INTRODUCTION to the STUDY Narrative Beginnings Throughout

1 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY Narrative Beginnings Throughout my adult life, I have been fascinated with museums and other places of informal learning, such as zoological parks, botanical gardens, science centers,1 and art galleries. Although museums have played a significant role in my adult life, I cannot put my finger on what it was that sparked my interest in museums. I have only one childhood memory of visiting a museum. It occurred when I was five or six years old, when my family accompanied another family to the Museum of Science and Industry—a very large museum located in Chicago, Illinois, a two-hour drive from our home. The strongest memory I have of my day at the museum was picking up a telephone and speaking with Mickey Mouse. At the time, I believed it was the real Mickey on the other end of the phone. I also remember walking through a huge model of a human heart and hearing the loud thump-thump, thump-thump. The only other memories I have of the day relate to where we ate after the museum visit—at a place called the Pickle Barrel. I do not recall what sense I made of that experience back then, whether I understood what a museum was, or what I was supposed to take away from the visit. It is difficult to say what, if any, impact that museum experience had on me. I do not have any other memories of visiting a museum as a child—not even of going on school field trips to museums. I know my parents must have influenced my interest in museums. They are both voracious readers with a wide range of interests, particularly in the areas of the arts, history, and medicine. Their passion for learning and the arts is something that 1 American English spelling has been used throughout to reflect my dual citizenship and identity. Australian English spelling has been used for study participants. 2 I have witnessed throughout my lifetime. While growing up, our house was filled with the sounds of classical music and opera. Somewhere in my consciousness I must have been aware of my mother‘s interest in art. I have vivid memories of my father and mother discussing artworks featured on the cover of the Journal of the American Medical Association, a tradition that continues today. As a child, I can also remember my mother in her role as a ―picture lady,‖ taking art into primary school classrooms. It was a mysterious activity; one day each month she would leave the house carrying works of art and disappear for an hour or two. Her passion for art and continuous pursuit of it throughout her life, despite the struggles and strains of bringing up four children born in quick succession, is evidenced today through her work as a docent at the Art Institute of Chicago. My mother‘s history of volunteerism around the arts has also been a constant in my life. Over the years, her volunteer work has included serving on the Board of the local art museum, caring for a university art collection while working on an advanced degree in art history, and providing in-school talks for a chapter of the Lyric Opera. Although I did not directly witness her volunteer work, she modeled a particular type of engagement with the arts that was different from being an audience member—active engagement that focused on learning and contributing in personally meaningful ways through the process of volunteerism. When I was in my early twenties, I started volunteering as a docent at a zoological park in Cleveland, Ohio. At that point in my life, I had a strong interest in the natural world and a growing interest in pursuing a career in education. As a docent, one of my duties was to provide school groups with guided tours. Over the course of the four years working at the zoo, I guided a large number of tours. I loved the experience of taking children through the park, sharing information about 3 the animals, and hearing and watching their reactions to seeing rare and exotic wildlife. A few years later, after moving back to Illinois, I was hired as an educational program assistant at the Brookfield Zoo, located in a suburb outside of Chicago. Although my job was primarily preparing teaching materials, I also had the opportunity to do some teaching. For one of the programs, I played the role of a scientist who engaged a tree (I was too short to be the tree) in a conversation about the importance of saving tropical rainforests. Through that experience, I became aware of the ways in which drama can be used to engage children in informal learning environments. One of the puzzlements I had during this time was wondering what effect these experiences had on children. Did they leave having positive feelings about zoos? Would their experiences at the zoological park translate into a deeper concern for the preservation of animals and the environment? After another move, this time to Connecticut, I made the switch from working at zoos to working at science centers—first as an educator at a science- based school for gifted children, and later as the manager of the Scout and overnight programs at the Science Center of Connecticut. Early on, I struggled to understand what it was that I wanted children to get out of their experiences. I ultimately decided that my main goal was to stimulate children‘s interest in science. Consequently, I worked to design educational experiences that were highly enjoyable. The most popular program I developed was a ―mystery‖ sleepover where, during the night, children solved a crime using a variety of forensic science techniques. While working at science centers, more questions emerged. I queried which methods of delivery were most effective in engaging children in learning about science. I wondered if simply having fun doing science was a good enough outcome. As with my experiences at zoological parks, I wanted to know what 4 impact, if any, these experiences had on the children who participated in the programs. I continued to struggle to understand the potential of these experiences. After moving to Brisbane, Australia, in 1998, I volunteered in the Education Section of the Queensland Museum. After a short period of time, I was hired as an educator. It was there that I was exposed for the first time to the fascinating work that goes on in a museum, especially in the area of research. I can remember my reaction of utter amazement when I saw the hundreds of glass bottles filled with little dead animals during a behind-the-scenes tour of one of the collection areas. I felt privileged to be in such close contact with historically and scientifically significant specimens and artifacts. While there, working with school groups, I often wondered what thoughts were going through children‘s minds as they encountered dinosaur skeletons, ―olden day‖ objects, and preserved animal specimens. The most common question children asked me was, ―Is it real?‖ I found myself questioning the effectiveness of the traditional teaching strategies used to deliver educational programs (teacher-led workshops and tours) in maximizing opportunities to excite and stimulate young learners. Once again, I wondered what it was that children were getting out of these excursions. Would these experiences in any way shape future experiences? My career path took a turn when I was hired as a research assistant— working on a project2 focusing on young children‘s learning in museums (see Anderson, Piscitelli, & Everett, 2008; Piscitelli, Everett, & Weier, 2003). A completely new and stimulating world opened up for me. During the course of that project, the research team, along with community and school partners, took children on field trips to a variety of museums—natural/social history, science, and art. It 2 Young Children's Interactive and Informal Learning in Museums: A Joint-venture Research and Training Program. Australian Research Council: Project ID # C10024104. 5 was during this time that I became interested in children‘s responses to art. I was astonished to see young children highly engaged in an art museum setting—a place that is not known for either hands-on exhibits or large dinosaur skeletons. It has been six years since the completion of the project, and I have often wondered if or how their museum visits influenced the lives of those children. Will they draw on these experiences later in life? Did the nine visits to three different types of museums over the course of one school year serve to enculturate them into the world of museums? Are any of those children regular museum-goers today? After that project ended, I continued to work in the area of museum visitor studies—conducting studies evaluating the effectiveness of educational resources and programs (see Everett, 2005; Everett & Piscitelli, 2006). In addition to evaluation studies, I also worked on research projects that focused on adult learning in museums. These experiences raised questions concerning the ways in which adults engage with museums. What are their reasons for visiting? What are their preferred ways of engaging with a museum? What value do they place on their museum experiences? Although these studies provided answers to some questions, other questions remained unanswered. I carried these questions with me to my next place of residence, Hobart, Tasmania. Upon my arrival in Hobart, I searched for opportunities to continue my work in the field of visitor studies. During my first week of living there, I arranged a meeting with the one person I identified as conducting research in the area of arts education, Professor Margaret Barrett.

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