MA, Kent State University, 2016, College of the Arts / School of Art

PACE, CHRISTINE, M.A., AUGUST, 2016 ART EDUCATION ART MUSEUM EDUCATION AND WELL-BEING (161PP.) Director of Thesis: Robin Vande Zande This research looks at how well-being manifests within art museum educational programming with non-traditional participants. The specific programming studied took place onsite at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) in Quebec, Canada, where this type of programming has been in practice for almost two decades. Museum educators, administrators, and program personnel were interviewed in order to explore the ways in which well-being is perceived, defined, and implemented within curriculum and teaching at the MMFA. Program observations, content analyses, and literature reviews were all conducted, coded, and analyzed as part of this qualitative, collective case study. The goal of this research is to allow those within, as well as those outside of, the field of art education to more fully understand art museum education programming for well-being, justify a need for this type of programming, and to apply information learned as a model for future programming.

Committee: Robin Vande Zande Ph.D. (Advisor); Linda Hoeptner-Poling Ph.D. (Committee Member); Richard Adams Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Art Education; Cultural Anthropology; Education; Museum Studies; Museums; Social Research; Sociology; Teaching

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.), University of Findlay, 2019, Education

Empirical evidence of docent training practices in nationally accredited museums in the United States is limited. Much information can be found in the literature on recommended educational theories that can serve as a basis for docent training practices as well as prescriptive advice for quality docent education; however, detailed information about the actual practices being implemented in docent training programs is sparse. Studies have shown that museum educators agree with and encourage documented educational theories in museums in terms of the exhibits and interpretive materials, however, when instructing the docents within their museums, the museum educators may not be utilizing the theories that they espouse. The evidence in teacher education as well as museum education shows that modeling of the intended strategies is the preferred method for instruction, but evidence of docent training practices gives little proof of this idea being practiced. The current study was designed to uncover the actual practices and theories being utilized in docent training programs across the United States in museums that are accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. Additionally, the Adult Learning Model for Faculty Development (Lawler & King, 2000), a model recommended for the planning and implementation of adult education is applied as a map to guide the inquiry regarding docent training programs.

Committee: Allison Baer Ph. D. (Committee Chair); Amanda Ochsner Ph. D. (Committee Member); Mary Heather Munger Ph. D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Adult Education; Education; Museum Studies; Museums

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2020, Art Education

Research suggests that museums are not reaching their full potential for including visitors with disabilities (Bienvenu, 2019; Ginley, Goodwin, &, Smith, 2012; Kudlick & Luby, 2019; Rappolt- Schlichtmann & Daley, 2013; Sandell, 2019). Recently, scholars have critiqued art museums for their lack of accessibility (Kudlick & Luby, 2019) and exhibitions that misrepresent disability history (Sandell, 2019). The history of outsider art demonstrates how artists with disabilities are discriminated against in the art world (Prinz, 2017). Creative art centers, programs which provide artistic mentorship for adults with disabilities, are often positioned within outsider art discourse (Wojcik, 2016). Due to discrimination against artists with disabilities, art museums can increase inclusion through engaging with artists at creative art centers. Therefore, I utilized action research methodology to design and implement an integrated art museum professional development workshop for artists with disabilities at Open Door Art Studio, a creative art center, and community artists. The primary objective of the study was to explore how museum practitioners can collaborate with creative art centers to develop inclusive programming for creative art center artists and community artists. Based on interviews with Open Door Art Studio artists and staff members, I structured the workshop around time in the museum gallery for discussion and a collaborative art making exercise in the museum's studio space. For the time in the studio, I paired artists from Open Door Art Studio with community artists to create collaborative art pieces. From the post-workshop interviews, I found that the workshop, especially the collaborative portion, supported social connection between artists from Open Door Art Studio and the community artists. This social connection was demonstrated in the way that artists found things in common with each other, spoke about how they enjoyed meeting each other, (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Dana Kletchka PhD (Committee Chair); Jennifer Richardson PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Art Education

MA, University of Cincinnati, 2008, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning : Art History

Cora Elma Pratt (1888-1977) educator, collector, artist, and philanthropist spent much of her life building her innovative International School of Art (ISA) in Europe, Mexico, South America, and the United States. Pratt first established her ISA in 1928 in Zakopane, Poland and later organized locations throughout Europe and Mexico. From her travels with the ISA, she acquired a notable 2,500-piece collection of international folk art, which she gave to the Miami University Art Museum in Oxford, Ohio in 1970. This study includes a mini-biography, recounting incidents and experiences that molded Pratt into a devoted art educator and promoter of international folk art in the United States and abroad. As a promoter of folk art, she aligned herself with the Brooklyn Museum, a premier institution that was setting the pace for folk art and children's art exhibitions, acquiring artwork to sell in their gift shop and organizing folk art exhibitions from the 1930s through the 1960s. During Pratt's years of involvement with the Brooklyn Museums, she and the ISA organized the first exhibition of Polish folk art in the United States, Polish Exhibition, 1933-34. This study analyzes Pratt's ISA and looks at a couple of the most prominent artists who taught with her and the workshops they conducted. This thesis also examines some of the popular pedagogical theories promoted by Franz Cizek (1865-1947) and John Dewey (1859-1952) that heavily influenced Pratt's ISA, her educational mission, and eventually, how she believed the collection needed to be interpreted in a traditional art museum environment. While today Pratt's collection remains in storage at the Miami University Art Museum, the implication of this study could allow for Pratt's collection to be interpreted as material culture instead of folk art.

Committee: Theresa Leininger-Miller PhD (Committee Chair); Mikiko Hirayama PhD (Committee Member); Anne Timpano MA (Committee Member) Subjects: Adult Education; Art Education; Art History; Fine Arts; Womens Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2007, Art Education

In this case study, I examine the extraordinary work of contemporary artist Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson and the intersection of my experience as an educator serving as a co-curator for Symphonic Poem, a major retrospective exhibition of her work in 2003. I examine the role of museum educators in developing and presenting exhibitions that empower visitors to discover their own meaning in Aminah's complex and layered work. My examination of the case and my research related to it highlight the challenges and opportunities that face museum educators and all museum workers in an era when museums are examining their relevancy as they compete with all types of cultural and commercial events and venues for people's time and attention. This collaboration between a curator of contemporary art and an educator provides an alternative approach to traditional museum practices and organizational structures and raises important questions concerning the training and practice of museum professionals. In addition to examining the role of museum educators in exhibitions, this work presents strategies to encourage K-12 students and visitors of all ages to critically confront issues of identity, race, and oppression that hover just below the rich patterns and button-encrusted surface of Aminah's work. In the world the artist has created, being black is the norm, but everyone is invited to participate by sharing their memories, stories, and dreams. Art like that of Aminah Robinson helps to fill in the gaps that the modern museum created in regard to marginalizing and ignoring the voices of women and minorities. Educators in the post-museum can become border-crossers themselves in creating exhibitions, linking them with a broad range of communities, and encouraging visitors to become border-crossers as well.

Committee: Christine Ballengee Morris (Advisor) Subjects: Education, Art

MA, Kent State University, 2010, College of the Arts / School of Art

Building a relationship with an art museum can provide an art teacher with a valuable tool for connecting students to art, thus promoting art museum awareness and providing unique opportunities for students to learn about art in their community. The primary purpose of this Action Research study was to examine my own teaching practices in relation to establishing a connection to an art museum, and through that relationship, develop opportunities for my students to experience the art museum as a way of learning about art. This thesis documents the experiences of a high school advanced art class and their teacher, myself, while they formed a connection to a local art museum, take part in the museum's educational workshop, and use what was learned back in the art classroom. Through questionnaire responses, students' reflective journaling, observations and field notes, and both student and art museum professional interviews, data was collected to discover that students do benefit from learning through the art museum and that learning continues long after their initial experience. Interesting themes that emerged from the data included: Connecting to the art museum; students' preconceived notions versus actual experience; benefits of learning in the art museum versus learning in the classroom; and applying learned knowledge to classroom activities. Through this research, my goal was to improve my teaching while actively seeking new ways to connect students to art in the world around them. I want my experience to encourage other art educators to seek out local opportunities to connect students to art. This study demonstrated how art educators can use the art museum to teach their students about art and create unique learning opportunities.

Committee: Linda Hoeptner Poling Ph.D. (Advisor); Robin Vande Zande Ph.D. (Committee Member); Janice Lessman-Moss M.F.A. (Committee Member) Subjects: Art Education; Music Education; Secondary Education; Teaching

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2020, Arts Administration, Education and Policy

From computational and scientific viewpoints, virtual reality (VR) is a well-researched technology, platform, and mode of communication. However, from an arts perspective, virtual reality has very few, if any, defined parameters as an artistic medium. This study aims to explore the technical affordances and the experiential and creative phenomena of art-making in virtual reality in an effort to establish VR as a contemporary artistic medium framed within an arts and museum education context. The embodied, open-ended play of art-making with the virtual medium presents a different kind of user experience than most other VR applications, which deserves alternative ways of classifying the immersive elements of virtual art-making. By using the social cognitive framework (Bandura, 1986) to guide my research, I consider the dynamic relationship between environment, person, and behavior in order to understand not only the technical elements, but also what type of immersive process and embodied creativity virtual artists experience and what types of art can they make. Through a phenomenological framework, design-thinking approach, and an arts-based research methodology, this study analyzes data collected from participants and uses data visualizations to bring the research to life and make it accessible for all audiences and fields of study. Additionally, this project aims to discover how artists and educators can use the virtual medium to inspire creativity and impactful art experiences within museum spaces in ways that transport the visitors from viewer-of-art to maker-of-art.

Committee: Christine Ballengee Morris (Committee Co-Chair); Dana Kletchka (Committee Co-Chair); Shari Savage (Committee Member); Matthew Lewis (Committee Member); Vitalya Berezina-Blackburn (Committee Member) Subjects: Aesthetics; Art Education; Communication; Design; Educational Technology; Fine Arts; Museum Studies; Museums

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2017, Art Education

This research study looks at how pop-up museums could contribute to learning outcomes in a traditional museum setting. Through the use of a questionnaire, observational data, and photographs, pop-up museums are looked at in-depth. Some of the ideas that are touched upon include how learning outcomes can be impacted by use of participatory methods in traditional museums and how to connect a large group of people to an exhibit in a more personal way that lends itself to deeper learning and a more impactful experience. The background of pop-up museums is explored through the use of a theoretical framework based on John Dewey along with information about The Pop-up Museum of Queer History, The Museum of Broken Relationships, and The Ice Cream Museum, in addition to looking at Michelle DelCarlo's adaptation of the pop-up museum and refinements made by The Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History. Through the use of two different pop-up museum locations sites, research was conducted on participants' attitudes and ideas concerning pop-up museums and their thoughts on how pop-up museums could be used in traditional settings.

Committee: James Sanders (Advisor) Subjects: Art Education

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2013, English

The term rhetorical education is frequently associated with historical practices, such as progymnasmata of classical times or 19th century writing handbooks. It is also a term associated with formal education, like writing and rhetoric classrooms inside the walls of the academy. These associations indicate that rhetorical education is somewhat outdated and limited in its availability. However, in the current divisive American political climate, rhetorical education is arguably more necessary than ever. In a recent essay on the value of first-year writing from Inside Higher Ed, John Duffy explains, “To say that the current state of public discourse is abysmal seems self-evident. Toxic rhetoric has become a fact of everyday life, a form of entertainment, and a corporate product.” While Duffy suggests that first-year composition is a partial solution to this problem, claiming that it “promote[s] an ethical public discourse,” my dissertation seeks answers beyond the ivory tower, arguing that rhetorical education is a concept that needs re-viewing and revising for the 21st century, both inside and far beyond the college composition classroom. S. Michael Halloran defines public experience, like those that occur at popular tourist destinations, as rhetorical education. At such sites, explains Halloran, a collective identity is encouraged, allowing visitors to engage in public discourse based largely on their common experience at the site and their accompanying feeling of unification as American citizens. Recent research by Jessica Enoch suggests looking outside of the academy for pedagogies that modernize rhetorical education. While Enoch points to an online activist group as one such site, I argue that museums are rich spaces to study rhetorical education since they frequently encourage civic discourse and participation both inside and outside their walls. With conceptions of rhetorical education like those by Halloran and Enoch acting as a guiding framework, (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Wendy Hesford Dr. (Advisor); Brenda Brueggemann Dr. (Committee Member); Elizabeth Weiser Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Museums; Pedagogy; Rhetoric

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, EDU Teaching and Learning

This dissertation research study is two-fold; it aims to bridge the connection between informal and formal learning spaces, as it transforms museum education into restorative learning experiences. Through a qualitative heuristic case study of the Hmong Museum in Minnesota, the findings underscore the significance of community-led museums that go beyond conventional museum practices. It shines a light on the crucial role that museums and museum education play in preserving and celebrating diverse communities when communities are at the core. The study uses an assets-based approach of Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy (CSP) as conceptualized by Paris & Alim (2014). While the Hmong Museum does not notably name CSP as its framework, they are engaging in CSP. These findings highlight the importance of CSP's principles of being beyond relevant and responding to culture, cultural plurality, and critical inward gaze as they are embedded in the Hmong Museum's approach. This framework demonstrates meaningful experiences through the collaboration of the Hmong Museum with the HMong community to enrich the exchange of knowledge, stories, tradition, and culture. As the Hmong Museum presents inclusivity and connection to HMong culture, they amplify the so-often-overlooked stories and single-story (see Adichie 2009) that have guided deficit thinking of the HMong narrative in museums and educational learning spaces. Therefore, in embodying CSP, institutions like the Hmong Museum are grounded in the foundations of assets-based approaches; they encourage and sustain cultural plurality as restorative and trauma-informed educational experiences.

Committee: Timothy San Pedro (Advisor) Subjects: Education; Museum Studies; Pedagogy

Bachelor of Arts (BA), Ohio University, 2024, Environmental Studies

The OHIO Museum Complex is a small transdisciplinary museum located on the Ohio University campus in Athens, Ohio. In collaboration with this museum, I established event programming systems to cultivate experiential learning. These events, driven by the philosophy of empowering individuals from diverse demographics, encourage community members, university students, and faculty, to host workshops about their passions in a free, accessible environment with the goal of developing newfound connections between ideas, disciplines, and backgrounds.

Committee: Nancy Stevens (Advisor) Subjects: Adult Education; Environmental Studies; Museum Studies

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2023, Arts Administration, Education and Policy

There has been a movement in American archaeology since the late 1980s to improve public outreach efforts and open sites up as spaces for community learning. While certainly many projects have, with good intentions, created publicly accessible spaces in the physical sense, little attention has been paid to whether these initiatives offer quality educational benefits. This is particularly true of sites with settler histories. This paper problematizes the effectiveness of archaeologists as the designer and leader of publicly oriented educational programming and looks at the ways in which collaborating with museum educators strengthens teaching and learning onsite. By examining the Frost Town Archaeology Project (FTA), a historical archaeology site with a focus in public outreach, this thesis looks at the ways in which museum professionals and archaeologists worked together to create a learning environment centered around focus, care, storytelling, empathy, relationality, and compassion. These “seeds” opened pathways for facilitating conversations which challenged the mythicized narrative of the American settler. This work encourages archaeologists to work with and learn from museum educators whose expertise in publicly centered pedagogies can help to improve both the programming and community building efforts occurring on open sites.

Committee: Robert Cook (Committee Member); Dana Carlisle-Kletchka (Advisor) Subjects: Archaeology; Art Education

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2023, Arts Administration, Education and Policy

This research relates to the topic of professionalization in museum education and the issue of pay as compensation for labor, as evidenced in the growing trend of education departments in art museums around the country transitioning to employment models for museum educators. This research examines a particular case by the Learning and Public Practice Department at The Wexner Center for the Arts on the campus of The Ohio State University in Columbus, OH. Case study and narrative inquiry methodology guided this research while data was collected using qualitative interview informed by oral history. Thematic analysis was used for data interpretation and analysis. Results of this research show that the transition to an employment model for museum educators has increased team diversity while reducing historic financial barriers to access. Docents who are now paid educators feel a greater sense of dedication to their work while acknowledging an appreciation for the inclusion of a greater diversity of perspectives. Staff feel optimistic about the quality and cohesion of the new educator cohort and that the new program aligns closely with their mission and values.

Committee: J.T. Eisenhauer Richardson (Other); Dana Carlisle Kletchka (Advisor) Subjects: Art Education; Museum Studies

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2022, Instructional Technology (Education)

This qualitative case study explores how the LGBTQ+ community is included in informal STEM learning environments (ISLEs) such as museums and science centers. One science center was chosen as a case study to identify how ISLEs may broaden participation to the LGBTQ+ community, how institutional stance impacts LGBTQ+ community members, and how the systemic power structures of ISLEs affect inclusive practices. Through semi-structured interviews, exhibit and signage audits, and document analyses, the researcher examines how practices and policies welcome or exclude diverse identities in informal STEM education (ISE) by adapting Dawson's (2014a) equity and access framework. Findings from this analysis include a need to remove barriers to broaden LGBTQ+ participation; to implement policies and procedures to improve institutional stance towards the LGBTQ+ community; to increase queer representation in ISLEs; and to acknowledge LGBTQ+ individuals as agents of social change.

Committee: Greg Kessler (Committee Chair); Jesse Strycker (Committee Member); Krisanna Machtmes (Committee Member); Susan Burgess (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Gender Studies; Glbt Studies; Museums; Science Education

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, Arts Administration, Education and Policy

This historical research study situates the pedagogical work of Dr. Margaret Taylor Goss Burroughs (1915-2010) within the histories of art education. By situating a Black women art educator into the histories of art education during the 1940s-1960s, the history of art education must be reconsidered. By tracing and crafting a bridge from the work of Carter G. Woodson and the concept of fugitive pedagogies to Dr. Burroughs, a clearer picture of the art classroom within de facto segregated high schools emerges. Utilizing alternative historical methods such as microhistory, critical fabulation, and place-based methodologies, Margaret's educational career comes into focus, challenging the dominant narratives within histories that continue to obfuscate the work of Black art teachers. The analysis first looks at Margaret's biographical information prior to becoming a teacher, including her experiences within the school systems of Louisiana and Chicago. From there, I trace the ways that art education became a major theme in her life, and the ways that her art teachers worked to provide her the opportunity to become an art educator. The second section focuses on two different layers of analysis: one utilizing the tenets of fugitive pedagogies to deepen our understanding of Margaret's work in her high school classroom; the second focusing on the importance of place and how being in Bronzeville and dedicating herself to her community impacted her and gave her a reason to leave the classroom and become the head of the DuSable Museum of African American History.

Committee: Joni Acuff (Advisor); Clayton Funk (Committee Member); Shari Savage (Committee Member); James Sanders III (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; Art Education

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2021, East Asian Studies

This thesis examines the interpretation and representation of Korea and Korean people through Korean art and material culture at the Cleveland Museum of Art (1914 – 1945). To meet these ends, this research focuses on contextualizing the museum and its Korean art collection through an intersectional lens that considers both Japanese colonial and Western hegemonies. This contextualization reveals how the purposes of the modernist, universal survey museum and the hermeneutics of Japanese colonial historiography of Korea and Eurocentric Orientalism incorporated the ways that Euro-Americans appropriated Korean material culture into the museum to understand Korean civilization and people, thus reproducing Japanese colonial hegemony over Korea and validating Western colonial-imperial hegemonies generally. Based on articles from The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art and other primary sources, Korea typically occupied a position under Japan in the museum's iconographic program. Similarly, museum professionals at CMA, such as Langdon and Lorraine D'O. Warner, were directly involved with the Japanese colonial apparatus in Korea, and admired its colonial efforts. I argue that this resulted in the double Orientalization of Korea, as such researchers adapted Japanese colonial knowledge about Korean material culture for the purposes of Western enlightenment, resulting in Korea becoming both the West's and Japan's inferior Other in the museum space.

Committee: Pil Ho Kim (Advisor); Dana Carlisle Kletchka (Committee Member); Sooa Im McCormick (Committee Member) Subjects: Art Education; Art History; Asian Studies; History; Industrial Arts Education; Museum Studies; Museums

Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2020, Environmental Studies (Voinovich)

Urban stormwater runoff has become of increasing concern as urban sprawl has increased over decades. With more impervious surfaces, stormwater quickly passes into freshwater ecosystems with little to no water percolating into the soil. Even if there are not impervious surfaces, stormwater may pass over agricultural lands where nitrogen and phosphorus are easily available to flow into aquatic environments. Management plans are now using different strategies to filter out sediment and nutrients before they enter lotic or large lentic ecosystems. These small ponds or constructed wetlands have larger pieces of sediment settle before they have an opportunity to flow into a larger water body. While this has shown to be a successful and useful tool to filter out materials, horizontal (lateral) movement of water during flood events has become a concern. Species in a wetland can migrate in and out of the wetland into a lentic or lotic ecosystem, returning for refuge and breeding habits. If the wetland and larger water body become cut off they develop their own line of succession. The purpose of this study is to understand and characterize the water quality between an urban stormwater wetland and the headwaters of the Hocking River. Evaluate differences of biotic assemblages in the two water bodies and present information to the neighboring AHA! A Hands-On Adventure A Children's Museum. These goals are done by conducting: fish, invertebrate, crayfish and field parameter tests.

Committee: Natalie Kruse Daniels (Advisor); Nancy Stevens (Advisor); Kelly Johnson (Committee Chair) Subjects: Agricultural Education; Animal Sciences; Aquaculture; Aquatic Sciences; Art Education; Arts Management; Biology; Chemistry; Climate Change; Communication; Early Childhood Education; Earth; Ecology; Education; Entomology; Environmental Education; Environmental Studies; Hydrology; Industrial Arts Education; Multimedia Communications; Museum Studies; Museums; Pedagogy; Physical Education; Sustainability; Teacher Education; Teaching; Technical Communication; Urban Planning

Master of Science (MS), Bowling Green State University, 2020, Communication Disorders

Communicative accessibility is often sparse, preventing individuals with communication disorders from effectively participating in their lives and in society. Supported Conversation for Adults with Aphasia (SCA) teaches interlocutors to provide communicative supports to people with aphasia or other communication disorders so that they may rejoin the conversation and continue interacting in their communities. This study aimed to train volunteer docents at the Toledo Museum of Art to effectively provide aphasia-friendly art museum tours and aimed to understand the process involved in developing and executing that training. 13 volunteer docents were trained in SCA strategies during a 60-minute training program presented by a person with aphasia (PWA), a speech-language pathologist, and a speech-language pathology graduate student. A single volunteer docent was then observed across four art gallery tours for SCA strategy use. Triangulation between docent observation, questionnaires with PWA, and interviews with PWA indicate that training was beneficial and may have assisted the docent in providing aphasia-friendly tours. Interviews with project collaborators were additionally conducted, indicating that the project offered a variety of benefits for many potential populations. Feedback was provided to inform future training efforts.

Committee: Brent Archer Ph. D., CCC-SLP (Advisor); Lynne Hewitt Ph. D., CCC-SLP (Committee Member); Ronald Scherer Ph. D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Adult Education; Communication; Language; Linguistics; Museum Studies; Museums; Public Health Education; Recreation; Rehabilitation; Speech Therapy; Teacher Education; Therapy

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2018, Arts Administration, Education and Policy

The purpose of this study is to identify and analyze ways to expand the educational role of art museums in terms of their relationship with schools. Recently, art museums in South Korea began to emphasize their educational role and provide school programs. However, so far, these programs have only targeted to visual art education and art teachers, instead of all classroom teachers. After a yearlong internship at the Wexner Center for the Arts, located in Columbus, Ohio, I conducted a study of Pages, a yearlong collaborative art museum-school program between a contemporary art museum and school teachers who do not teach visual art. During my participation in Pages, I discovered several aspects with the potential to benefit collaborative art museum-school programs both in Korea and the U.S. Thus, overarching research question of the study was formulated as follows: What are the unique and essential components and practices of Pages that can inform collaborative art museum-school programs in Korea and the U.S.? To delve into the Pages program, I grounded this qualitative case study in constructivism. Specifically, I utilized the communities of practice framework, a contemporary version of social constructivism. This framework helped me explain the collaborative learning process of adult educators. In addition, constructivist learning theories helped me place art museums as legitimate learning institutions and to describe the practices of the educators which target meaningful student learning through connecting art museum education and school education. Finally, constructivism was used as an interpretive framework for the study: I co-created knowledge with the research participants and aimed to show their diverse perspectives. I utilized qualitative case study research as a methodology. Like Pages, several ongoing education programs at U.S. art museums require involvement of core classroom teachers. However, I chose Pages because it has several unique characteris (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Joni Acuff (Advisor); Karen Hutzel (Committee Member); Jennifer Richardson (Committee Member) Subjects: Art Education; Museum Studies; Museums

MA, Kent State University, 2017, College of the Arts / School of Art

Teacher quality is a decisive factor in a student's educational experience. In turn, a teacher's continued professional development is crucial to his/her capacity for high quality instructional practice. Recent research indicates that school districts' heightened focus on standardized tests as a measure of student and teacher achievement has resulted in art teachers having fewer subject-relevant opportunities for high quality professional development within their schools and districts when compared with peers teaching “tested” subjects. Counter movements seeking to challenge the rise of “testing culture” in K-12 schools centralize the processes of student creativity, critical thinking, and other 21st century skills—along with the disciplines, subjects, and professional development experiences that are intrinsically predisposed to model and support them. A compelling example of such efforts is found in the work of the Columbus Museum of Art's education department staff, who successfully effected change first within the museum's institutional vision and framework, and next in issues of art education and schooling within their community. This case study of the museum's 2015 Teaching for Creativity Institute indicates that museums are uniquely situated to provide high quality professional development opportunities and create communities of support for art teachers and their non-art teaching colleagues. These professional development experiences also have the potential to serve as powerful advocacy tools for arts education and art museums.

Committee: Linda Hoeptner Poling Ph.D. (Advisor); Koon-Hwee Kan Ph.D. (Committee Member); Juliann B. Dorff (Committee Member) Subjects: Art Education; Education; Education Philosophy; Educational Leadership; Elementary Education; Museum Studies; Museums; Secondary Education; Teacher Education