The Cultural Fieldwork Initiative: Collaboration for Better Education

Abstract

In recent years many advances have strengthened history teacher preparation. Due in large part to No Child Left Behind () legislation, preservice teachers increasingly major in their content areas to be designated “highly qualified.” Although it is not a new approach, teaching with primary sources has also become an exceedingly valued dimension of social studies teacher preparation; future teachers are taught to use documents so that they can model for students the analytical skills of historical thinking and illustrate particular episodes or chronological periods. In addition, preservice teachers are often assigned field experiences prior to their student teaching placements, as opportunities to apply what they are learning in their programs. In some cases, these field experiences take place in historical museums, giving novice teachers the chance to learn how to teach using objects and how to work with groups of students in alternative educational settings. While the literature on museum education is vast, little of it explores history museums and their relationship with social studies teachers. Much of the scholarship on preservice teachers and museums discusses teaching with objects and artifacts and preparing beginning teachers to design field trip experiences for future classes. Science education is a central focus in the literature, and the few discussions of social studies teaching and learning typically address the preparation of elementary classroom teachers. One recent study of secondary history teacher preparation found that the relationship between teachers and museum staff is underdeveloped. As Alan S. Marcus, Thomas H. Levine, and Robin S. Grenier argue, “both school teachers and museum staff are important stakeholders who can learn from each other and support each other’s work.”