Reading List for School-Museum Partnerships

Hi all -

To end our posts on school-museum partnerships, we wanted to leave you with a list of readings and resources to provide you with more information for future partnerships you may be a part of or even create! All listed below can be found on Amazon.com.

1. An Alliance of Spirit: Museum and School Partnerships by Kim Fortney and Beverly Sheppard

This recent publication, already a classic, “brings together the latest thinking and instructive case studies on how museums and schools can better understand each other s goals as they work together to provide school children the most inspiring educational experience possible inside the museum.” In addition, it also includes Putting It into Practice sections that provide advice for teachers and museum educators as they create these partnerships. 

2. Building Museum and School Partnerships by Beverly Sheppard

This book tells the story of museum educators and teachers who met for three workshops that focused on how to develop closer working relationships between the two. “Each partner's expectations of the other, learning theories in museums, field trips, outreach projects, community as classroom, and cultural diversity constitute the core contents of the book.” There is also an appendix of effective program materials used by museums in Pennsylvania.

3. Museums and Education: Purpose, Pedagogy, Performance (Museum Meanings) and

4. Museums and the Shaping of Knowledge by Eilean Hooper-Greenhill

As we all know, museums are currently tasked with the challenge of becoming “third spaces” and institutions for successful informal learning. The first book uses data from three national evaluation studies done between 2003 and 2006 that focused on the conceptual framework of Generic Learning Outcomes. The second provides case studies that show the various roles museums can play in the “production and shaping of knowledge.” Both seem like good sources to refer to when needing to justify the need for museum and school partnerships.

5. The Evolution of Library and Museum Partnerships: Historical Antecedents, Contemporary Manifestations, and Future Directions by Juris Dilevk

6. Museums in the Life of a City: Strategies for Community Partnerships by Portia Hamilton-Sperr and Ellen Cockran Hirzy

Although not focused on school partnerships, there is a lot we can learn by successfully partnering with other institutions, such as libraries and art centers in our communities. It is important to always promote the idea that museums are engaging and informative places of learning and can be resources for many different organizations. As we have discussed in class, the internet is drastically changing the face of museums, an issue libraries are also contending with. The Evolution of Library and Museum Partnerships  looks into the possibility of library-museum hybrids, which can use artifacts along with library collections to “create authentic, interactive experiences for community members.” Museums in the Life of a City chronicled the pilot program that sought to “enhance the appreciation of cultural diversity by building partnerships between museums and communities.”

7. Out of Our Minds by Ken Robinson

This book is the least closely related to school-museum partnerships, but we thought was worth including in our list. Sir Ken Robinson is an expert on education and creativity who is often featured in TED talks. This updated and revised version of one of his classic books poses three questions to the reader -- 1. Why is it essential to promote creativity? 2. What’s the problem? and 3. What can be done about it? He discusses how creativity is a necessity for business and careers, but few people learn about their creative abilities during the formal education years.