So much to say on this topic, and I just had to add my own experience to the discussion.
I began school knowing I wanted to work with local history and the museums within my community, so obviously I started by getting a History degree. I was very successful as an undergrad, earning many scholarships, awards, & other recognition - and my professors were very encouraging for my future as a Masters student.
Not long into my BA program, I began working in a local museum as an intern, and thankfully, this allowed me to start on my "2-5 years experience" necessary that so many job opportunities require. This internship experience, which was divided between a historic house museum and a city museum, lasted for 4 years and brought me the best insight into the museum world than any undergraduate class could. I made a choice then and there to not pursue a Masters degree in the field of history (much to the chagrin of my professors), but rather to earn a Masters in Business Communication.
With this wide array of experience in and out of the classroom, not only do I have the analytical skills for research, writing, and interpretation, but I also have the skills to form community partnerships, develop new programming, manage projects, create educational programs, coordinate facility use, monitor revenue streams & budget concerns, write grants, handle artifacts & manuscripts appropriately, develop capital campaigns, handle personnel issues, train new interns & employees, encourage professional development, and on and on and on.
I was lucky enough to witness the "everyday" practice of museums, which often run low on operating, and make many employees do "more with less." If I had job candidates in here right now, for any position, my decision to hire would most certainly involve their overall skill set, rather than their education, Masters or Bachelors. I think too many students are forced to specialize their skill set or even their body of knowledge, giving them unrealistic expectations of future job prospects. In my opinion, the interdisciplinary, cross-departmental approach on the academic level is vital to the development of critical thinking skills useful in the workplace. How do we expect students to truly be aware of multiple perspectives & biases when they've been on one track throughout their education?
And what about those Bachelors students who are consistently overlooked at the hiring table? Will they feel the pressure to take out tens of thousands of dollars in student loans to go back for an MA? Will they feel as if their Bachelors degree no longer has value? What about their sense of pride & accomplishment? What about the knowledge they gained? How do they see themselves? All of that matters when going out into the work force, particularly in the interview process.
I was lucky - I was hired for my position specifically because of my depth of education & experience. My choice paid off. But I was also lucky in that as a student, I had museum professionals that did not sugarcoat the museum world. They shared the hardships, never made me feel like I was "free labor," and taught me to be a wearer of many hats. Those lessons are some of the most important in what we do. I encourage all of us to remember that in academia and at the hiring table.
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Jessica Stavros
Director, Culbertson Mansion State Historic Site
Indiana State Museum & Historic Sites
New Albany IN
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Original Message:
Sent: 07-30-2015 11:04 AM
From: Linda Nelson
Subject: Museum Education
Daniel,
Thank you for the courage to stand up and post that "rant'. I nodded my head repeatedly as I read and then re-read your post. i am from the j
Jurassic era of museum professionals, way back before museum studies existed and way before anyone thought to offer higher degrees.
I worked my way through undergrad with a History degree and spent my Junior year in England to learn more about archaeology and museum work. I came back and spent my Senior year doing an internship I got myself at the State historical museum. I walked into the Archaeology department and asked if i could help out. Spent an amazing year doing all kinds of hands on things and learning to be a Registrar (I didn't know what that was but i liked to handle artifacts so it worked!). i walked out of college with a newly minted BS (all that science stuff, only History major with a BS) in History and got a job as a Registrar in a natural history museum. Never looked back and I love my work.
That all said, I have worked with a handful of student interns who wanted to learn collections management and I have encouraged a lot of hands on work. Skill and practice go a long way towards learning your craft and I am sad to see so many talented young students immediately head off to grad school, believing they will not be hired without a MA. The tale of the tape seems to point to not being competitive without Grad school.
How can we slow or reverse this trend? Young people are being saddled with school debt and coming out to compete in huge numbers against other MAs. In my opinion some of this seems to be a trend towards making money. A lot of programs have sprung up and it is a good money making idea. I am not knocking MAs at all, but I do wish that more emphasis was put on a well round Bachelors with hands on experience. Think a lot of good students who don't head for grad school are being lost to other fields.
My "rant" is over. You got me thinking. Interesting conversation.
Linda
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Linda Nelson
Registrar
Maryland Science Center
Baltimore MD
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Original Message:
Sent: 07-30-2015 09:59 AM
From: Daniel Bartlett
Subject: Museum Education
Bill:
We've considered turning our minor in museum studies into a major as well, perhaps with "tracks" for students with different areas of interest, including museum education and informal learning.
But, alas, given the fact that there are too damn many graduate programs turning out aspiring museum professionals, there's no real point in either of us going to the effort of developing such a program.
It doesn't require a master's degree engineer to design a bridge that won't fall down -- surely a bachelor's educated museum professional can manage a collection or develop and deliver a school program. And given the rather thin and exceptionally general list of courses many grad programs (especially the certificates) believe is adequate professional preparation, an undergraduate major would most certainly be better prepared.
I know that any of our minors is better qualified to be a collections manager or exhibit developer than many, many newly-minted holders of master's degrees. And yet, when a museum can post positions for part-time, front line education staff or collections assistants saying "bachelor's required masters preferred" and get dozens of masters level applicants, the mindset is "masters = better" what do you suppose happens to the bachelors-level applicants?
A local museum recently passed over one of our students (who worked extensively, hands-on, in our collections) for a part-time collections assistant position (mostly to do cataloging and data entry and assist with research requests, but also work on exhibits). This student lives in the same city as the museum and has roots there. She was interviewed but not offered the job mostly because, based on conversations I had with friends at the museum, while she was certainly qualified for the job, they could get a masters degree (12 of them applied) for the same compensation package, so why not?
This problem is the "elephant in the middle of the room" that no one wants to see. We have too many graduate programs turning out too many people for the few, poorly paying jobs that they all claw and fight for. AAMG and COMPT want to discuss and set standards for curriculum and skills, but what we need is a system that rates schools (undergraduate and graduate) on the cost and rigor of their programs, and especially their post-masters placement and compensation rates.
[Rant over.]
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Daniel Bartlett
Curator of Exhibits and Education
Logan Museum of Anthropology - Beloit College
Beloit WI
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Original Message:
Sent: 07-29-2015 08:31 AM
From: William Mowder
Subject: Museum Education
We are thinking of developing an undergraduate BA or BS degree in museum education, the goal of which would be to prepare graduates to secure entry level positions in the education departments of museums. There are quite a few graduate programs in museum studies and museum education, but only a few undergrad programs. Perhaps there is a good reason for that or perhaps it is a good opportunity. As we are thinking about it now, the program would be interdisciplinary in that students in the arts, history, social sciences, and sciences could double major or perhaps minor in museum education. As we think about what the curriculum might look like, my question here, for now, is what knowledge or skills should graduates with a degree in museum education have to make them attractive to museum education departments? Any other thoughts on this program would also be appreciated. Bill
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William Mowder PhD
Dean, College of Visual and Performing Arts
Kutztown University
Kutztown PA
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