be done to convince teachers, particularly at the secondary level, of the importance of visual learning. At the same time little has been done on the question of evaluation in museum education. But the wide- spread establishment of museum education services has been the re- sult of a growing conviction on the part of customer and custodian alike that the museum should not be reserved for the specialist and the scholar. In museum collections throughout the country there is a wealth of objects that can be viewed individually, as with works of art, or be s6en to form relationships that illustrate certain aspects of a past age. They can also be the starting point and the stimulus for creative work by children themselves.
For the history teacher one of the most difficult things to find is a point of contact between the historical material-whether primary or secondary source-and the experience of the student. Textbooks interpret, but rarely offer that contact. Archive material can more readily do so for those able to use it. But in the possessions which have been left is the tangible evidence of the obvious, though sometimes elusive, fact that the past was after all made by people.
Notes 1 Recommendations of a working party on training set up by the International
Council of Museums, quoted in Pterodactyls and Old Lace: Museums in Education, Joint Report by Schools Council and Committee for Education in Museums, represent- ing the International Council of Museums (London: Evans Bros., Ltd., 1972), 70.
2 Museums in Education, No. 1 (London: Museums Association, 1971); Museums in Education. Education Survey 12, Department of Education and Science (London:
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H.M. Stationery Office, 1971); Pterodactyls and Old Lace. 3 Molly Harrison, Changing Museums (London: Longmans, Green & Co., Ltd.,
1967). 4 Museum School Services (London: Museums Association, 1967), 9. 5 Pterodactyls and Old Lace, 31. 6 Charity James, "The Museums and the School Curriculum," Proceedings of the
First International Conference on Education and Museums, 1968 (Paris: International Council of Museums, 1969).
7 Museums in Education. Education Survey 12, p. 22. 8 Ibid., 4. 9 Pterodactyls and Old Lace, 12. 10 Renee Marcous6, The Listening Eye (London: H.M. Stationery Office, 1961), 1.
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