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The role of U.S. historic sites and museums in supporting social studies instruction in K-12 classrooms

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The role of U.S. historic sites and museums in supporting social studies instruction in K-12 classrooms

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Content 1
THE ROLE OF U.S. HISTORIC SITES AND MUSEUMS IN SUPPORTING SOCIAL
STUDIES INSTRUCTION IN K-12 CLASSROOMS:
A QUALITATIVE STUDY
By
Kate Rogers
______________________________________________________________________________
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC ROSSIER SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF EDUCATION
May 2023
Copyright 2023 Kate Rogers
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Abstract
The role of museums and historic sites as institutions of informal learning has been
interwoven with the delivery of social studies education since the National Council for the Social
Studies and the United Sates Park Service were both formed in 1916. Places like George
Washington’s Mount Vernon, Gettysburg National Military Park and Thomas Jefferson’s
Monticello are integral to the preservation of our collective past and our common identity as a
country. In the midst of a highly polarized political environment and the recovery from a global
pandemic, social studies teachers in American classrooms are often on the front lines of the
modern culture wars. In addition, state standards for the delivery of social studies education have
been evolving to focus more on the development of cognitive practices and skills such as
historical thinking and empathy and less on the rote memorization of specific dates and events.
Teachers of history and social studies need support to effectively make this transition. This
qualitative study looks at professional development opportunities for teachers at the three
national historic sites names above as well as the National World War II Museum in New
Orleans. Through a series of interviews with museum professionals and participating teachers as
well as focus groups and informal observations of weeklong immersive experiences offered
during the summer of 2022, the study seeks to understand the theories and frameworks that
inform the delivery of such experiences and the ways that teachers internalize and act on what
they learn. Based on the findings, teachers expressed a strong preference for this type of place-
based experiential learning over more traditional methods of professional development. The
multi-day seminars and institutes also made them feel appreciated and valued as professionals.
Ideas and suggestions are offered for other museums and historic sites that might be interested in
offering similar opportunities for educators in the future. Implications for designers of other
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professional development opportunities at the district level are also discussed. Finally, areas for
improvement and further research are identified and solutions are recommended along with an
evaluation plan.

Keywords: Commemorative Museum Pedagogy (CMP), Contested histories, Discursive
instruction, Historic site-based professional development (HSBPD), Historical empathy,
Historical reconciliation, Historical thinking skills, Inquiry-based instruction, Interpretive
planning

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Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Dr. Mark Robison, the creator of the Global Ed.D. program at the
Rossier School at the University of Southern California. His background as a historian, his depth
of knowledge and commitment to equity in education were truly an inspiration. I also appreciate
all of the other faculty members at Rossier involved in the evolution and delivery of the program.
Their professionalism and responsiveness made the journey both remarkable and enlightening.
I am truly grateful for all of the guidance and support provided by Dr. Cathy Sloane
Krop, my dissertation committee chair, along with my other committee members, Dr. Mark
Robison and Dr. Lawrence Picus. They made the entire process from the selection of my topic to
the final submission a seamless experience I will never forget. I do not think I would have made
it the finish line without Dr. Krop’s kindness, patience and gentle pushing. She returned her
comments on every draft with unbelievable speed and made the final product so much better than
it would have been otherwise. The journey also would not have been the same without the
organizational skills and leadership of Dr. Sabrina Chong who kept us all on task and on time
while also making it a lot of fun along the way.
To my amazing classmates from Cohort 9, you will always occupy a special place in my
heart. We made a commitment at the beginning to leave no man behind and together, we traveled
and learned and struggled and triumphed in the end. I simply could not imagine a better group of
people with whom to share this experience. I’d also like to thank the incredible professionals and
teachers I met at Gettysburg, Mount Vernon, Monticello and the National World War II Museum
in New Orleans. I learned so much from all of them. Finally, to my loving husband, Trey, and
two beautiful boys, Jackson, 18, and Carson, 14 – you will always be the wind beneath my
wings.
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Table of Contents
Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... 2
Acknowledgments .......................................................................................................................... 4
Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................... 5
List of Tables .................................................................................................................................. 7
List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ 8
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................... 9
Background of the Problem ....................................................................................................... 10
Statement of the Problem ........................................................................................................... 15
Purpose of the Study .................................................................................................................. 19
Research Questions .................................................................................................................... 20
Significance of the Study ........................................................................................................... 21
Organizational Field Context ..................................................................................................... 23
Definitions .................................................................................................................................. 27
Organization of the Study .......................................................................................................... 29
CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE .......................................................... 30
Evolution of Historic Sites and Museums as Educational Institutions ...................................... 31
Social Studies Instruction in the United States .......................................................................... 42
Working with Teachers to Deepen Student Learning ................................................................ 51
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 64
CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY ................................................................................. 66
Study Overview ......................................................................................................................... 67
Population and Sample .............................................................................................................. 67
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Instrumentation .......................................................................................................................... 69
Data Collection .......................................................................................................................... 73
Data Analysis ............................................................................................................................. 76
Credibility and Trustworthiness ................................................................................................. 77
Ethics .......................................................................................................................................... 78
Role of the Researcher ............................................................................................................... 79
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 81
CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS AND FINDINGS ..................................................................... 82
Site and Study Participants ........................................................................................................ 82
Findings ...................................................................................................................................... 85
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 120
CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PRACTICE ....... 122
Discussion of Findings ............................................................................................................. 123
Recommendations .................................................................................................................... 127
Evaluation ................................................................................................................................ 139
Limitations and Delimitations .................................................................................................. 146
Suggestions for Future Research ............................................................................................. 149
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 150
References ................................................................................................................................... 154
Appendix A ................................................................................................................................. 163
Appendix B ................................................................................................................................. 166

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List of Tables

Table 1. A Comparison of Andragogy and Pedagogy ................................................................... 62
Table 2. Relationship between Kolb and Knowles ........................................................................ 63
Table 3. Teacher Interview Participants at a Glance ..................................................................... 83
Table 4. Focus Group Participants ................................................................................................ 84
Table 5. Emerging Themes ............................................................................................................ 86
Table 6. Relationship between Kolb and Knowles ...................................................................... 122
Table 7. Overview of Recommendations .................................................................................... 128

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List of Figures

Figure 1: Inquiry-Based Instructional Model ................................................................................ 46
Figure 2. Historical Thinking Skills .............................................................................................. 47
Figure 3. Characteristics of Effective Professional Development ................................................. 52
Figure 4. Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory ............................................................................ 60
Figure 5. Research Methodology ................................................................................................... 70
Figure 6. Engagement with Teachers Defined .............................................................................. 95
Figure 7. Characteristics of Effective Professional Development ................................................. 97
Figure 8. Historical Thinking Skills ............................................................................................ 103
Figure 9. Summary of Emerging Themes ..................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

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CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
“Study history, study history. In history lies all the secrets of statecraft.”
– Winston Churchill
Civics education in American classrooms has historically been part of the social studies
curriculum first introduced in 1916. At the time, the Committee on Social Studies organized by
the United States National Education Association defined social studies as those subjects related
directly to the social nature of humans and the organization and development of society with the
goal of promoting good citizenship (Hardwick et al., 2010). Similarly, the Texas Council for the
Social Studies, an affiliate of the National Council for the Social Studies, defines the subject as a
“discipline of study focused on the interdependence of geography, history, government,
economics, and civics in our society” (https://www.txcss.net, 2021). Thus, the link between
social studies education and civic participation has been present since the subject was first
implemented in classrooms across the country.
Today, there are many challenges facing teachers of both history and social studies who
have the responsibility for educating and engaging an increasingly diverse student population
who may or may not find themselves represented adequately or correctly in the curriculum. For
example, a study conducted by researchers from Stanford University in 2015 and 2017 revealed
that almost all of the historical figures included in U.S. History textbooks in Texas were white
men rather than people of color even though the state, like many others, has changed
dramatically in recent years with now more than half, 52.4%, of an estimated 5.4 million
students identified as Latinx (Li, Demzsky, Bromley, & Jurafsky, 2020). The traditional
approach to social studies and civics instruction has focused on patriotism and obedience with an
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emphasis on memorizing specific bits of knowledge such as the Pledge of Allegiance, the
structures of government and historical facts sometimes taken out of context (Payne, et al.,
2020). Clay and Rubin (2020) argue that students from traditionally marginalized populations
would benefit from a more “assets based” approach to civics and history education that draws on
their unique experiences and creative teaching strategies such as “naming, questioning and
demystifying.”
To date, most of the research in history as well as social studies classrooms has focused
on the content of the courses and on critical analysis of the material covered in textbooks, not on
the cultivation of historical thinking skills, the development of student identity or the impact on
civic engagement. In addition to a curriculum that some describe as a mile wide and an inch deep
with an emphasis on rote memorization, the increasing political divisiveness in the country can
also make constructive discourse in social studies classrooms both uncomfortable and potentially
risky for educators. This study examined how history and social studies teachers on the frontlines
in the classroom can engage in ongoing and high-quality professional development opportunities
that build confidence in addition to helping them hone their instructional practices beyond
content knowledge. Specifically, the study addressed the role that historical sites in the United
States can play in fostering this engagement.
Background of the Problem
John Dewey viewed history and social studies education as a key component of the
American democratic experiment suggesting that without an understanding of the events and
errors of the past, humans are destined to repeat those same mistakes. In Art as Experience,
Dewey states that “aesthetic experience is always more than aesthetic. In it a body of matters and
meanings, not in themselves aesthetic, become aesthetic as they enter into an ordered rhythmic
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movement towards consummation” (Dewey, 1980, p. 326). Dewey argues that, in fact, shared
experience is critical to the preservation of democracy. He describes shared experience as a
human good that through its rhetorical nature promotes both growth and change and thus impacts
identity and the way that people see themselves and the role they play in any given community.
The types of experiences that occur inside museums and at national historic sites can be
representative of Dewey’s concept of consummation when the impression that is made and/or the
feelings that are aroused generate a response similar to those that occur in reaction to a
significant piece of art (Dickinson et al., 2010).
Similarly, the American writer and theorist, Kenneth Burke, defined collective identity as
a specific set of attitudes held in common by a group of individuals, and rhetorical experiences at
places of public memory can profoundly impact and shape such attitudes. In other words, any
experience where we are asked to create or make meaning can impact our attitudes which can
then, in turn, lead to personal transformations both big and small (Dickinson, et al., 2010). With
this idea in mind, prominent historic sites and museums can provide high-quality professional
development opportunities for social studies and history educators that create place-based
transformational experiences so that they in turn can do the same for their students.
Much like museums and their approach to interpreting the events of the past, the study of
history has continued to change and evolve both as a practice and in its importance to educators,
administrators and the public. Often driven by both political as well as economic forces, the
subject has seen many reforms over the past 150 years. For example, in 1917 the Smith-Hughes
Act added vocational courses as well as home economics to the curriculum (Bolinger & Warren,
2007). Guidelines for how the classes should be taught have also continued to change based on
new standards introduced at both the state and federal level. According to Bolinger and Warren,
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there are five best practices that emerge across the various standards. They include: “multiple
representations or perspectives, appropriate methodologies, critical use of source materials,
interdisciplinary methods and ability to construct new knowledge or sound interpretations” (p.
72). However, as indicated by Larry Cuban from Stanford in his book, Teaching History Then
and Now, there is often a gap between what is considered to be best practice and what actually
happens in the classroom where an overemphasis on passive rather and active pedagogy
including worksheets and rote memorization of dates and facts is still quite common (Cuban,
2016).
Further, since the inception of standards-based educational reform following the
publication of A Nation at Risk in 1983, much of the emphasis in U.S. classrooms has been on
tested subjects such as mathematics and language arts (Kenna & Russell, 2014). This initially led
to a reduced focus on the importance of social studies instruction which some research indicates
has resulted in a diminished understanding of history and key historical events among both
students and adults (Burroughs et al., 2005). In some ways, establishment of the Common Core
standards in 2009 helped to re-emphasize the importance of social studies as a subject (Kenna &
Russell, 2014). Led by the Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Governors
Association, the Common Core standards were developed with a focus on college and career
readiness or performance standards rather than content standards. Although not all states have
adopted the Common Core standards, with Texas being one of a handful of states that did not,
today, all 50 states have established standards for social studies including history, geography,
civics/government and economics (Kenna & Russell, 2014).
Current National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) standards stress that students,
particularly at the high school level, should have the opportunity to “analyze, explain, interpret
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and solve problems” (Bolinger & Warren, 2007, p.73). Many state standards also stress that an
interdisciplinary approach to social studies instruction is desired. But in spite of this and the call
for sophisticated instructional methods such as role playing, individual research and socratic
inquiry, many teachers still emphasize objective content such as names, dates and facts in an
effort to ensure that students perform well on the standardized tests described above (Bolinger &
Warren, 2007). For example, through a survey of both elementary and secondary teachers in a
mid-sized district in Indiana combined with classroom observations, researchers found that
teachers spent the majority of social studies class time on lecturing, worksheets and individual
projects and the least time on debate, role playing and student research, even though such
strategies are often described as best practice (Bolinger & Warren, 2007). Elementary teachers in
the study identified projects and discussion as the most effective teaching strategies while
secondary teachers listed lecture and discussion at the top. Similarly, in a 1998 study of 48 high
school social studies classes, researchers discovered that only about 1.5 minutes of class time
was actually devoted to discussion and there was no discussion at all in more than 60% of classes
(Nystrand et al., 1998). Basically, while teachers may recognize that more active strategies are
preferred, they still rely heavily on passive strategies that more clearly translate into higher test
scores. In a similar study conducted in 2000, Haas and Laughlin found that less than 5% of
almost 600 teachers who participated in a survey they conducted in conjunction with the NCSS
indicated that they use primary source documents as part of their instruction (Haas & Laughlin,
2000). Such findings could have implications for both teacher preparation programs as well as
professional development programs, particularly those offered at museums and historic sites
where primary source documents are frequently housed and displayed as part of a collection of
artifacts that helps visitors to make sense of the past.
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As recently as 2010, the same year that the NCSS national standards were last revised,
research concluded once again that traditional instructional methods such as “lecture and
homework from textbooks” are still the most prevalent in actual classroom practice (Kenna &
Russell, 2014, p. 78). Beck and Eno had similar findings in 2012, finding that despite the
recognition of active, student-centered strategies as best practice, passive approaches built
around textbook content still dominated classroom practice. In addition to testing requirements,
the breadth of the content standards and the amount of information to be covered is also a driver
of instruction that promotes memorization versus deep learning. In addition to documented
standards, many states now also have assessments, particularly at the high school level, to test
student knowledge, but again the emphasis is often on rote memorization of dates, figures and
facts instead of historical thinking in spite of the Common Core Standards placing more
emphasis on both “cognitive processes and skill acquisition” (Kenna & Russell, 2014, p. 79).
Kenna and Russell (2014) suggest that both pre-service and in-service teachers are in
need of additional training in order to be able to successfully meet such standards as they
transition their practice away from traditional, textbook-based methods. Inquiry-based
instruction requires that teachers move from the “sage on the stage” approach into one as coach
and facilitator. Many educators need assistance in making this transition successfully (Yogev,
2013). In addition, the development of critical thinking skills and historical empathy in students
can be difficult to measure. Thus, it is hard for teachers to know if they are doing it effectively
(Carretero et al., 2012). Therefore, teachers need training and support in order to implement
instructional best practices and new methods of assessment for history and social studies
education.

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Statement of the Problem
A great deal of time and money is spent each year on continuing education for teachers in
Texas and across the country. Exact expenditures, however, can sometimes be difficult to
measure depending on how they are tracked and coded at the district level (Chambers et al.,
2008). Linda Darling-Hammond and her colleagues at the Learning Policy Institute at Stanford
have conducted one of the most comprehensive three-part studies of professional development
for teachers in the United States. In Part 2 of the study, they analyzed data taken from three
administrations of the national Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) that was conducted by the
National Center for Education Statistics as well as a MetLife study conducted in 2009 to
understand teacher perceptions of and participation in professional development (Hammond, et.
al, 2010). They define professional development as “a comprehensive, sustained and intensive
approach to improving teachers’ and principals’ effectiveness in raising student achievement”
(Hammond, et al., 2010). In general, through their analysis of survey results they found that
gains have been made in support for new teachers and principals, but for in-service educators
traditional approaches such as conferences and one-day workshops, deemed not to have the same
impact on classroom practice as those experiences that are job-embedded and sustained over a
longer time period, still dominate the field. In the 2008 administration of the SASS, more than
87% of responding teachers reported participating in content or subject-based professional
development and almost 70% rated the training as “useful” or “very useful,” but only 24%
participated in more than 33 hours, the benchmark in terms of best practice. In Texas,
specifically, Hammond and her team found that 91% of teachers reported participating in
content-focused professional development, but only 22% reported engaging for 33 hours or
more. This is not entirely surprising given that the state requirement for teacher certification is
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150 hours over five years or 30 hours per year (Chambers et al., 2008). Unfortunately, the SASS
was altered following the 2008 administration, precluding further longitudinal studies of the data
it provided.
In terms of district spending on professional development, Chambers and his colleagues
identify two broad categories - traditional and integrated. Traditional approaches include
conferences, college courses for credit, workshops and institutes while integrated approaches
include study groups, collaborative networks, mentoring & coaching and professional internships
and are generally thought to be more effective (Chambers et al., 2008). Chambers based his
analysis of spending in six districts in the Southwest region of the U.S. on prior work done by
Miles and Odden (Miles et al., 2004). In his original study on the topic in 2002, Odden
developed a framework for coding expenditures at the district level using six categories - teacher
time, training and coaching, administration, materials, equipment, facilities, travel and tuition
and fees (Miles et al., 2002). Because these expenses are normally tracked across departments
and not in one single location, they can be difficult to gather. Thus, Chambers and his colleagues
as well as others have called for districts to utilize web-based tracking tools to more accurately
capture the true cost of all professional development (PD) activities including teacher time for
those that are embedded during the school day such as participation in professional learning
communities. Some districts, including the two from Arkansas that participated in the Chambers
study have started to do just that. Overall, they found that the six districts, including one large
urban district from Texas, spent an average of 2% to 9% of total spending, the equivalent of
$150 to $600 per student or between $2,475 and $8,670 per teacher (Chambers et al., 2008).
Similarly, the study conducted by Miles and Odden in 2004 in the Northwestern region of the
United States found that district spending on professional development varied widely from
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approximately $1400 per teacher to over $7000 per teacher representing 2% to 4% of overall
district spending (Miles et al., 2004). For the Texas district included in Chambers’ research,
professional development spending was an estimated $2,475 per teacher or $159 per student
representing just under 2% of total district spending, below all other participating districts with
the exception of one suburban school district in New Mexico.
In spite of the investment and the recognition that professional development for educators
is important in terms of its potential impact on student learning, traditional approaches have not
historically met the expectations or needs of teachers (Ball & Cohen, 1999). According to Linda
Darling-Hammond and her colleagues, the majority of such experiences are short-term and
passive and do not adhere to what the research reveals as effective in transforming actual
practice (Darling-Hammond et al., 2017). Further, teachers of history and social studies may be
at a particular disadvantage as opportunities for them may be overlooked or diminished in a
world driven by standards-based reform and testing (Kenna & Russell, 2014). In the studies
conducted by both Darling-Hammond and Chambers, there was no mention of PD activities or
experiences focused on history or social studies. Instead, Hammond and her colleagues focused
on reading instruction and computer-based instruction along with strategies for supporting
students with disabilities and students with limited English proficiency (Hammond et al., 2010).
Professionals at Museums and Historic Sites have an opportunity to probe further to understand
exactly what social studies and history teachers need to help fill the gap between research and
practice and how the specific skills and knowledge that they acquire actually impacts classroom
practice. In the same way that Museums and Historic Sites seek to bring history to life through
the display of artifacts and the development of exhibits that create a more immersive experience
for visitors, they can also strive to establish an ongoing dialogue with teachers and to seek input
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from practitioners in the development of materials and programs (Marcus, Stoddard &
Woodward, 2017).
In Texas, even though history is considered a component of social studies as a subject, it
is distinguished with separate requirements in terms of teacher certification. Specifically,
teachers seeking certification in both history and social studies must pass a distinct content exam
in addition to the traditional requirements including a bachelor’s degree and passage of the basic
certification exam (https://www.tea.gov, 2021). Teachers in the state must update their
certification every five years by completing a minimum of 150 hours of continuing professional
education (CPE) or professional development (Darling-Hammond et al., 2017). However, even
though teachers are meeting the requirements to maintain certification, they may not have the
education and support they actually need to improve classroom instruction.
Research indicates that teachers view museums as authoritative in the information they
present which is good, but it can also diminish their desire to question and to think critically
about their experiences at historic sites which can be a missed opportunity for educators and
students alike (Baron et al., 2019). Through a survey of 94 secondary history teachers followed
by a series of interviews, researchers at the University of Connecticut found that educators
currently think of Museums and Historic Sites mostly as destinations for field trips which often
are not integrated into the curriculum (Marcus et al., 2012). An estimated 60% of the teachers
surveyed participated in a field trip during the prior year but also stated that both money and time
can be a factor in limiting such trips. In addition, while teachers recognize historic sites as
credible sources and places that promote experiential learning for students, more can be done to
utilize visits to develop both historical thinking as well as empathy (Baron et al., 2019). In a
report generated by the Bradley Commission on History in the Schools, historical thinking was
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described as the ability for “students to see today’s issues and events in relationship to the past;
to understand that the history they study is not the ‘truth’ but a version of the past written by
historians who do not always agree on the basis of analysis and evidence” (Gagnon, 1989, p. 55).
As museums shift from narratives that focus almost entirely on those in power to also
include marginalized populations, educators have an opportunity to encourage students to think
more critically about the story that is told (Dickinson et al., 2010). What choices did the curators
and interpretive staff make about the content that is presented? What did they include and what
did they leave out? Why? Such questions can be utilized to encourage students to explore how
the values, beliefs and knowledge included in a given museum interpretation can be influenced
by economic, social or political factors (Marcus et al., 2017). Framing such topics appropriately,
especially those that can be contentious, is not always easy or straightforward and requires
practice. Thus, teachers need support in embracing such strategies which can impact the way that
they structure and manage classroom time and discussion.
Purpose of the Study
This study is informed by the work of Christine Baron et al. (2020) of Teachers College
at Columbia University in assessing the knowledge and skills gained by teachers via their
participation in historic site-based professional development (HSBPD) programs. This team
conducted the first and only study of gains across multiple sites including Thomas Jefferson’s
Monticello and George Washington’s Mount Vernon. They focused on “historical disciplinary
inquiry-based programming” and its impact on the development of skills and dispositions in
teachers that impacted classroom practice (p. 1). Over a three-year period using Q-methodology
in pre- and post-interviews, they studied the impact of HSBPD on four specific domains: 1)
historical thinking and analysis 2) historical pedagogical content 3) peer collaboration and
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feedback and 4) general pedagogy using diverse perspectives. Overall, they saw the biggest
impact on factors 1 and 2. Specifically, they found that through place-based instruction where
teachers experienced “history in action” through contact with curators and public historians, they
were able to see how new findings and discoveries in the field impact the interpretation of
history in real time. Further, by engaging in dialogic instruction themselves, they reported a
desire to transfer the same inquiry-based methods into their classrooms.
Baron et al. (2020) called for additional research to further understand the impact of
HSBPD on teacher practice and that is where this study will begin. Specifically, the study will
look at the utilization of the principles of andragogy in the design and delivery of experiential
learning opportunities for teachers and the incorporation of the principles of best practice in
professional development opportunities offered to educators at four well-known historic sites and
museums – Gettysburg National Military Park, the National WWII Museum in New Orleans,
Jefferson’s Monticello and George Washington’s Mount Vernon. These sites were all selected
based on the breadth and quality of professional development experiences for teachers.
Research Questions
Two key research questions guided this study:
1. What principles and goals underpin the design and delivery of experiential learning for
K-12 teachers at key U.S. historic sites and museums?
2. How do teachers experience, internalize and act on these educational opportunities?
Through a series of one-on-one interviews with leaders at each site, informal
observations of a multi-day teacher training or workshop at each location as well as interviews
and focus groups with participating teachers, the goal was to understand similarities and
differences and to identify key components of HSBPD that seem to have the biggest impact on
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classroom educators. Special attention was paid to teachers’ perceptions of their own ability to
implement what they learned with their students. What were the perceived barriers and enablers?
The underlying premise explored was that teachers must first experience and practice a more
discursive and inquiry-based approach to history and social studies instruction before they can
successfully implement such strategies in the classroom. The idea is that museums and historic
sites offer a rich, authentic environment for such learning and experimentation to occur.
Significance of the Study
This study examined the potential of museums and historic sites as informal educational
institutions to work in partnership with local k-12 districts and teachers to 1) understand their
needs in terms of professional development; 2) design and deliver authentic learning experiences
accordingly, and 3) support teachers in the ongoing development of the skills required to
successfully engage students in the practice of historical thinking. This is not a topic that has
been studied extensively. This study is particularly significant given the increasingly political
environment in which history and social studies education is embedded nationally as well as
globally (Yogev, 2013).
The recommendations focus on transference to teachers and classrooms in Texas in
particular because of its size and the volatile political environment, but they also may have
application to other states across the country. In addition, one of the main purposes of the study
is to help inform future programming at the Alamo state historic site in San Antonio as an
ambitious $300 million redevelopment plan comes to fruition. Project leaders and planners have
articulated a goal of becoming a world-class educational institution by working in partnership
with local teachers and school districts in addition to providing a world-class experience for the
millions of travelers who visit the site each year. Frequently referred to as the “Shrine of Texas
22
Liberty,” and the site of the famous battle that took place in 1836 between the vastly
outnumbered Texians and the Mexican Army, the Alamo remains embattled today as arguments
over the way that our collective past is taught and remembered heat up in Texas and across the
nation.
In addition to pedagogical challenges and vast amounts of material to cover according to
state standards, the political environment in Texas presents yet another very real obstacle for
teachers of history and social studies as well as the team leading the Alamo redevelopment
project. In May of 2021, Texas became one of five states to pass a bill, HB 3979, designed to
discourage k-12 educators from teaching students about Critical Race Theory (Kim, 2021). Like
many of the bills introduced in more than 25 states over the past year, HB 3979 is rather loosely
worded and based on model legislation developed by the conservative Think Tank, Manhattan
Institute, in response to any curriculum that suggests that the U.S. is fundamentally racist and
that certain individuals, based on their skin color, are inherently racist or personally responsible
for past acts of racism (Copland, 2021). In fact, Southlake, Texas, a suburban community outside
of Dallas, made national headlines in May of 2021 when the school district’s “cultural
competence plan” became the center of debate during hotly contested races for the school board,
the city council and the Mayor’s office. Angry exchanges between parents, teachers and elected
officials were featured in the NBC podcast series, Southlake. As stated by Kim, former deputy
assistant secretary in the Office for Civil Rights at the U. S. Department of Education, the
concern over the clash between politics and the curriculum in k-12 public schools is the potential
impact on “schools’ efforts to encourage students to think critically about the history and the
impact of race, gender and systemic inequality in the United States” (Kim, 2021, p.65).
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Texas is a state known for its tremendous pride, viewed by some as an extreme version of
exceptionalism. Residents frequently refer to themselves as Texans first and Americans second
and Texas history is taught with focus and intention in mandatory courses for all 4
th
and 7
th

graders in addition to U.S. history classes offered in other grades. In addition, Texas is one of
only 10 states where members of the State Board of Education are elected during a statewide,
partisan election (Williams & Maloyed, 2013). The state also captured national headlines in 2010
for the highly political process by which revisions to school standards known as the Texas
Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) were made by the elected Board, and Williams and
Maloyed suggest that the decisions they make can have an impact on curriculum and content
beyond the state’s borders because of Texas’s size and influence on textbook publishers.
History and social studies teachers in Texas and nationally are in need of support and
professional development experiences that equip them with the tools and resources to effectively
confront the challenges they face. To the extent that this study can offer key insights for
museums and historic sites to effectively offer such experiences, teachers across the state will
undoubtedly benefit as will teachers in other parts of the country. In addition, districts may
benefit in that the insights could drive the creation of higher quality professional learning at a
reduced cost.
Organizational Field Context
This study includes a total of four well-known historic sites and museums across the
United States - Gettysburg, the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Jefferson’s Monticello
and George Washington’s Mount Vernon. These sites were selected based on their reputations
for delivering high-quality educational programming for both students and teachers. Specifically,
each one offers a variety of experiences and learning opportunities for k-12 educators that are
24
competitive and in high demand. Two of them – Monticello and Mount Vernon – were the focus
of the only multi-site analysis of HSBPD that has been conducted to date. Like many historic
sites, Gettysburg National Military Park is operated by the National Park Service in partnership
with a non-profit organization that helps to raise money for programs and capital projects. For
the study, each location will be identified by a specific number.
Site One – The Gettysburg Museum of the American Civil War is located at the
Gettysburg National Military Park and includes 22,000 square feet of exhibit space housing one
of the world’s largest collections of artifacts from the Civil War
(https://www.nps.gov/gett/planyourvisit/visitorcenters.html). The museum includes items from
the Battle of Gettysburg with a focus on important historic figures who served in the Civil War.
It also features interactive exhibits and multi-media presentations as well as a Cyclorama
experience that describes the battle and its bloody aftermath in great detail. From suggested
reading to field trip preparation tools and a series of in-person as well as virtual workshops, they
offer a variety of professional development opportunities for teachers.
Site Two – The National WWII Museum in New Orleans “tells the story of the American
experience in the war that changed the world—why it was fought, how it was won, and what it
means today—so that all generations will understand the price of freedom and be inspired by
what they learn” (https://www.nationalww2museum.org/about-us/mission-vision-values).
According to their website, they were named by USA Today as one of the “Best Places to Learn
U.S. Military History.” They offer a series of curriculum guides and other resources for teachers
with a special emphasis on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)
programming. Teachers can create their own virtual classroom on their website and choose from
a number of summer workshops and intensives. Both the Visitor Center and Museum at
25
Gettysburg and the National WWII Museum were designed by Gallagher and Associates, the
same firm working on the new Visitor Center and Museum at the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas.
Site Three – The Thomas Jefferson Foundation was created in 1923 to restore
Monticello and to share Jefferson's ideas with a national and global audience. Since its founding,
the Foundation has welcomed nearly 27 million visitors to the historic home, now designated as
a United States National Historical Landmark and a UNESCO World Heritage site
(https://www.monticello.org/get-involved/?ref=pnav). The David M. Rubenstein Visitor Center
and Smith Education Center serves as the “21st-century gateway” to Monticello by preparing
guests for their trip to the historic mountaintop (https://www.monticello.org/exhibits-
events/exhibits-at-the-visitor-center). They offer virtual field trips and tours for teachers as well
as a digital classroom and a special Teacher Institute held during the summer.
Site Four – Mount Vernon is the former plantation estate and burial location of George
Washington, the first President of the United States and American Revolutionary War general,
along with his wife Martha and 20 other Washington family members
(https://www.history.com/topics/landmarks/mount-vernon). The current estate includes a
mansion, gardens, tombs, a working farm, a functioning distillery and gristmill plus a museum
and education center that houses 23 galleries and a 4D Theater. The Mount Vernon Ladies
Association, founded in 1853 by Ann Pamela Cunningham, owns and maintains the estate after
purchasing it from Washington’s heirs in 1858 for $200,000 with the goal of saving the
plantation and preserving its history. Like the other sites, they offer a variety of support materials
for teachers online as well as professional development opportunities that take place at Mount
Vernon as well as other venues across the country. They also host a teacher residency program, a
fellowship program and a History Teacher of the Year Award.
26
Of the four sites, three are true historic sites. Gettysburg is operated by the National Park
Service and two, Mount Vernon and Monticello, are owned and operated by a separate non-profit
preservation organization, The Mount Vernon Ladies Association and the Thomas Jefferson
Foundation respectively. The remaining site is a museum with a focus on pivotal events in
history, many of which occurred on foreign soil. With this background, it was important to
observe the similarities and differences in how each institution approaches their work with k-12
educators.
In particular, the goal was to determine how the practices and strategies related to
providing teacher professional development and supporting social studies instruction in K-12
classrooms at the five institutions can be applied to the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, as well as
other museums and historic sites around the state and the country. The Alamo is best known for
the historic 13-day battle that took place in March of 1836 between a group of volunteer Texian
soldiers fighting against the Mexican Army that led to the Texas Revolution. Of the
approximately 187 Anglo and Tejano settlers who participated in the battle, the most well-known
are William B. Travis, James (Jim Bowie) and Davy Crockett, a former Congressman from
Tennessee referred to as the “king of the wild frontier.” Most visitors do not know that before it
was a fort, the Alamo was a Spanish Mission, Mission de Valero, first established in 1718 and
prior to that, it was occupied by groups of indigenous bands and clans referred to as the
Coahuiltecans because they occupied the region known then as Coahuila, Mexico and all spoke a
similar language. Following the famous battle, the Alamo became a depot for the United States
Army and at the turn of the 20th century, it was one of many historic sites around the country
that became part of a national preservation and conservation movement, led primarily by women
such as the saviors of the Alamo and founders of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, Clara
27
Driscoll and Idina De Zavala. The goal of the $300 million Alamo redevelopment plan that is
currently underway is to tell the complete 300-year history of the site through the creation of a
world-class visitor experience combined with world-class educational outreach and
programming.
Definitions
Many of the terms listed below related to instructional practice and museums will be used
in the chapters that follow. A brief definition of each is offered for clarity and to provide a
foundational understanding of the key concepts utilized in this study.
Commemorative Museum Pedagogy (CMP)
CMP is the five-step process staff members and visitors at museums go through when
confronting and processing contested or difficult historical events and people: 1) reception 2)
resistance 3) repetition 4) reflection and 5) reconsideration (Rose, 2016).
Contested Histories
Contested histories in public spaces refers to the way that historical narratives are
presented to the public in museums, monuments, texts, and festivals (Dickinson et al., 2010).
Discursive Instruction
Discursive instruction refers to the creation of classroom community through discourse,
defined as both written and spoken expression of knowledge or individual points of view. The
facilitate–listen–engage (FLE) model is one example of such a pedagogical approach designed to
create a discourse-intensive community of learners.
Historic Site-Based Professional Development (HSBPD)
HSBPD refers to place-based continuing education experiences for teachers offered at
historic sites (Baron et al., 2020).
28
Historical Empathy
Historical empathy refers to students' cognitive and affective engagement with. historical
figures to better understand and contextualize their lived experiences, decisions, or actions.
Historical empathy involves understanding how people from the past thought, felt and made
decisions (Carretero et al., 2012).
Historical Reconciliation
Crowley and Matthews (2006) define historical reconciliation as the “process and
practice of recognizing and addressing histories of racism and its effects” (p. 263).
Historical Thinking Skills
According to the American Historical Association, there are five skills that students
should gain from history and social studies classes: 1) chronological thinking 2) historical
comprehension 3) historical analysis and interpretation 4) historical research skills focused on
the utilization of primary sources and 5) historical issues – analysis and decision-making
(https://www.historians.org).
Inquiry-Based Instruction
Inquiry-based teaching is a pedagogical approach that invites students to explore
academic content by posing, investigating, and answering questions. The 5E Inquiry-Based
Instructional Model used to support STEM instruction, in particular, is based upon cognitive
psychology, constructivist theory to learning (Bybee & Landes, 1990). The 5E learning cycle
leads students through five phases: Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate.
Interpretive Planning
Interpretive planning is a strategic process used to define the interpretation and education
goals of a park or museum. The interpretive plan includes goals and actions to create meaningful
29
visitor experiences, to meet management goals, and, in many cases to balance resource or artifact
protection with visitor use and enjoyment (Meringolo, 2012).
Public History
Public history is the use of historical thinking skills and methods outside of the traditional
academic realm of history (Meringolo, 2012).
Organization of the Study
This study examines the design and delivery of professional development for K-12
educators at historic sites and museums and reactions from participating teachers in such
programs. The analysis is presented in five chapters. Chapter One introduced the challenges
facing teachers of social studies and history in the U.S. and specifically in Texas and highlighted
the current gap between research and classroom practice. Chapter Two provides a
comprehensive review of the literature regarding museums and historic sites as educational
institutions and their role in providing place-based continuing education for teachers. Chapter
Three includes an overview and description of the methodology and research design for this
particular study. Chapter Four presents the findings from the data collected through interviews,
observations and focus groups. And finally, Chapter Five provides conclusions and
recommendations for current museum professionals designing experiential learning opportunities
for educators as well as for future researchers interested in a similar or related topic.
30
CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
The problem of practice being studied is the role of historic sites and museums in
providing professional development for educators that builds historical thinking and empathy in
students. The premise is that teachers must first experience the type of inquiry-based, dialogic
instruction required to build historical reasoning skills in students as a learner before they can
successfully implement the strategies in their classrooms. This chapter begins with an overview
of the creation of historic sites and museums as educational institutions in the United States and
the political and economic factors that led to the creation of the National Park Service (NPS).
The history is followed by a discussion of the role that narratives play in interpretation at
historical sites and museums across the country and how such narratives impact both national
identity and public memory. Next is a discussion of the challenge faced by storytellers and
museum professionals at sites with contested histories and the practice of historical reconciliation
as well as CMP. Several examples are provided of historic sites and museums that try to tackle
stories with layered histories in different contexts. The examples are followed by a brief history
of Social Studies instruction in the United States, the gap that currently exists between research
on best practice in terms of discursive and inquiry-based instruction and what actually happens in
K-12 classrooms and implications for museums and historic sites. The chapter continues with a
review of the literature regarding implications for professional development for teachers to help
them close the gap between research and practice with a focus on managing classroom
discussions pertaining to controversial public issues (CPI). The literature review concludes with
a look at how museums and historic sites can play an integral role in this process by engaging
with teachers in ways that extend far beyond the typical field trip. Finally, Kolb’s Theory of
Experiential Learning as well as Knowles’ pillars of andragogy or adult education are explored.
31
Evolution of Historic Sites and Museums as Educational Institutions
The role of Museums and Historic Sites as educational institutions and places of public
memory is evolving and has changed since their very inception in the latter part of the 19
th

Century. Following the end of the Civil War, many Americans experienced a sense of cultural
upheaval as the country struggled to come back together. Science rose to the top of the national
agenda as a concrete and fact-based counterbalance to the national sense of uncertainty about the
future (Meringolo, 2012). The government began to invest more heavily in both higher education
through the Morrill Act which established a number of land-grant colleges through the sale of
federal land originally held by native tribes as well as specific research-based disciplines
including the natural sciences and history. Simultaneously, the creation of Yellowstone in 1872
followed by the passage of the Antiquities Act in 1906, established the role of government in
setting aside and preserving large sections of land that were deemed to be both beautiful and
scientifically significant (Meringolo, 2012). In essence, America was both shepherding in a new
era of scientific discovery and industry while also trying to protect its natural history and in some
ways its agricultural and rural roots.
Initially, the 40 sites that were established by the Antiquities Act were guarded by the U.S.
Calvary, but still there were incidents of damage and theft that indicated that the fragile lands
and artifacts would benefit from a different kind of stewardship focused on both education and
research. This led to the creation of the National Park Service (NPS) in 1916 (Meringolo, 2012).
Through the leadership and vision of a number of innovative administrators, archaeologists and
historians, exhibits and small museums were added to many of the locations as well as programs
such as “campfire talks and archaeological demonstrations” that first introduced the idea that
history could serve as a “public good” and ultimately led to the creation of the field of public
32
history (Meringolo, 2012). Throughout the 20
th
century, however, there was an ongoing divide
between academic historians and those that worked in and for the government with the first
being seen as more serious and prestigious than the latter. The lack of respect for public or
government historians was further exacerbated by the emphasis on archaeology as the most
important discipline practiced in the parks themselves (Meringolo, 2012).
In 1894 and 1899, two reports from the American Historical Association (the same
organization battling the Park Service historians in their quest for status) stressed that history
itself is both inquiry-based and analytical as a discipline. In a detailed report published in 1903,
historian Charles McMurry outlined instructional methods designed to “bring the past into
manifest relation to the present” (Bolinger & Warren, 2007). “Historical studies, properly
conducted,” he argued, “lead to a thoughtful weighing of arguments, pro and con, a survey of
both sides of a question so as to reach a reasonable conclusion” (p. 68). Thus, from its very
inception, social studies instruction was envisioned to be critical in nature and dialogic in
practice. As more and more students began to graduate from American high schools, many
experts including John Dewey and others stressed the importance of the public schools in
supporting citizenship education and the “social welfare of the nation” (Bolinger & Warren,
2007). In 1916, the same year that the Park Service was officially created, the National Council
for the Social Studies (NCSS) was also formed as a result of a commission created by the
National Education Association calling for the development of a specific curriculum labeled
“social studies” and to include geography, history and government (Bolinger & Warren, 2007).
Also immediately following the turn of the Century, “historic preservation” began to rise in
popularity, led mostly by women who sought to “save” some of the country’s most important
historical artifacts and structures, particularly the homes of the nation’s Founders (Meringolo,
33
2012). This movement led to the creation of dozens of local preservation and conservation
organizations that helped to raise the necessary funds and provided the leadership to conserve the
places and spaces valued most by the community. Coincidentally, this is also the time period
when San Antonio philanthropist, Clara Driscoll, and Idina DeZavala led the charge to save the
Alamo, the site of the most famous battle fought during the Texas Revolution in 1836.
Ultimately, the majority of these historic sites would fall under the direction of the Park Service
for their long term care and management.
In the 1930s, many of the Parks benefited greatly from the passage of the New Deal and the
creation of the Civilian Conservation Corps which helped with a variety of improvement projects
including the construction of roads and new facilities to enhance the visitor experience as
attendance continued to rise (Meringolo, 2012). During World War II, however, as the country’s
resources were redirected to support the war effort, investment in the Park Service as well as
attendance declined. Following the war, increased automobile ownership and suburban growth
drove a resurgence in both. Between 1956 and 1966, a total of 50 new parks were added and a
total of 56 new Visitor Centers were built through an aggressive program called Mission 66
(Meringolo, 2012). Then, in 1966, Congress passed the National Preservation Act and created
the National Registry of Historic Places, building on the idea that Americans would benefit from
understanding the full story or “narrative of progress” of the country’s development and history,
instead of singular events treated in isolation. This led to the placement of multiple historic sites
under the Park Service and also further solidified the “thematic” approach to history first adopted
by the agency in 1936 that would also inform the future discipline of museum studies. The NPS
approach emphasized the critical importance of specific people in “shaping the natural and
34
cultural world” and laid the groundwork for the modern approach to museum design and the
notion that history must be “interpreted” for visitors (Meringolo, 2012).
The Role of Interpretation in Shaping Public Memory and Identity
Many contemporary museums strive to organize themselves around a public narrative and a
more progressive interpretation of historical events and people. This is a departure from the
romantic/patriotic creation of national identity traditionally deployed by museums. Carretero and
his fellow researchers (Carretero et al., 2012), define three separate approaches associated with
national identity starting with the romantic view, an approach developed in the mid-19
th
Century
and focused on promotion and preservation of the nation state. The second approach is defined as
“empirical” or academic and gained popularity in the 1970s, treating history as the “transmission
of knowledge” mostly centered around key dates, people and events (p. 4). This approach led
eventually to current debates about exactly who and what should be included in school
textbooks. The “civic approach” is the third and final concept constructed around the idea that
history education is mainly about building “civic competence” in students. Some refer to this as
“everyday history” because students do not retain all of the material covered through formal
education and school is not the sole influence on their ideas of individual and collective identity.
Museums and historic sites as spaces that promote informal learning also play a key role in the
development of culture and identity. But traditionally, many museum narratives, like classroom
instructional materials, were created to preserve existing cultural norms, often including ideas of
white nationalism and preservation of existing power structures, rather than challenge them
(Dickinson et al., 2010).
In addition, because of the link to government funding at both the state and federal level,
there are political implications for the narrative that is told at historic sites in particular. Curators
35
and educators make intentional decisions about what is included and what is not, and these
decisions can sometimes be influenced by funding streams as well as political actors. To the
extent that museums and historic sites serve as places of public memory, they have a critical role
to play in shaping not only the local and national narrative but also the “collective identity” of
Americans (Grusin, 2004). According to Grusin (2004), the beliefs and ideas that comprise
public memory help people to make sense of the events of the past and also have implications for
how they will interpret the future. As the country struggles to understand and explain some of the
most controversial aspects of its history such as the treatment of indigenous people and slavery,
museums can sometimes be caught in the middle (Grusin, 2004). According to research
conducted by historian David Thelen in the late 1980s, Americans trust history museums and
historic sites more than any other source in helping them to understand the past (Thelen, 1989).
Therefore, the responsibility that museums and historic sites have to be accurate and authentic as
well as inclusive cannot be overstated.
Some researchers go so far as to argue that storytelling is actually the primary work of
museums (Bedford, 2001). According to the psychologist Jerome Bruner, stories are integral to
the acquisition of language in young children and to the making of meaning for adults. Even
more than the narrative itself, stories invoke the individual thoughts, ideas and feelings of the
listener or in this case, museum visitor. In this way, museum experiences are designed to be
constructivist in nature with visitors shaping and developing their own perspective as they
observe, read and learn. Perhaps one of the most powerful examples of this interpretive approach
is at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. Upon arrival, visitors
are assigned a “person” from the war and they follow that individual’s story throughout their
journey, creating a somber and personalized learning experience. The founding director of the
36
museum, Jeshajahu Weinberg, took great care in developing the language for the exhibits by
removing any “affective” verbiage that might suggest how the visitor should feel – instead letting
the response be completely organic (Bedford, 2001). In some cases, the narrative can also
become dialogic, encouraging visitors to actively participate by contributing their own thoughts
or stories. The museum narrative that is created can also extend into public programming for
teachers and students as well as the general public. At the Detroit Historical Museum, storytellers
and musicians are sent out to the public school through a program called “Detroit Storyliving” to
utilize the English technique known as “process drama” to work with teachers and students to
recreate an authentic journey on the Underground Railroad (Bedford, 2001).
Contested Histories and Reconciliation
The development of narratives at historic sites with contested histories can be particularly
challenging. As noted by Winston Churchill, history is both messy and mysterious (Lewis,
2015). Unlike math or science, there is not a universal truth when it comes to history. Rather, it is
shaped by the perspective and experiences of the individual and also reveals itself over time
(Rose, 2016). Through her work at the Magnolia Mount Plantation in Louisiana, Julia Rose
developed a framework for creating an overall interpretive approach to difficult histories known
as CMP. At its core, CMP is built around the notion that processing controversial or contested
histories is a process and museum curators and educators should both respect and respond to the
reactions of individuals as they internalize the stories that are provided.
Rose recognizes that there is loss involved in letting go of long accepted truths in order to
embrace new, more nuanced information and that loss can invoke feelings of anger, mourning
and melancholia. In order to support visitors, she suggests that museum professionals be trained
to recognize the five steps: 1) reception 2) resistance 3) repetition 4) reflection and 5)
37
reconsideration (Rose, 2016). Because of the potential impact on personal and collective identity
the assimilation of new historical information can have, Rose argues that visitors should be given
the space and time to work through the five steps. At the National September 11 Memorial and
Museum in New York City, for example, multiple spaces and interactive exhibits are offered
throughout the galleries for visitors to sit with the content, to listen to oral histories and to view
personal letters, cards, artifacts and artwork in order to reflect on what the experience means to
them.
Rose offers clear behavioral indicators for each step in the CMP process and suggests that the
reward of presenting such topics far outweighs the risks because of the potential impact on the
future as long as museum leaders and exhibit designers adhere to the highest ethical standards.
These standards come into play as decisions are made about the faces (people), real content
(objects and artifacts) and narratives (stories) that are either included or excluded. Rose calls on
museum leaders to “brush history against the grain” in order to truly capture the perspective of
the “Other” meaning historically marginalized groups and populations and the power structures
that enabled the specific conflict or oppression to occur (Rose, p. 116). She states that
“Commemorating human experiences in museums and public history venues provides present
generations with opportunities to learn how particular histories are relevant today, thereby
engendering courage, hope, justice, generosity, compassion, respect and temperance in visitors
and all learners. Possibilities for increasing human virtue are located at the nexus of ethics and
historical representations.” (Rose, p. 101).
Storytelling in Practice
Building on the notion that museums are pedagogical in nature, Avner Segall writes about
the process of including and promoting certain people, artifacts and stories over others through a
38
comparison of the approaches used at the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) and
the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (Segall, 2014). As stated by Segall, “the stories
developing teams and curators choose to tell, as well as those they gloss over and ‘forget form a
curriculum that conveys – explicitly, implicitly and by omission – particular messages about
history, power, knowledge and identity, helping position those who encounter those stories to
think about the world in some ways rather than others” (Segall, p. 55). Segall suggests that the
narrative presented in the NMAI is more fragmented than that of the Holocaust Museum because
it was created by a variety of representatives from native communities versus a team of
professional curators. Even though the two institutions employ very different approaches, Segall
argues that both tend to skirt some of the most difficult aspects of the histories they are trying to
convey.
At the NMAI, Segall suggests that the violence and genocide that accompanied European
exploration and the settling of the Americas is glossed over or painted in a more flattering light
than the facts might suggest based on the millions of lives that were lost. From his point of view,
the spatial arrangement, lighting and placement of objects within the exhibits steers visitors
down a path that is easier to reconcile with their existing knowledge and, therefore, to accept.
The “removal” of American Indians is portrayed in the context of mutual violence and war with
the actions of the Army described as justified and patriotic and the resilient Native Americans
persevering and ultimately recapturing their way of life. In terms of the Holocaust Museum,
Segall questions whether its location in the midst of other prominent American memorials is
appropriate given the fact that the events actually took place on foreign soil. He also questions
the distinctly American lens through which information is presented such as the U.S. troops
liberating prisoners in the Nazi concentration camps. He does acknowledge that the museum
39
includes information about the country’s slow response to enter the war and specific events
where the U.S. might have intervened but argues that the Museum does not cross over into the
“uncomfortable” zone to deal with the role of both Christianity and racism in the Holocaust. In
other words, visitors, while moved and educated by the experience, leave with their traditional
notions about what it means to be an American intact. He further alludes to the lack of
connection between the building and its surrounding environment, a physical manifestation of
the missed opportunity for visitors to make connections between the past and the present.
Instead, the atrocities of the war and the political and economic factors that led up to it are
treated as a distant memory instead of a reminder to not repeat the same mistakes again. Finally,
Segall argues that the treatment of the Holocaust as an American memory where the country is
the liberator and savior enable visitors to discount the horrific parts of our own history such as
systemic racism instead of taking responsibility. In this way, both museums allow visitors to
remain firmly in the “comfort zone” (Segall, p. 68).
Crowley and Matthews (2006) define historical reconciliation as the “process and practice of
recognizing and addressing histories of racism and its effects” (p. 263). Both Australia and South
Africa, as part of the Commonwealth of Nations, have histories that include the separation of
people based on race, restricting their rights and their access to opportunity. However, South
Africa has chosen through the creation of places and spaces such as the Apartheid Museum in
Johannesburg and the Hector Pieterson Museum in Soweto, to tackle its history in a direct and
participatory way while Australia has opted for a more “practical” form of reconciliation
(Crowley & Matthews, 2006). Both nations began their journey toward reconciliation through
government intervention and the realization that something had happened in the past that needed
to be addressed. However, according to Crowley and Matthews, recognition and education are
40
not enough. True historical reconciliation can require a state or a nation to review and reevaluate
its entire history and the way that its story has been told or the “demolition of colonial truths”
(Crowley & Matthews, p. 271). Baliber suggests that we typically compartmentalize the
complexity of race and racialization into ideas of difference, otherness and exclusion without
truly understanding the relationship to “nationalism, imperialism, social and biopolitical
exclusions” (Baliber, 2005). Museums, as a pedagogical intervention, have the opportunity to
play a key role in the reconciliation process through memorialization, archival construction and
the presentation of past horrors including violence and trauma. As discussed above, however,
museum professionals are called upon to remember that visitors, including teachers and school
groups, bring their own experience and world views shaped by the “global flow of information,
images and imaginings” when they arrive (Crowley and Matthews, 2006, p. 268).
Alcatraz offers an example of a site with a layered history where decisions about what to
include and what to emphasize have implications. From the very beginning of the visitor
experience at the ferry landing on San Francisco Bay to the interpretive signage throughout, the
role of the site as one of the country’s most infamous penitentiaries is emphasized over both the
usage of Alcatraz Island as a former military fort and prison during the Civil War as well as the
Native American Occupation that occurred from November of 1969 to June of 1971 (Dickinson
et al., 2010). Some scholars consider the Occupation one of the most significant events in the
ongoing struggle between the U.S. Government and the American Indian population as well as
an important example of peaceful protest. Articles written by members of Indians of All Tribes,
Inc., the organization that led the protest, cited the lack of access to quality education and the
high suicide rate among Native Americans as the reason. The introductory video that greets
visitors, however, mentions the occupation only briefly and attributes the event to the type of
41
civil disobedience common during the 1960s rather than explaining its context within the longer
narrative of treatment of indigenous populations throughout American history (Dickinson et al.,
2010). As visitors make their way through individual cells and up to the cellhouse tower, the
story of the protest gets lost as the experience focuses on what life was like as a prisoner behind
bars. Dickinson et. al. (2010) characterize this as a “missed opportunity” to educate the more
than 1.3 million people who visit the site each year about the full, layered history of the island.
As described in the work of the Detroit History Museum, the power of place associated with
museums and historic sites can extend well beyond their physical presence and the visitor
experience that is offered. Community programming allows museums such as the National Jazz
Museum in Harlem (NJMIH) to extend their reach beyond their four walls. Dedicated to the idea
that “music is a living, breathing entity that looks as far into the future as it does into the past,”
the NJMIH works with local schools and churches to deliver performances and programs that
bring the organization’s mission to life (Dickinson et al., 2010). Their programming is civic at its
very core because it is offered in the places where people learn and worship. They literally bring
the museum to the visitors instead of the other way around, allowing people to experience jazz
and its continued evolution in the Harlem community in their own neighborhoods. Through the
sharing of oral histories in a program called “Harlem Speaks” and a series of free concerts called
“Harlem Swings,” they work to change attitudes toward not just jazz music or Harlem, but also
toward the broader African American community. One program, in particular, called “Harmony
in Harlem” encourages teens to work together to play and understand jazz music as well as each
other. The NJMIH uses both music and talk to create shared meaning and promote a deeper
understanding of both the present and the past in order to inform the future (Dickinson et al.,
2010). It represents one example of how a Museum can partner with the local community,
42
particularly with schools, to both inform and shape public memory and develop historical
understanding in both students and adults. In other words, museums and historic sites, as places
of informal education, have the opportunity to build upon what students learn in the classroom
and to create meaningful and lasting experiences. In fact, while the responsibility for educating
children about the country’s past and the ideals upon which it was founded remains primarily in
the nation’s public school, museums and historic sites could play a bigger role as places where
history actually occurred and where it comes to life. However, in order to partner effectively,
museum educators and professionals should first understand what actually happens in the
classroom and how it has changed over time.
Social Studies Instruction in the United States
The creation of the Park Service to manage designated public lands and Historic Sites for the
purposes of research and education and Social Studies instruction in American public school
classrooms has been linked since the beginning. Both essentially evolved simultaneously at the
beginning of the 20
th
century (Meringolo, D.D., 2012). As the Park Service grew and evolved, so
too did social studies as a classroom subject. Often driven by both political as well as economic
forces, the subject has seen many reforms over the past 150 years. For example, in 1917 the
Smith-Hughes Act added vocational courses as well as home economics to the curriculum
(Bolinger & Warren, 2007). Guidelines for how the classes should be taught have also continued
to change based on new standards introduced at both the state and federal level. According to
Bolinger and Warren, there are five best practices that emerge across the various standards. They
include: “multiple representations or perspectives, appropriate methodologies, critical use of
source materials, interdisciplinary methods and ability to construct new knowledge or sound
interpretations” (p. 72). However, as indicated by Larry Cuban from Stanford in his book,
43
Teaching History Then and Now, there is often a gap between what is considered to be best
practice and what actually happens in the classroom where an overemphasis on passive rather
and active pedagogy including worksheets and rote memorization of dates and facts is still quite
common (Cuban, 2016).
Managing Constructive Discourse in Social Studies Classrooms
It is not a new idea that history and social studies instruction should be grounded in
inquiry. In fact, back in 1916, the National Education Association’s Commission that re-
organized secondary education to include social studies envisioned that it would be a course
where the challenges of democracy could be debated and discussed (Hess, 2002). However, in
today’s divisive political climate, a lack of personal efficacy and empowerment can make it
challenging for teachers to tackle historical topics with implications for current events in public
school classrooms. This is exacerbated by a general lack of confidence in the ability of teachers
to successfully manage such conversations. In addition to prohibitions on what can be taught in
the classroom, teachers may doubt their own skills and abilities in managing difficult
conversations with students as well as parents.
There are existing models that can serve as helpful guides for creating constructive
classroom discussion around CPI, but teachers may not know about them or be trained in how to
use them. In a case study involving three educators in different schools, Hess describes three
distinct approaches. At New Horizons High School, Joe Sparks teaches a yearlong seminar
focused exclusively on some of the most consequential decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court
(Hess, 2002). Students read the decisions along with the dissenting opinions, write about them
and then participate in multiple class discussions. The premise is that the dialogue is more
substantial when the students are all working from the same text. Sklarwitz and his colleagues
44
also illuminate the use of primary source documents such as the Constitution and the Declaration
of Independence as foundational to history instruction, particularly at the secondary level
(Sklarwitz et al., 2019). Mr. Sparks uses focus questions to guide the discussion and encourages
students to use real examples from the text to support their arguments. Students who do not
complete the writing assignment which serves as their admission ticket to participate in the
discussion serve as observers, counting the contributions of their classmates even though Mr.
Sparks does not give them a formal grade on their participation in order to not limit the
conversation (Hess, 2002).
In contrast, Elizabeth Hunt uses the Public Issues model developed at Harvard to guide
the discussion in her eighth-grade social studies class. The model, created during the Harvard
Social Studies Project in the 1960s, focuses on three distinct sub-issues – factual, definitional and
actual – to facilitate either small or large group discussions where participants deal with “some
of the core tensions between core democratic principles (Hess, 2002, p. 22). Ms. Hunt teaches
students the model at the beginning of the year and uses articles on specific topics which are
distributed in advance to provide the content for the discussion. Students are reminded at each
session to adhere to their mutually created guidelines – “listen, participate, invite others in, be
responsible, be open-minded and show respect” (Hess, 2002, p. 23). Like in Mr. Sparks’ class,
students are encouraged to argue both sides of a topic in a concept he calls “trying on ideas,” but
Ms. Hunt does grade her students on their participation based on a defined rubric.
Finally, Ann Twain uses the Town Meeting model designed specifically for large group
discussions. She also uses articles and text on topics ranging from gun control to the decision to
use the atomic bomb, but in this model, students have input into the topics that are selected and
they assume the role of a specific individual during the discussion. Each student is provided with
45
a packet of individualized reading material based on the role he/she will be playing with some
being pro and some being con. Ms. Twain also uses a scoring rubric based on three criteria:
“knowledge of subject matter, portrayal of role and effectiveness as a participant” (Hess, 2002, p.
27). Hess describes several key takeaways in regard to instruction using CPI: 1) Teachers treat
discussion as both a method and an outcome in developing critical thinking and interpersonal
skills in students; 2) Teachers maintain an objective stance and their personal views and opinions
are not part of the discussion; 3) Students have ownership over the discussion, perceiving it as
their forum versus the teacher’s; 4) Teachers select a model or a facilitation style based on their
learning objectives for the class; 5) Teachers are intentional about the decision to grade the
students on their participation and if so, define the grading criteria clearly; and 6) the decision to
include classroom discussion on controversial public issues is supported by the school’s
administration. Finally, Hess stresses the importance of adequate preparation in order for
teachers to successfully guide CPI discussions without predetermining exactly where the
discussion will go and calls for more professional development opportunities for both pre-service
and in-service teachers to help build such skills (Hess, 2002). Beyond interactions with real
artifacts and primary source documents, Museums and Historical Sites can support teachers in
building the skills demonstrated by Sparks, Hunt and Twain in delivering high-quality
instruction combined with student-led classroom dialogue.
Reisman and Wineburg (2012) offer a model for the inquiry-based and document-
centered instruction described above, which they suggest helps students to learn a disciplined
approach to historical reading that involves three steps: 1) successfully reading and
comprehending written text; 2) the ability to identify and assess conflicting claims or facts; and
3) the confidence and patience to avoid rushing to judgment based on preconceived ideas or
46
notions (Carretero et al., 2012). In the model pictured below in Figure 1, Document A and
Document B represent Step 1 which builds the background knowledge indicated in the center.
Steps 2 and 3 happen during the discussion between the teacher and the students focused on the
central historical question.
Figure 1
Inquiry-Based Instructional Model

Note. (Carretero et al., (2012).
Using the model, Reisman and Wineburg (2012) conducted a quasi-experimental study
comparing 11
th
grade students who participated in the Reading Like A Historian project versus
those who were in a more traditional classroom. Underlying the study was the concept that
teachers adept at disciplinary discussion with students should be able to help them progress
beyond a “binary” view of history as the past versus the present to a more nuanced view that
understands the role of paradox and the fact that in many ways history is “unknowable” in a
concrete sense. Their model requires that students objectively see and understand the personal
Background
Knowledge
Central
Question
Document
B
Discussion
Document
A
47
and subjective view we all bring as we struggle to make meaning of historical events and actors.
In this way, students move through four stages of progression as they build their historical
thinking skills, as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2
Historical Thinking Skills

Note. (Carretero et al., (2012).
In order to meet the definition of classroom discussion for the purposes of the study, the
teacher had to lead with the historical question, the pre-reading had to include at least two
documents, at least three students had to engage in the conversation and the dialogue had to last
at least four minutes. They found that out of 100 videotaped lessons, only nine met all four of
these defined criteria and these discussions happened in three of the five classrooms involved in
the study. Ultimately, the results showed that while many of the students showed progress on
reading comprehension and factual knowledge, few made substantive progress on understanding
their own “historical subjectivity” (p. 183). In light of the current historical debates happening
across the country and the prevalence of presentism, the study provides a glimpse into the
difficulty of the task of shifting personal perspectives on history and suggests that perhaps we

Level 4

Historical empathy and an awareness of one's historical subjectivity tempers rush to judgment
Level 3:

Documents' source and historical context are static/uniform, provide basis from which to evaluate author or historical actors
Level 2:

Documents represent "given past" - no regard for authors' perspective or context
Level 1:

Historical Actors can be judged according to contemporary values
48
should consider encouraging small steps and meeting both educators and students where they
are.
Teaching Social Studies Through Museums & Historic Sites
As with the evolution of the NPS, the establishment of public education has also been
inextricably linked with the creation of museums since the end of the nineteenth century. A
movement to capture the history of the country and to reinforce the dominant narrative took
place across the United States and included the establishment of the Smithsonian Institution
which was developed by James Smithson for the “increase and diffusion of knowledge among
men” (Marcus et al., 2017, p. 27). During the 20th century, the museum movement exploded
with the American Association of Museums reporting that a new museum opened every five
days during the 1950s and approximately every three days between 1960 and 1963 (Marcus et
al., 2017). In more recent years, museums have worked to become more interactive and
inclusive, but teachers must still recognize that they present curated and somewhat subjective
interpretations of past events.
Currently, the trend in history and social studies classrooms is toward the development of
historical thinking and inquiry skills in students using constructivist instructional practices. In
fact, the C3 model (College, Career and Civic Life) adopted by the National Council for the
Social Studies in 2013 places inquiry at the center for all learning in social studies classrooms. In
their book, Inquiry-Based Practice in Social Studies Education, the creators of the C3 model
point to the importance of the “inquiry-arc” at the heart of the model and define its four
components 1) the development of questions and planning inquiries 2) applying disciplinary
tools and concepts 3) using evidence and evaluating sources and 4) drawing conclusions and
taking informed action (Grant, et al.,2017, p.3). At the core of their inquiry design model are
49
questions, tasks and sources. They also discuss some of the current barriers preventing inquiry-
based practice to become more widespread. The first is confusion with the concept of “discovery
learning” where students essentially decide “what, how, when and why to learn things” which,
according to the authors, has been discredited as a practice (p.2). The second is the
misconception that traditional pedagogical approaches are more effective in preparing students to
perform well on standardized tests. The third, and the one that museums and historic sites, may
be uniquely positioned to help address with teachers have limited opportunities to experience
inquiry-based practice for themselves.
Marcus and his colleagues build on this idea by arguing that museums and historic sites,
in particular, offer a unique setting for authentic and inquiry-based learning to occur. They define
authentic learning according to a 1999 study by Shaffer and Resnick as that which is: 1)
meaningful to the student; 2) has relevance to the “real world” beyond the classroom; and 3)
“provides an opportunity to think in the modes of a particular discipline” (Marcus et al., 2017)
When visiting museums and historic sites both teachers and students have the opportunity to
explore history through the lenses of disciplinary experts including historians, curators,
archaeologists, anthropologists and other members of the staff. In addition, historic sites, in
particular, have the ability to demonstrate the importance of geography in relation to history. In
fact, Marcus and his colleagues define eight different types of museum experiences, each with its
own unique benefits for studying history and social studies. These are: artifact and display-based
museums like the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, local history museums such as the
Minnesota History Center, historic forts like Fort Ticonderoga in New York, historic house
museums like the Mark Twain House, Living History Museums such as Colonial Williamsburg,
the Jamestown Settlement and Yorktown, memorials and monuments like the 9/11 memorial in
50
New York City, art museums and virtual museums. Interestingly, the Alamo project includes
several of these including a historic fort, an artifact and display-based exhibition hall and
collections building, a 100,000 square-foot interactive visitor center and museum, a memorial
and monument to the people who lived and died at the site throughout its 300-year history and a
living history museum.
Researchers suggest three specific ways that museums and historic sites can play a
critical role in helping k-12 students to understand our collective history more deeply. The first is
through the development of historical empathy by discussing and contemplating the experiences
and decisions made by specific people from the past. Such empathy for historical actors is
believed to help cultivate more “humanistic” behaviors and attitudes and, therefore, more
capable and confident participants in a democratic society (Marcus et al., 2017). Second,
museums can help students to adopt a more critical lens when examining the history that is
presented. Specifically, through the analysis of artifacts and text, they come to understand that
history is a story developed using evidence and expressed by experts through a specific lens or
framework. Finally, museums can help students to connect the past with the present and to
understand individual events within a larger context. Some historic sites, for example, use living
history to interpret the past while others encourage visitors and students to examine and discuss
the ways that historically marginalized groups may have been left out of the narrative or the
dialogue in the past. Such interactions and experiences can help support teachers in exploring
related concepts and ideas in the classroom. In summary, Marcus suggests that “museums are
ideal places for engaging students in thinking about how our ideas about the past are generated,
mediated and presented and how the exhibits that tell us ‘where we came from’ are often as
carefully constructed as the institutions that house them” (Marcus et al., 2017). The question is
51
whether or not history and social studies teachers clearly understand exactly how to effectively
engage with museums and historic sites as they strive to adopt a more discursive and inquiry-
based approach to instruction. In addition, do the staff members at museums and historic sites
responsible for designing experiential learning opportunities for teachers of social studies
understand the components of effective professional development? Further, if museum
professionals understood these principles more deeply and actively utilized them in designing
experiential learning opportunities for teachers and if teachers knew how to engage with
museums and historic sites more effectively, what would be the impact for students?
Working with Teachers to Deepen Student Learning
Effective Professional Development Defined
Many studies over the years have shown that a significant number of teachers indicate
that most PD experiences simply reinforce what they are already doing versus supporting them in
changing or transforming classroom practice (Hill, 2009). The literature suggests that instead of
offering traditional, passive lectures and tours, museums and historic sites have an opportunity to
create programming that is more active and content-focused, two of the core components of
effective PD identified by Linda Darling-Hammond and her colleagues at the Learning Policy
Institute at Stanford University. In 2017, they published a meta-analysis of 35 different studies
looking at the elements of effective professional development for teachers. In their report, they
identify a total of seven characteristics associated with effective PD (Darling-Hammond et. al.,
2017):

52
Figure 3
Characteristics of Effective Professional Development
1. Is content-focused
2. Incorporates active learning utilizing adult learning theory
3. Supports collaboration, typically in job-embedded contexts
4. Uses models and modeling of effective practice
5. Provides coaching and expert support
6. Offers opportunities for feedback and reflection
7. Is of sustained duration
Note, (Darling-Hammond et. al., 2017).
The opportunity for museums and historic sites is to work collaboratively with educators to
design experiences around these seven principles which would extend far beyond the traditional
field trip.
Beyond the Field Trip
While Marcus et al. (2012), Hess ( 2002) and other researchers offer a promising glimpse
of what is possible in terms of discursive instruction, student field trips remain the most heavily
utilized activity provided by museums and historic sites for the vast majority of teachers (Marcus
et. al., 2012) (Hess, 2002). But field trips do not have to be an unguided, one-day experience that
exists in isolation from what is happening in the classroom. Instead, there are multiple
opportunities and methods to deepen the learning for students (Noel & Colopy, 2006). Beyond
working together on trip logistics, researchers suggest that there is an opportunity for greater
53
collaboration between Museum educators and classroom teachers on the co-development of
programming, curriculum materials and experiences for students (Marcus et al., 2012).
By working in partnership with museum educators, teachers can be more thoughtful and
planful about pre-visit learning and activities as well as the type of inquiry-based discussion that
can be conducted in the classroom after a visit. Additionally, teachers have expressed a desire for
Museum staff to offer professional development opportunities for both pre-service and in-service
teachers to learn how to effectively leverage a field trip in order to maximize student learning
(Marcus et al., 2012). For example, through a partnership with local educator preparation
programs, museums could offer pre-service history teachers the opportunity to serve as
apprentices and work with faculty on the co-development of resources to prepare future
educators to teach using inquiry, discussion and the inclusion of community resources (Pershey
& Arias, 2000). By working together, museums can assist teachers as they work to hone their
craft and then pass those tools and skills on to their students who will, in turn, become informed
museum visitors themselves, a skill they can carry well into adulthood (Wright-Maley et al.,
2013).
Why Should Teachers Engage?
With limited time and resources to invest, why should teachers choose to work with
museums and historic sites more closely? What is the benefit to them? Using a survey of 51
museum professionals representing 43 history-based museums and interviews with 10 of the
respondents, Marcus and his colleagues created a sample dialogue for both teachers and museum
staff to use to open a conversation. The researchers propose three distinct reasons for teachers to
engage more deeply with museum professionals: 1) museums are places where students can
practice the tools of history as a discipline 2) they offer experiences for lifelong learning and 3)
54
they also offer both formal and informal experiential learning opportunities for students. In the
dialogue developed from the survey and excerpts from their interviews, the researchers explore
how teachers can enlist museum workers as partners to help address issues around cost and time,
alternatives to in-person visits and opportunities for collaboration. Specifically, teachers are
encouraged to inquire about opportunities to personalize the experience for their students and to
weave the experience more closely with the classroom curriculum. By sharing their learning
goals, student characteristics and needs as well as current lesson plans, museum staff and
teachers can work together to increase the relevancy of the visit. In addition, museum staff can
develop a greater understanding of what resources are most beneficial to teachers (Wright-Maley
et al., 2013).
In a study conducted at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, researchers sought to better
understand what it is that teachers actually gain from professional development offered at
historic sites (Baron et al., 2019). Through a three-year project funded by the Institute of
Museum and Library Services, Baron and her colleagues found that both funding and research
has tended to focus more on art and science museums rather than history museums and that many
teacher education programs currently being offered are didactic in nature. Using Q-methodology,
defined as the “systematic and rigorous quantitative study of subjectivity,” Baron et al. (2019)
designed a concourse focused on four key areas: “content knowledge, historical thinking and
analysis, pedagogical content knowledge and professional dispositions” (Baron et al., 2019).
They describe historic sites as “complex constructions of the historical past, preservation
initiatives, collective memory, multiple and mixed media spaces and interpretive layers that both
reveal and conceal during a visitor’s embodied experience” (Baron et al., 2019). The concourse
used in the study was first reviewed by experts in the field and teachers were able to respond to
55
the statements in the concourse a total of three times. Participants focused on the benefits of
learning from historical experts as well as each other and the opportunity to delve more deeply
into content that they could take back to their students.
In some ways the experience for teachers at Monticello mirrors the concept of
reenactment described by English philosopher R. G. Collinwood in his book, The Idea of History
(Collinwood, 1946). Collinwood’s definition of reenactment does not include a dramatic
interpretation, but rather the idea that the student or teacher actually journeys back in time to
understand what might have been in the minds of decision-makers. In this way the learner seeks
to understand not only what happened, but why it happened. According to Collinwood, “a
reenactment attempts to recreate and relive the sequence of events of a significant historical
happening” (Collinwood, p. 221). By delving deeply into a specific situation or event in
conjunction with peer discussion, Collingwood’s approach builds on the Socratic tradition and
the work of Paulo Freiere who also stressed the importance of dialogue. “Only dialogue, which
requires critical thinking, is also capable of generating critical thinking. Without dialogue there is
not communication and without communication there can be no true education” (Freire, pp. 73-
74). Through programs ranging from one-day workshops to weekend sessions during the school
year in addition to summer intensives and fellowships, museums and historic sites have an
opportunity to provide programs like those at Monticello for educators to experience what they
are learning. Frequently, lesson plans and ideas created through such experiences are shared
publicly for other teachers to utilize (Grenier, 2010), expanding the learning beyond just those
teachers who attend a particular program.
In their book, Teaching History with Museums, Marcus and his colleagues outline 10 best
practices for aligning the field trip experience with what happens in the classroom. In addition to
56
collaborating with museum staff to plan the visit, they suggest visiting the museum or historic
sites prior to bringing students (Marcus et al., 2017). They also stress the importance of defining
explicit goals for the visit, encouraging students to take a critical stance to what they observe,
engaging in both pre and post activities and conducting as much research as possible. It is critical
that the visit is clearly linked to the curriculum and what the students are learning. During the
visit itself, they emphasize balancing structure with the need for student choice and setting the
expectation that such visits are for scholars, not for taking a day off from school. Adhering to
these 10 guidelines can help teachers in justifying field trips with key administrators.
Impact on Classroom Practice
When teachers do engage with museums more fully and particularly when they participate in
experiential learning opportunities, how does that impact what actually happens in the classroom
on a daily basis? The following two studies sought to answer this question. The first, an
interpretive case study conducted at the Mystic Seaport Museum in Connecticut looked at the
results for teachers selected to participate in a week-long summer intensive (Grenier, 2010).
Through surveys, observations and interviews, Grenier was able to analyze the impact that the
experience had on the teachers’ professional practice. Through the Museum Implemented
Professional Development (MIPD) opportunity, teachers built a community of practice together
as they explored the role of American Immigration and the Maritime Heritage of African
Americans at the site. The 20 participants each brought with them a variety of personal and
professional motivations for wanting to attend the Institute and all suggested that the experiential
aspect of learning in a museum setting was a key factor. One teacher commented after that “due
to my experiences, I have attempted to read more books and articles on different cultures to
enhance my classroom teaching” (Grenier, 2010, p. 508). Another stated that “Before I attended
57
the workshop, I tended to teach mostly only from one point of view. Now, I find myself being
able to present many different points of views on issues” (Grenier, 2010, p. 508). In particular,
those that participated in the workshop focused on the role of African Americans in maritime
history commented on how much it deepened their knowledge of and understanding of the
struggles of African Americans in the local community as they fought for equal rights. Others
found ways to incorporate people and characters they learned about into their lessons in the
classroom to help make history real for their students. One even went so far as to state that she
felt the experience “changed her own character.” This small study can suggest that MIPD is an
area that warrants further study in terms of the potential impact on teachers and their classroom
practice.
Building on the notion that effective professional development for educators is inquiry-based,
collaborative, content-focused, embedded and interactive, Christine Baron conducted a
quantitative analysis of the impact on historical thinking skills in teachers of a specific PD
experience to understand its effectiveness (Baron, 2013). Baron followed 15 public and private
history teachers through pre and post auditory “think alouds” at two sites in Boston - the Old
South Meeting House (OSMH) and the Old North Church (ONC). She first walked the sites with
a group of historians in order to define historical thinking skills more concretely into five distinct
elements:
1) Origination - how did this building or site come to be?
2) Intersectonality - how does it compare to other buildings or sites?
3) Stratification - what are the multiple time periods or layers of history represented here?
4) Supposition - given what I know and understand, what is the reason for this place or
outcome?
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5) Empathetic insight - how would the people who once occupied this space respond to it
intellectually, socially and emotionally?
The teachers were divided into three groups, each with a slightly different PD experience.
Each group toured the OSMH first, then engaged in either a two-day, three-day or five-day
learning experience incorporating three modules and then toured the ONC utilizing what they
had learned. The participants recorded their observations and reactions using handheld, digital
voice recorders and Baron coded the transcripts using quantitative discourse analysis. After each
of the tours, participants wrote lesson plans for their students which were then analyzed against a
defined set of criteria based on the historical thinking construct. Baron found a statistically
significant increase in the number of “historic utterances” from the first tour to the second with
the major difference being the level or curiosity expressed between the two experiences. In
addition, analysis of the lesson plans showed “greater complexity of thought, increased use of
primary sources and integration of site materials into classroom activities” following the PD
experience (p. 30). Thus, the lesson plans provided evidence of change in professional practice.
The theoretical frameworks described below help to explain the rationale for providing
teachers with the opportunity to experience the many levels of historical thinking first as a
learner, before they attempt to build the same skills in students.
Theoretical Framework
Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory
Kolb’s Theory builds on the ideas first introduced by John Dewey and the importance of
experience in the learning process. It focuses on the key concepts of experience and reflection,
but also includes abstract conceptualization and experimentation. Since Kolb’s (1974) theory
was first published in the 1970s, it has been utilized heavily in both adult education and career
59
and technical education as well as in both organizational development and leadership
development. Kolb defined learning as “a process whereby knowledge is created through the
transformation of experience” (Kolb, 1974). At the core of his model is the idea that the learning
cycle can best be described as the process by which “experience is translated into concepts,
which in turn are used as guides in the choice of new experiences” (Kolb, 1974, p. 21). In many
ways, Kolb was building on the ideas first introduced by Dewey who argued for a more natural
and organic form of schooling based largely on experience versus text and memorization. Both
promote a constructivist and continuous approach to learning driven by “experiences that engage
the whole person and stimulate engagement and interaction among learners, learners and
teachers and learners and the environment” (Beard, 2018, p. 28). Kolb used the work of
psychologist Kurt Lewin as the logic for the model pictured in Figure 3 below. In the model,
Kolb makes the case that effective engagement of the learner begins with concrete experiences
that involve the person completely and openly, without bias. Next, the learner must have the
space to reflect on his or her experiences and observe them from different perspectives. Third,
they must demonstrate the ability to incorporate their observations into concepts and theories
based on sound logic. And finally, they must be able to apply the theories that are conceptualized
to drive actions and decisions and to solve problems. This is represented in the “doing” phase
depicted below. In Kolb’s model, the process begins at the top and is both circular and
continuous, happening along a continuum of learning and processing based on experience.

60
Figure 4
Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory

Note. (Kolb, 1974).
Critics of Kolb’s work and his book, Experiential Learning Experience as a Source of
Learning and Development in 1974, point to the lack of attention paid to culture, personal
perception and bias in the original design as well as the lack of clarity around the specific types
of experiences to be included. For example, Dewey delineated clearly between primary –
interaction with the social and physical environment – and secondary – reflective – experiences
(Dewey, 1938). For Dewey, only those experiences that exist outside of the routine or ordinary
could promote reflection and the assimilation of new knowledge (Miettinen, 2002). Still, there is
no doubt that Kolb’s model is one that endures and has informed a great deal of additional
scholarship on experiential learning which even today is layered with complexity related to its
epistemological and ontological meaning, the lenses through which it can be understood and its
many definitions. Broadly, the current conception includes those experiences outside of the
61
ordinary that evoke curiosity and discovery, promote reflection and that engage the whole
person.
For the purposes of this study, the idea is that teachers must first experience discursive and
inquiry-based social studies and history instruction for themselves as a learner before they can
effectively incorporate it into their classroom practice. Museums and historic sites have the
opportunity to design professional development opportunities that utilize real artifacts and
primary source documents as well as other place-based strategies that enable educators to move
through the steps outlined in Kolb’s model themselves so they, in turn, can provide safe spaces
for students to do the same. Practically, this means that workshops and other experiences should
allow ample time for personal reflection as well as group discussion with a focus on facilitating
and guiding the learning process while setting boundaries and supporting learners (Beard, 2018).
Andragogy - Adult Learning
To state the obvious, teachers are adults. Therefore, in order to successfully create and
implement high-quality experiential learning opportunities for educators, museum staff must first
deepen their own understanding and knowledge of the pillars of andragogy (adult learning) and
the principles of effective PD. First introduced by Malcolm Shepherd Knowles in 1985,
andragogy refers to the art and science of adult learning (Taylor & Kroth, 2009). The Greek
origin of the word andragogy refers to “man-leading” or adult-leading versus pedagogy which
refers to “child-leading.” According to Merriam & Webster, pedagogy refers to the art, science
or profession of teaching children while andragogy, as outlined by Knowles, means the art or
science of teaching adults (Merriam, 2001, p. 5). Figure 4 summarizes the key differences
between the two terms.
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Table 1
A Comparison of Andragogy and Pedagogy

ANDRAGOGY PEDAGOGY
Age Adults Children
Learning/Instruction Self-directed Driven by teacher choice
Content Strong focus on individual
learner goals
Focus primarily on system goals
Motivation Primarily intrinsic Primarily extrinsic
Life Experiences Many life experiences to build
upon
Fewer life experiences to build
upon
Note, (Merriam, 2001).
Knowles identified six key pillars of andragogy:
1. Need to Know – adults need to know the “why” behind what they are learning; what is
the reason for learning this piece of knowledge or skill?
2. Experience – because adults have experience from which to draw upon which can
make the learning richer, educators should leverage this experience and bring it into the
discussion.
3. Self-concept – adult learners thrive on self-direction rather than being told what to do.
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4. Readiness – learning is best when it can help solve an immediate problem or need in
the real world.
5. Problem orientation – adults want to learn specific knowledge and skills to help solve
real problems versus generic content.
6. Intrinsic motivation – adult learners are more likely to be motivated by internal or
intrinsic factors rather than external or extrinsic factors.
Critics of Knowles have argued that these assumptions do not form the basis for a true
theory but rather a model or conceptual framework for understanding what makes adult learners
different (Taylor & Kroth, 2009). Still, the pillars are widely used in both the public and private
sectors in the creation of educational development programs for adults and for the purposes of
this study provide a lens for understanding the principles underpinning the design and delivery of
professional development opportunities for teachers at museums and historic sites. Because
teachers are adults with rich and diverse experiences to bring to bear on their learning, andragogy
should be considered when designing high-quality experiential learning opportunities for them as
an audience.
Figure 5 is designed to show how Kolb’s Theory of Experiential Learning and Knowles’
Framework for Andragogy relate to one another:
Table 2
Relationship between Kolb and Knowles
Kolb’s Theory of Experiential Learning Knowles’ Theory of Andragogy
Creation of concrete & engaging experiences Intrinsic Motivation & Need to Know
Reflection Experience & self-concept
Abstract conceptualization Readiness to Learn
Active experimentation Problem orientation
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By creating meaningful authentic learning experiences and clearly articulating the
learning objectives and desired outcomes, professionals at museums and historic sites can
increase the intrinsic value for teachers who decide to participate. In addition, when such
experiences allow ample time for discussion, practice and reflection, they can draw on the unique
experiences and perspectives of the teachers and help to build community with peers. To the
extent that participants can consider how the concepts apply to real challenges they are facing in
their classrooms, transferability can be enhanced. And finally, by focusing on actual challenges,
teachers are encouraged to apply the concepts and theories to their professional practice.
In summary, this study seeks to understand the extent to which the principles of
experiential learning for adults are utilized in the design and delivery of learning opportunities
for teachers at museums and historic sites.
Conclusion
The literature demonstrates a long and intertwined relationship between the evolution of
historic sites and museums and social studies instruction in the United States. It also suggests
that historic sites, in particular, are uniquely situated to offer authentic experiential learning
opportunities for teachers of history and social studies. However, there is currently a gap
between the discursive, inquiry-based instructional practice desired in social studies classrooms
and its utilization by teachers. Teachers need assistance in building both their confidence and
skill in delivering such instruction and managing conversations with students. In addition, in
order for teacher educators at museums and historic sites to deliver meaningful learning
opportunities for teachers, they also need to deepen their understanding of effective professional
development experiences.
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While there have been some studies conducted in recent years regarding the role of
museums and historic sites in working with classroom teachers, there is still a great deal that is
unknown. By working as true partners in the design and implementation process, teachers and
museum professionals have an opportunity to build experiences and tools for teachers of history
and social studies that do not currently exist. Historic sites, in particular, can offer the
opportunity to learn from curators and historians who regularly have to figure out how to
incorporate new evidence into their present interpretations of the past. Such sites also offer the
power of place and the chance to create memorable and defining experiences for teachers. This
study aims to build upon the research to date by delving into the learning principles that drive
programming decisions at well-known sites and museums in order to assist others who strive to
emulate and build upon their work.

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CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY

This study was designed to help define the role of experiential learning and andragogy in
the development and delivery of professional development opportunities for k-12 social studies
educators at historic sites and museums. The findings have implications for the museum staff
members responsible for designing and delivering workshops and teacher training sessions as
well as current and future participants who may benefit from such opportunities. The goal was to
help clarify those principles critical to replicating high-quality experiential learning at other,
similar organizations such as the Alamo located in San Antonio, Texas, and other sites around
the country. In addition, opportunities for improvement were also identified so that the
professional development experiences offered for teachers of history and social studies can have
a truly transformative effect on classroom practice.
Through a series of one-on-one interviews with museum professionals, informal
observations as well as interviews and focus groups with participating teachers, the study
examined the concepts and principles that drive the creation of experiential learning
opportunities for teachers of social studies and history at a total of four well-known sites across
the country. The sites were selected based on their reputations for offering high-quality
continuing education opportunities for teachers. The premise was that teachers must first
experience a more discursive and inquiry-based approach to instruction as learners before they
can implement such practices in their own classrooms. The goal was to distill the foundational
learning pillars driving the development of innovative professional development opportunities
for teachers in order to assist other museum professionals in creating similar experiences using a
place-based and immersive approach. Specifically, the findings and recommendations are
intended to help inform the implementation of the $300 million Alamo redevelopment plan
67
currently underway in San Antonio, Texas. As part of the plan, the staff at the Alamo aims to
create a world-class experience for the more than 1.6 million people who visit the site each year
through the construction of a new 100,000 square-foot Visitor Center and Museum. The plan
also includes the creation of an education center on the site and the development of learning
opportunities for k-12 educators across the state that specifically meet the needs of social studies
and history teachers and ultimately translate into better outcomes for students. As such, there
were two research questions guiding this study:
1) What principles and goals underpin the design and delivery of experiential learning for
K-12 teachers at key U.S. historic sites and museums?
2) How do teachers experience, internalize and act on these educational opportunities?
Study Overview
Using a qualitative design, this study was rooted in the premise that in order to
successfully create and implement effective professional development opportunities for teachers,
the staff at museums and historic sites must first deepen their own understanding and knowledge
of the principles underlying Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory and Malcolm Knowles’
Theory of Andragogy (described in Chapter 2) as well as the principles of effective PD identified
by Linda Darling-Hammond of Stanford University and her colleagues in their 2017 study
(Darling-Hammond et al., 2017). The study explored the utilization of these principles at four
national historic sites and museums.
Population and Sample
Through purposeful or judgmental sampling, the focus was on sites that already offer a
robust and established array of professional development opportunities for teachers. Based on a
review of the literature as well as network sampling, the following sites were identified:
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Gettysburg National Military Park, the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Jefferson’s
Monticello and George Washington’s Mount Vernon. The criteria for selection included:
1) Each site has a history of providing professional development opportunities for
teachers for at least five years or more
2) The success of their programs is demonstrated by the fact that there is a waiting
list for participation and/or a rigorous selection process for participants
3) They were each recommended by a fellow professional at a museum or historic
site for offering innovative or unique programs for teachers
Because this was not intended to be a quantitative study, random selection was not the
focus, nor was generalizing the results to a broader population such as all teachers of history and
social studies in Texas. Instead, the goal was to offer a deeper, more nuanced understanding of
those who design and deliver HSBPD and how it benefits the teachers who participate, which
could have implications for other museums and historic sites seeking to either expand or improve
their own programming. A preliminary review of the information available on the websites of the
four institutions suggested that they all have robust programming offered to both teachers and
students constituting a rich and diverse environment for study. These institutions were also
selected based on their similarities to the Alamo in terms of their historical significance and
potential to cover controversial topics in today’s highly polarized environment. Through a series
of informal observations, interviews and focus groups, I explored how they engage with local
educators in the development of programming, the challenges they face and the ways that they
measure the impact of their work on classroom practice. In addition, I sought their consent to
conduct interviews and focus groups with participating teachers in order to understand their
perspective of the value of professional development provided by historic sites and museums.
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Each of the site leaders as well as the educational leaders were contacted via e-mail with
follow up calls made to secure their participation in one-on-one interviews. Contact information
for each person was provided by the museum design firm who worked on the exhibits and visitor
experience at two of the locations and through a professional acquaintance who serves on the
Board of the National Parks Service. Invitations were sent to a total of five sites, but one, the
U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington, D. C., declined to participate as they were in the midst
of a strategic planning process in the summer of 2022 and not offering in-person experiences for
educators.
Instrumentation
As shown in Figure 5, data for the study were collected through a three-step process
conducted while on-site at each of the four locations during a professional development session
or workshop for k-12 educators in the summer of 2022. Interviews with museum professionals
were conducted before each session at Gettysburg, Mount Vernon and Monticello. They were
conducted during the weeklong seminar at the National WWII Museum. In addition, interviews
with two former teacher participants and one administrator from Gettysburg were conducted via
Zoom and two participating teachers from the National WWII Museum were interviewed instead
of participating in a focus group due to time constraints.

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Figure 5
Research Methodology

Step 1 – Interviews with Museum Professionals: This study employed a three-tiered
sampling approach (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016) including 1) the selection of the sites themselves
where the informal observations occurred 2) individual interviews with selected museum leaders
and 3) focus groups and/or interviews with participating teachers. The interview sample included
a total of six people, two from Monticello and the National WWII Museum and one from Mount
Vernon and Gettysburg. This sample included both the top educational leader as well as the
person responsible for designing and deploying teacher professional development at each of the
bounded, case study sites listed above.
Instrumentation for Step 1 Sample: Using one standardized and open-ended protocol
for both the education and program leaders, 90-minute interviews (Patton, 2002) were conducted
to understand the educational philosophy of the organization and the decisions driving the
content, the design, and the desired learning outcomes for HSBPD within their individual
Interviews with
Museum
Professionals
•Maximum of one
hour interviews
with six museum
professionals
Observations
•Informal
observations by
the researcher at
three of the
participating
sites including
the collection of
materials
Focus
Groups/Interviews
with Participants
•Two focus
groups including
three teacher
participants each
plus interviews
with four
teachers and one
administrator
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contexts. The reason for using the same protocol was to understand the similarities and
differences between their perspectives on professional development at their respective
organizations based on their individual roles. The protocol was tested with two local museum
leaders and the members of their education teams prior to being used in the field. Following
Institutional Review Board approval, these interviews took place in the Summer of 2022. These
interviews were conducted either virtually or in-person prior to participation in and observation
of a professional development experience at each site.
Key questions explored with the organizational and education leaders focused on Kolb’s
Experiential Learning Theory and Knowles’ Theory of Andragogy including: How do they go
about recruiting participants?; What barriers and challenges do they face, especially in the midst
of a global pandemic?; What is the benefit to teachers of participating in HSBPD?; What are the
primary learning objectives for the PD experiences that they offer?; What types of problems of
practice do they focus on solving?; What instructional strategies do they use?; How do they
measure the value for teachers?; What do they do if anything to develop and support a learning
community over the long term?; And how do they assess and support transference into the
classroom? (see Appendix A)
Steps 2 & 3 – Observations & Focus Groups/Interviews with Teacher Participants:
The goal was to attend at least one multi-day workshop and/or a portion of a one-week intensive
at each of the selected sites in the late Summer of 2022 to conduct informal observations to aid in
assessing overall teacher reaction and engagement and, more importantly, to inform the
discussion guide and questions for teacher interviews and focus groups at each site. Because
Gettysburg was not hosting in-person sessions during the time of this study, interviews with the
education leader plus two teachers and one administrator who attended sessions in the past were
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interviewed via Zoom. Where possible, the observations helped in the selection of a diverse
group of teachers to participate in the interviews or focus groups which were held toward the end
of the workshop or intensive. At Mount Vernon and Monticello, one 60-minute focus group with
three social studies and/or history teacher participants was conducted using a semi-structured
interview guide (Patton, 2002). At the National WWII Museum, 60-minute interviews were
conducted with two teachers using the same question protocol. Therefore, the second sample was
comprised of 11 teachers who agreed to participate – six in focus groups and five through
individual interviews. The reason for capping each focus group was to ensure a rich and
inclusive dialogue in the time allotted.
Instrumentation for Step 3 – Focus Group/Interview Sample: A consistent protocol
with eight standardized questions served as the foundation for the focus groups and teacher
interviews in order to ensure comparability across the sites (See Appendix B). Each question
included approximately four to five minutes of discussion, one minute per participant, absorbing
the first 30-minutes of the 60-minute conversation. The protocol was tested with members of the
Alamo’s Educator Advisory Panel before being used in the field. In addition, informal
observation throughout the workshop or intensive was used to inform the remaining two to three
focus group questions, enabling additional probing and further contextualization of specific
topics that surfaced during the experience. For this reason, the focus groups were scheduled
toward the end of the week-long sessions. During informal observations of the learning taking
place, special attention was paid to the elements of andragogy as well as effective professional
development described by Linda Darling-Hammond and her colleagues in their 2017 study
(Darling-Hammond et al., 2017).
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In order to be selected for the focus groups or interviews, participants had to be teachers
of history and/or social studies. Through the informal observations, teachers were invited to
participate based on a range of characteristics including race, gender, age, tenure, geographic
location, and grade level. The two focus groups and five interviews served as the primary basis
for understanding what the teachers felt they gained through their participation including their
thoughts, values, motivations, and attitudes, all internal views that are not easily observed
(Patton, 2002). Each of the eight standardized questions focused on one of the elements of
effective PD defined above and the final two to three questions focused on their intention to
transfer the learning to their classrooms and their confidence in their ability to do so successfully.
What challenges and barriers might they face? The goal was to include a rich variety of
professional history and social studies educators based on the factors outlined above. Therefore,
recruitment of focus group and interview participants at each site was intentional and followed
the same process for gaining permission as outlined for the museum professionals including
informed consent.
From the six interviews with museum educators and professionals at each of the sites as
well as the two focus groups and five interviews with teacher participants, this study was
designed to look at the use of andragogy in the design and implementation of experiential
learning opportunities for teachers at historic sites and museums as well as teacher perceptions
about the effectiveness of such experiences based on the seven principles identified by Linda
Darling-Hammond and her colleagues.
Data Collection
As outlined by Lochmiller and Lester (2017), the researcher must consider legal as well
as moral responsibilities when designing a study. In the United States, the standards provided by
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the American Educational Research Association (AERA) provide a framework to guide both
quantitative and qualitative studies such as the one I conducted (National Research Council,
2002). First, participants were briefed about the parameters and goals of the study and asked to
participate. They offered their consent either verbally or in writing in order for any results to be
shared. This is known as informed consent (Glesne, 2011). For the purposes of my study,
because I was looking at the educational programming and practices of other historic sites
around the country, I focused on adult participants, primarily in the executive and education
departments of the institutions that agreed to participate. I did not engage participants under the
age of 18, and therefore, assent by a parent or guardian was not a consideration. Participants also
had the right to withdraw from the study at any time without penalty if it became a burden or if
they developed concerns over the direction or content.
As described by Rubin and Rubin (2012), the role of the researcher as a “conversational
partner” should be based on the principle of respect for people and their wellbeing. The idea is to
minimize risk and to protect confidentiality. Because participation should always be completely
voluntary based on a thorough description of the study and its intent, incentives were not utilized
to try to coerce people into cooperating. Instead, for the institutions and teachers that chose to
participate in my study of the role of historic sites in providing training and professional
development to social studies teachers, I offered a small token of my appreciation such as a gift
card or gift basket once the study was complete.
As mentioned above in the sampling section, I contacted a total of five institutions
regarding possible participation including the Gettysburg Visitor Center and Museum in
Pennsylvania, the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial
Museum in Washington, Monticello and Mount Vernon. It was not my intention that the sites
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themselves be kept confidential. However, the names of specific individuals who participated in
an interview, an observation or focus group were protected. One plausible risk that remains is
that someone in the field might be able to identify a museum professional who participated in an
interview with a specific response based on their knowledge of the institution and its
programmatic offering. Individuals were made aware of this risk before consenting.
The goal was to interview the museum professionals prior to the beginning of the PD
experience to be observed so that the conversations could take place in person. With Gettysburg,
this was not possible since they were not conducting in-person sessions, therefore, the interview
was conducted virtually. Permission to record each 90-minute session using the Otter application
was secured in advance in order to assist with transcription. Participants were informed that they
could choose not to answer a specific question if they did not feel comfortable.
I took an “observer as participant” approach during the workshops or PD sessions
attended at Mount Vernon, Monticello and the National WWII Museum (Merriam & Tisdell,
2016, p.144). This meant that the teachers knew why I was there and the purpose of my study in
advance. This allowed me to both participate in the dialogue and the activities as an insider while
still not becoming a full-fledged member of the group. I did not record the sessions themselves.
Instead, I focusede on taking field notes describing the physical setting, the participants, the
activities included in the workshop and interactions and conversations with the staff educators as
well as among the teachers. Following the advice of Taylor and Bogdan, the goal was to pay
attention to specific individuals within the group and to make note of key phrases and statements
that stood out as well as any insights that emerged (Taylor et al., 2015). These were not intended
to be formal observations and, therefore, the notes are not included in the final analysis. Rather,
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the goal was to utilize the observations to help inform questions and follow up items to be
discussed during the focus groups and interviews with teachers.
The two focus groups and five interviews with participating teachers selected at each site
were designed to be structured enough to allow for comparison between the various locations.
With the exception of Gettysburg, they took place toward the end of each week-long session in
order for the teachers to reflect on the value of the PD they just experienced. The exact timing
for the conversations had to be flexible based on the programming schedule at each site but they
generally took place on Thursday afternoon before the conclusion of the seminar or institute on
Friday. These sessions were recorded with permission secured in advance. During the focus
groups and interviews, the participants were asked if there were particular artifacts such as
documents or educational videos from the sessions that they found particularly useful (Merriam
& Tisdell, 2016). I worked with the staff at each site to secure copies of such artifacts so that
they too could be analyzed through the researcher’s lens based on the pillars of experiential
learning and andragogy as well as the seven principles of best practice.
Data Analysis
Transcripts of all interviews and focus groups conducted during visits to participating
sites were analyzed for consistent themes and categorized. The transcripts were analyzed using
open coding (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). The coding for the interviews with museum
professionals as well as the interviews and focus groups with teacher participants was built on
the research questions to be answered. In contrast, the field notes from the observations were not
formally coded and were used instead to inform additional questions to be addressed during the
focus groups and interviews as well as key themes and ideas.
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Collection and analysis of the data took place simultaneously throughout the study. While
visiting each location, this process took place daily, transcribing and coding each evening while
the information was still fresh. Upon return from each site visit, further analysis in search of
patterns and ideas was conducted in order to inform the next trip or visit. Following the advice of
Bogdan et al. (2011), analytic questions were developed in advance, observer comments were
clearly delineated within the field notes, personal memos were written to capture critical insights,
key themes were shared with participants to gather feedback and metaphors were used when
possible or appropriate (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016).
Credibility and Trustworthiness
Because the researcher is the primary instrument in a qualitative study such as this one,
ethical considerations and potential biases must be considered. This includes everything from
confidentiality, informed consent and data storage to the mental health and personal views of the
person conducting the research. In addition to sharing emerging themes with participants while
in the field, key findings were also reviewed by the six museum professional interviewees as
well as the teacher participants who were willing for the purposes of triangulation and validation
(Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). This helped to ensure that the findings are indeed accurate and
credible.
In order to ensure credibility and reliability, I took three specific steps. First, I clearly
articulated the underlying assumptions driving the study. I triangulated the findings with both the
education and program leaders at each of the participating sites as well as the teachers engaged in
the focus groups and interviews. And finally, I described all of the steps in both the data
collection and the analysis in order to create an “audit trail” for future readers (Merriam &
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Tisdell, 2016, p. 265). In addition, all of the findings are described using rich and descriptive text
which will assist with transferability (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016).
Perhaps the biggest risk to participants in this particular study, especially those who work
at the four historic sites and museums, is that anonymity was difficult to achieve. Through a
quick google search, a reader could find out the identity of the education director or the program
leader at any of the institutions within a matter of minutes. They had to know this and be
comfortable with the idea before they consented. The potential benefit was to have their
programs and their work with teachers highlighted in the text, but this would only be realized if
the teachers had positive things to say about their experience during the PD session or workshop.
There was a high probability that this would occur given the criteria for how the sites were
selected, but it was still a risk that was identified and clearly communicated. By agreeing to share
the themes and findings with the participants before they were published, at least the element of
surprise was removed from the communication and/or publication of the findings.
Ethics
My study of the role of historic sites in working with educators is built on a constructivist
understanding of the world. I hold two beliefs that may or may not be in alignment with the
views of either the institutions participating in the study or actual classroom teachers. The first is
that social studies education is critical to the preservation of democracy and the cultivation of
civic agency in students. If we do not have a solid understanding of our past, we are more likely
to repeat our mistakes. Second, I believe that social studies as a subject is often overlooked in its
importance because of our emphasis on standardized testing in other subjects, particularly math
and language arts. As a result, the quality and variety of professional learning opportunities
offered to teachers of history and social studies may not be as robust. I am open to challenges to
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these beliefs and to discovering deeper insights about the needs of practitioners as well as new
and innovative ways to meet those needs.
In addition to informed consent and the credibility and trustworthiness of the researcher,
the handling and storage of data presents another ethical consideration (Lochmiller & Lester,
2017). I stored the documents created through my interviews, observations and focus groups as
well as any artifacts collected such as lesson plans and classroom materials on a secure server
with password protection. Review and approval of my proposed multiple case study design by
the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at the University of Southern California ensured that I took
the necessary steps to protect the rights and welfare of participants.
Role of the Researcher
Perhaps the biggest dilemma for me as a researcher and the actual “instrument” in this
qualitative study had to do with my own political views and my current environment. The latest
Legislative Session in Texas ended on Friday, May 28
th
and there were several highly contested
bills passed covering everything from voter suppression and concealed carry laws to the
reproductive rights of women. The conservative agenda also included two bills that ban
educators from teaching Critical Race Theory in their classrooms and prohibited the discussion
of slavery. In addition, there was a book released on June 8, 2021 by three Texas journalists
entitled Forget the Alamo, which made several claims about the “myth” of the famous battle of
1836 and its “heroes,” not the least of which was that the primary reason for the Texas
Revolution was not freedom and independence as we have been taught, but that the Texas
Defenders were fighting for their right to own slaves. Texas is one of only 10 states where
members of the State Board or Education, which establishes the curriculum standards known as
the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), are elected in a partisan election (Williams
80
and Maloyed, 2013). Philosophically, I do not believe it is the role of politicians to determine
what professional educators can or should teach in the classroom. Instead, teachers should be
afforded the autonomy to make those decisions based on their own expertise as well as the needs
of their students.
In addition, as the Executive Director of the Alamo Trust, I technically report to a Board
of Directors, but because the Alamo itself is under the control of the Texas General Land Office,
the staff there is involved in almost every decision I make, especially those that could have
political implications for the Commissioner and his/her staff members who are always on high
alert. In addition, the Texas Lt. Governor, Dan Patrick, has a personal passion for the Alamo and
its future and he and his team are heavily involved as they secured a $50 million investment from
the Legislature in 2021 and are working on another major appropriation for the 2023 session for
the Alamo Plan redevelopment project which I have been charged with implementing.
Locally, the politics are quite different and at the opposite end of the spectrum. The
Alamo Citizens Advisory Council organized by the City, who technically owns the Plaza directly
in front of the iconic Alamo Church, wants to tell the full story of the site including its beginning
as a home to indigenous people, the Mission Era, the Revolution and up through the modern-day
Civil Rights movement. They do not agree with the state’s emphasis on the Battle as the main
focus of the future Visitor Center and Museum. Personally, I would love to see the Alamo
become a beacon for historical reconciliation and a place that brings people together versus
tearing them apart, but politically that may not be possible at this time. For all of these reasons, I
had to be very careful with my study and its implications as it could have negative consequences
for the $300 million Alamo Plan as well as my job. I prepared myself to conduct a study based
on sound research methodology and ethics, while also constantly being vigilant about the
81
political ramifications. I also had to remain open to the findings and the ways they may challenge
my own beliefs and views.
Conclusion
The goal of this study is to help the staff at the Alamo as well as other museums and
historic sites across the country to understand how the principles of andragogy and best practice
can be utilized to create meaningful experiential learning opportunities for k-12 teachers.
Through a series of one-on-one interviews, informal observations and focus groups with
participants at four well-known museums and historic sites around the country, the study sought
to understand the benefit of professional development experiences for k-12 history and social
studies teachers. Based on the qualitative methodology, broad transferability and replicability
was not the objective. Rather, by understanding how these concepts are currently being utilized
by other museum professionals, the recommendations offer ideas and suggestions for not only
how to develop similar programming, but also thoughts for improving upon the current offering
in order to maximize the impact of HSBPD on classroom practice. Chapter 4 describes in detail
the findings from the interviews and focus groups and offers an analysis of these findings.

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CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS AND FINDINGS
The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the impact of experiential
professional learning experiences for history and social studies teachers hosted at museums and
historic sites around the country. Through a series of interviews and focus groups with both
museum professionals as well as teacher participants, the goal was to understand the objectives
that drive such learning opportunities and the benefits derived by both practicing educators and
the organizations themselves. The research questions that guided the study are:
1. What principles and goals underpin the design and delivery of experiential learning for
K-12 teachers at key U.S. historic sites and museums?
2. How do teachers experience, internalize and act on these educational opportunities?
Site and Study Participants
Of the five institutions invited to become part of the study through purposeful sampling, four
accepted. The only one to decline was the National Holocaust Memorial Museum in
Washington, DC who was in the midst of a strategic planning process in 2022 and not offering
in-person summer experiences for educators. Gettysburg was also not conducting an in-person
session in 2022, so instead three former participants in their “Days with Documents” workshops
were interviewed. Informal observations of week-long sessions that included focus groups and
interviews with teachers were conducted at Mount Vernon, the National WWII Museum in New
Orleans and Monticello. The specific learning experiences that were either referenced or
observed directly included:
1. Gettysburg National Military Park – Days with Documents
(https://www.nps.gov/gett/learn/education/professional-development.html).
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2. National WWII Museum in New Orleans/Summer Teacher Seminar – Voices from the
Pacific War: Teaching the Untold Stories of WWII
(https://www.nationalww2museum.org/students-teachers/educator-resources/professional-
development).
3. Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello – Monticello Teacher Institute
(https://www.monticello.org/research-education/for-educators/monticello-teacher-institute).
4. Mount Vernon/George Washington Teacher Institute – The Great Experiment: George
Washington and the Founding of the U.S. Government
(https://www.mountvernon.org/education/for-teachers/teaching-institutes-professional-
development).
At Gettysburg and the National WWII Museum, I conducted semi-structured interviews
lasting 45 minutes to one hour with a total of four teacher participants and one principal.
Transcripts from each conversation were recorded using the Otter app and then transcribed and
coded using Max QDA. A table listing all of the participants who engaged in individual
interviews is included below:
Table 3
Teacher Interview Participants at a Glance
Pseudonym Site State Grade Level Subject
Cindy Gettysburg Pennsylvania 8
th
Grade U.S. History
Erin Gettysburg Minnesota 8
th
Grade U.S. History
Darren Gettysburg Maryland Principal NA
Christy WWII Museum Ohio 9
th
grade Modern World
History
John WWII Museum North Carolina 8
th
Grade U.S. History

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In addition to the five individual interviews listed above, two focus groups with three
teachers each were conducted at Monticello and Mount Vernon for a total of 11 teachers whose
voices were included.
Table 4
Focus Group Participants
Pseudonym Site State Grade Level Subject
Joe Mount Vernon Mississippi High School/10
th

Grade
AP Government
& Economics
Peter Mount Vernon Kentucky 4
th
& 5
th
Grade Social Studies
Melissa Mount Vernon Florida k-5
th
Grade Gifted
Jill Monticello Michigan High School/10
th

Grade
U.S. History,
Government &
Economics
Courtney Monticello Ohio 8
th
Grade American
History
Mary Monticello Massachusetts High
School/10
th
, 11
th

& 12
th
Grades
AP Psychology,
Criminology &
New Zealand
Studies

In order to capture the voices of the program designers themselves, a total of six
professional museum educators were also interviewed including one from Gettysburg and one
from Mount Vernon as well as two from the National WWII Museum and two from Monticello.
All of the education leaders were interviewed separately with the exception of the two from
Monticello who were interviewed together. These conversations also lasted between 45 minutes
to one hour and were recorded, transcribed and then coded using the same software.
Each transcript was reviewed and analyzed at least three times using a system of open
coding in order to identify consistencies and differences in the experiences of both program
participants and program designers. The patterns that emerged were then grouped into thematic
categories. Following this analysis, the participants were contacted to provide feedback on the
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preliminary findings and to offer suggestions and additional insights. In addition, two other
museum experts, one who is the President and CEO of a natural history museum in San Antonio
and the other who owns an international museum design firm, were asked to provide their
thoughts and reactions.
Findings
Across the focus groups and interviews, three key themes emerged for each research
question as described below in Table 3. The professionals at each of the participating sites
pointed to the utilization of primary source materials and input from teachers as being core to
overall program design and delivery. They also talked about the organizational benefits of having
a community of engaged teachers to offer feedback on future programming ideas and the ability
to express their deep appreciation for the teaching profession through immersive professional
development experiences. Finally, they articulated their goal to share multiple perspectives
related to a specific person or historical event and to support teachers by offering language and
tools that can be used to manage sometimes contentious conversations in the classroom. For the
teacher participants, they referenced the power of learning in the place where history actually
happened and being able to bring that experience back to their students. They also discussed their
plans to transfer the learning to their colleagues back on their campuses and in their districts.
Finally, similar to the organizations themselves, they expressed appreciation for having built a
network of like-minded professionals that they could turn to in the future for ideas and support.
In some respects, the teacher participants were part of a secret or hidden society unknown to
much of the rest of the educational world. Once they participated in one experiential learning
opportunity, they were likely to participate in another and then another, clearly seeing a benefit
to themselves both personally and professionally. Similarly, professionals at the sites themselves,
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many of whom had been delivering such experiences for a decade or more, saw value in the time
and resources that are invested. In short, the ability to travel to the actual site where a certain
event took place or a person lived helped to make history come to life through interactions with
subject matter experts and hands-on activities using real artifacts and primary sources. Each of
these themes will be described in more detail with examples from the participants themselves.
Table 5
Emerging Themes
Research
Question 1
Theme 1:
Constructivist
Design Driven by
Primary Sources
Theme 2:
Creation of Community/
Respect for the Profession
Theme 3:
Multiple Perspectives &
Critical Conversations
Research
Question 2
Theme 1:
Power of Place
Theme 2:
Sharing the Learning/
Classroom Application
Theme 3:
Professional Network &
Personal Growth

Research Question 1: What Principles and Goals Underpin the Design and Delivery of
Experiential Learning for K-12 Teachers at Key U.S. Historic Sites and Museums?
Through interviews with program leaders and designers at each of the participating sites,
it became evident that the weeklong intensive experiences were being built based on feedback
from participants and peers with primary source materials at the core. By using real documents
and artifacts, each of the institutions introduced the educators to the classroom resources that
they provide and demonstrated how to use them with students.

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Constructivist Program Design Driven by Primary Sources
The program designers at the various sites did not point to a specific learning theory or
framework as guiding the design of their programs and sessions. Instead, input from teachers was
a driver along with staff collaboration and analysis. At Gettysburg, the program lead described
an experience at the National Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. that changed
her thinking about professional development for educators based on experiential learning. At
Mount Vernon, one of the education leaders took a year to study what they were doing, to gather
feedback from educators and to make recommendations for changes. Based on that, they moved
from a standard curriculum for each week to a thematic approach such as the founding of the
nation or Mount Vernon and Slavery.
Our mission is the life, leadership and legacies of George Washington. It's twofold. It's
preservation and it's education…and so when I think about our education outcomes, we
have three main broad outcomes for the whole experience. The first one is a content-
based outcome. And that is how George Washington shaped the world in an age of
revolutionary change…so not only was he in a position to change the world, the world
itself was in a moment of powerful transition during the Age of Enlightenment. The
reason we bring that forward instead of just learning about George Washington is
because it activates his leadership…The second outcome is more about an attitude or
perspective. We want people to have a memorable and relevant experience so that it stays
with them and they can connect the past to today…And then the third outcome is my
stretch outcome…and that's a behavior change. It's really thinking about how we can
support people when they come to Mount Vernon to become positive contributors to their
community…it’s the civics outcomes of a visit to our site. What were the choices
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Washington was making in honor of the community that he was a part of? How can you
be making choices that honor the community that you're a part of? Teachers are already
doing amazing service to their communities and contributing in positive ways just by
choosing that profession…it's teaching them to see the work that they do is in-service to
the community at large. (Educational Leader, Mount Vernon)
Thus, the institution strives not just to deepen the knowledge that educators have of
George Washington and his life but they also intentionally work to create lasting memories and
to increase the level of civic engagement of participants.
At the WWII Museum, the program lead was relatively new in her role and was charged
with moving away from full weeks dedicated to each of the four curriculum volumes that were
created for teachers based on the Museum’s four Pavilions to pulling from all of them to create a
cohesive experience. Using a color-coding system, she mapped out the sessions based on content
lectures, classroom application activities and immersive experiences to ensure that they were
creating the right balance. She then sought feedback from her colleagues before launching the
new PD series offered in the summer of 2022.
I tried to be very intentional about balancing the content lectures from our historians that
are kind of laying out the scholarship…probably providing a lot more in depth detail than
teachers are going to be able to incorporate into their classrooms because of time
constraints. But I thought it was important because when I was teaching or when I design
education programs, I feel like I need to have a very broad base of content knowledge so
I understand how to curate the learning experience for students. I wanted to balance those
important content sessions to give them that background knowledge…with both sessions
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focused on pedagogy as well as curriculum highlights and experiences. (Museum
Educator, National World War II Museum)
As described above, striking a balance between content and classroom application was a
consistent theme among the program leaders who were interviewed.
Most museum professionals described their approach to program design as constructivist
based on ongoing comments and feedback as well as their own observations about what works
and what does not. For many, the learning begins before the teachers even arrive. At Mount
Vernon, there were required readings including George Washington, Nationalist by Edward L.
Larson and The Only Unavoidable Subject of Regret;” George Washington, Slavery and the
Enslaved Community at Mount Vernon by Mary V. Thompson, a retired historian who spent
years at Mount Vernon. Similarly at Monticello, there was a combination of readings such as
Understanding and Teaching American Slavery by Bethany Jay and Cynthia Lynn Lyerly as well
as online resources such as videos. At WWII, a preparatory course was set up in Canvas for the
teachers to provide an opportunity for them to get to know each other and begin the cohort-
building process through introductory flip grid videos and virtual discussions. A group project
was included in the course and both the program leader and the teachers did not feel that it really
worked. The teachers simply had too much going on at the end of the school year when the
course was first launched and the museum educators decided to abandon the idea mid-stream.
During each of the sessions that were observed, the staff worked to compile a shared
folder where all of the presentations and resources that were shared as well as any content
developed by the teachers themselves was placed for future reference. Following the sessions,
teachers generally felt confident that if they needed help or had a question about a specific topic
or lesson that the staff and the experts would be there to support them.
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I love the resource page they're putting together where everything is there. And I feel like
if I emailed any of them and said, you know, where was this or what about this? I feel
like they would respond and they would assist. So that builds confidence because you
know, if you run into some issues, somebody there is gonna help you. (Mount Vernon
Focus Group)
Through the development of such resources, the teachers felt that the organizations were
offering at least some level of ongoing support and that if additional help was needed, they could
reach out to the program organizers for assistance.
At all of the sites included in the study the use of specific place-based materials including
primary source documents and artifacts as well as oral histories was central to program design. In
fact, the utilization and incorporation of primary source documents was mentioned by all of the
museum professionals who were interviewed as being a key part of the experience. From the
Declaration of Independence and the Constitution to the Gettysburg Address, Washington’s
Farewell Address and Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s speech following the bombing of Pearl
Harbor, teachers were introduced to different strategies to analyze language and to utilize the
documents in their classrooms.
Well, I love the way that they've backed everything up with primary documents, like
every single lecture session and every speaker shows you where they've gotten this
information from and what primary documents have supported this and I think that's
extremely powerful. (Mount Vernon Focus Group)
For Gettysburg’s “Days with Documents” program, teachers are given a complete set of
documents at the beginning of the session and then led through a series of activities to bring
them to life throughout the workshop. A typical set or box of documents might include
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everything from the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Louisiana Purchase to
the Gettysburg Address and correspondence between key leaders leading up to, during and after
the War.
Figuring out how to make primary documents accessible to younger students was really
helpful and I also like learning about different locations to look for them… learning what
they had available was really, really helpful because…they have access to things that I
wouldn't necessarily have known about. For example, there is a man who was killed in
action at Gettysburg from New York, who the only thing that they found on his body
when he died was a picture of his children and so they had a wood carving made of the
picture and they put it in papers all over New York and his wife saw the picture and
identified him…so we discussed how you would go about identifying this person? And
then what happens to these people? And even though that's something that is specific to
the Battle of Gettysburg, I actually use that when I talk about reconstruction, like how do
people put their lives back together after something just catastrophic. (Cindy, Gettysburg
Military Park)
Learning how to use primary source documents to make history come to life for students
of all ages was something that the participating educators discussed at Gettysburg as well as
Mount Vernon.
Artifacts were also utilized in a number of different ways. All sites offered a tour of their
research library where books and papers are stored. At Mount Vernon, in particular, teachers
enjoyed getting to go into the vault and see some of Washington’s original letters and
documents. At the WWII Museum, there was a session dedicated to the archives with one of the
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Museum’s curators where teachers could see examples of propaganda used on both sides of the
war.
At Monticello, teachers expressed a strong desire for things that students can actually
hold – something tangible that is not on a screen. Specific kits of artifacts are used during on-site
tours or “roundabouts” but the teachers also expressed a desire to have these same tools to use
with their students in the classroom.
We're completely one to one in my district so kids look at an iPad all day. They don’t
even have textbooks so like they don't ever hold anything tangible. It's all on their iPads. I
think it just creates a different experience. (Monticello Focus Group)
In order to meet this need, most of the sites offered some form of a traveling trunk
program where replicas of real artifacts can be shipped to a school for teachers to use in the
classroom.
They have a traveling trunk that they send out to schools and it has different replicated
artifacts that create a hands-on experience for students and they have recommendations
for how you use them…like there is an activity about the Gettysburg address where
students take apart the vocabulary for it…there's also a lot of things about everyday
soldier life like a uniform replica…and I use those in conjunction with some of the
documents that I received at the professional development sessions. So we look at some
of the letters that people are writing and look at the items and try to piece together what it
was like…almost like an archaeology style activity with more of an investigative style.
What can we learn about these people based on this particular set of artifacts, both written
and physical artifacts…That can help students with different learning styles and different
levels of interest engage in the activity. (Cindy, Gettysburg Military Park)
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The opportunity to touch and interact with artifacts is obviously one of the benefits of an
actual site visit with students, but teachers would also like for institutions to make this possible
through other avenues such as traveling trunks.
Because programs like the summer institutes attract teachers from all over the country,
they are not aligned to specific state standards but rather focus on the Common Core which is
more skills-based and emphasizes the importance of building historical thinking skills and
empathy in students beyond the memorization of specific people and events from history.
Making this transition to skills-based instruction can be a challenge for some teachers.
We need to be proactive in helping them see the connection between what they're being
asked to teach…it's a struggle for teachers to move from content-based social studies
instruction to a skill based one…it's really hard to do and we museums are the experts in
doing that. It’s what our curators and historians do…we take source material and we
draw conclusions from it…It’s showing them how to think like a historian…here, you're
not just learning the content, you are learning how we understand it. (Educational Leader,
Mount Vernon)
In general, each of the sessions observed was highly focused on the utilization of primary
source materials and informed by feedback from teachers. Further, by intentionally offering
teachers the time and space to practice their own historical thinking skills, participants
discovered new and innovative ways to also teach their students how to think like a historian.
Creation of Community/Respect for the Profession
Another goal in addition to showing the teachers how to effectively utilize the resources
provided was the creation of a community of practicing advisors. In other words, the institutions
sought to both honor the participating teachers and also to build a collaborative relationship so
94
they may be called on in the future for ideas and input. Most of these immersive experiences are
either completely free or mostly free for teachers with all travel expenses being reimbursed
which indicates the value that the sponsoring organizations place on building a network of
skilled professionals that can serve as ambassadors in the field.
Throughout each week-long observation, one could see the teachers getting to know one
another more deeply, building relationships over shared meals and discussions and by the time
the sessions ended, each group had taken it upon themselves to create a way to stay in contact
with each other utilizing technology. They were also building and deepening their relationships
with the staff members and the institutions themselves:
Recognizing that good pedagogy means you give people time to think about what they're
learning and not just dumping out information and saying you can think about that later.
What's always been a part of our program has been social time in the evenings like the
cocktail reception when you're starting the week…we want to support and build the
cohort so that even in their relationships with each other, they're reinforcing their
relationship with Mount Vernon. (Educational Leader, Mount Vernon)
The education team at Monticello describes engagement with teachers as a pyramid with
low-touch opportunities as the foundation and high-touch experiences like a summer institute at
the apex. The idea is that as teachers move up the pyramid, their relationship and engagement
with a site deepens alongside their relationships with peers through shared interests and
experiences.

95
Figure 6
Engagement with Teachers Defined

The visits and interviews uncovered a wealth of resources and experiences available to
teachers that remain hidden or unknown to many. Many of the teachers had been to multiple
summer experiences at a wide variety of institutions. One teacher at Mount Vernon described it
as “catching the bug” and becoming a “workshop junky.” There is even a private Facebook
group called “Scholarships, Grants and Summer Institutes for Teachers” with approximately
13,000 followers that features summer learning opportunities and scholarships for teachers which
is a great resource for those who know about it. In addition, some of the participants knew each
other from other experiences offered through the National Endowment for the Humanities, the
Guilder Lehrman Institute of American History or other sites such as Colonial Williamsburg and
the USS Midway. In other words, teachers likely to attend one of these time-intensive learning
experiences are also more likely to attend others.
For the organizations who host these “apex” experiences for teachers, the benefit is
described by the team at Mount Vernon as creating a whole cadre of ambassadors. These are
people who encourage their peers and colleagues to participate in future learning opportunities
Multi-day PD
Experience
Onsite learning/field trip
with students
Engagement with virtual resources such as
tours and field trips
Utilization of online materials & resources
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via word of mouth. They also serve as a ready group of professional educators who can offer
feedback on future programming ideas both informally and formally as part of ongoing also
ongoing advisory groups. In fact, the museum educators responsible for designing and delivering
experiential learning opportunities for teachers have formed their own network called the
Teacher Insights Group.
It's a group of museum professionals who do teacher PD, that grew out of that research
that Christine Barron did at Monticello and it's very informal. It's about 90 educators at
this point and about 30 or 40 different institutions. And we just get together every once in
a while and swap stories and share research and share what's working, what's not
working. (Educational Leader, Mount Vernon)
Based on what they have learned and observed, the team at Monticello has recently
published a book entitled Bringing Teachers to the History Museum – A Guide to Facilitating
Teacher Professional Development, published by Rowman and Littlefield. It is described as a
practical guide for designing experiences similar to those explored in this study or at least based
on some of the same concepts and ideas.
We have learned as much from these teachers as they have from us. They enormously
help us like keep our finger on the pulse of what is happening in classroom…the moving
cultural norms of students and what they're excited about and interested in and techniques
and strategies that we use with students on tours and in our own programs and staff
training are things that I've learned doing the Teacher Institute and vice versa.
(Educational Leader, Monticello)
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In terms of ongoing contact with the teacher participants by the hosting institutions, many
museum professionals expressed a desire to strengthen and/or formalize their support for
educator networks in the future:
There's a few different projects that we're gonna be launching within this next school year
that I think will help with ongoing engagement, one is a teacher advisory committee and I
already know that there are teachers from this cohort and from Munich that are going to
be interested in participating in that. So I think that's one way especially for teachers from
these programs who are very clear leaders for us to continue to maintain that relationship
with them, but then also to utilize their leadership as well. I think one of the other things
that we've talked a lot about is just having that master teacher position in future summer
seminars is going to be really important. (Museum Educator, National World War II
Museum)
Across the experiences that were observed, the majority of the seven principles of effective
professional development identified and defined by Linda Darling-Hammond and her team at
Stanford University were present (Darling-Hammond et al., 2017). These include:
Figure 7
Characteristics of Effective Professional Development
1. Is content-focused
2. Incorporates active learning utilizing adult learning theory
3. Supports collaboration, typically in job-embedded contexts
4. Uses models and modeling of effective practice
5. Provides coaching and expert support
6. Offers opportunities for feedback and reflection
7. Is of sustained duration
Note, (Darling-Hammond et al., 2017).
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At all of the participating sites, the emphasis on content and collaboration was clear. In
addition, the sessions that were observed included active learning, modeling and multiple
opportunities for feedback and reflection. Each institution also had mechanisms in place to
continue to communicate with alumni including e-newsletters. Some, such as Mount Vernon,
also allow educators to attend multiple sessions if they are accepted based on the applicant pool.
Mount Vernon also hosted a reunion in celebrated of the 20
th
anniversary of their summer
institutes for teachers in 2019.
We were really thinking about that as a culminating year since we started in 1999 and
we've got it in our plans to do a 25th as well. We invited the faculty that had taught at all
of the sessions over the 20 years and we live streamed it back before live streaming was
commonplace. And, you know, people could bring their families. And so it was
wonderful that they could share some of the things that they've found so great but it
wasn't sort of heavy in terms of academics…it was a real nice opportunity for them.
(Educational Leader, Mount Vernon)
Beyond the content and deep learning that takes place through immersive and
experiential professional development opportunities, perhaps one of the biggest benefits is the
chance to treat teachers like true professionals and to honor them for the work they do in
classrooms each day.
I think it's validation for them in terms of their passion for history and that it’s something
they’re in interested in learning so they can bring it back to their students. I also think it’s
about just raising their profile in their own communities, giving them a chance to
represent a national institution among their peers, and giving them the responsibility and
the authority to do that. And again, this idea of the opportunity to really understand the
99
powerful role of interpreting history – that’s what they're doing and they're asking their
students to do instead of just teaching what the story has passively been…it’s that sort of
active approach to history. It's a big responsibility and knowing that they have our
support and our endorsement for doing that work in their community can be powerful.
(Educational Leader, Mount Vernon)
At a time when fewer and fewer people are considering the teaching profession and
people are leaving the classroom in large numbers, the benefit of making teachers feel valued
and appreciated should not be understated. The teachers also appreciated the opportunity to
“choose” to participate in the experiences versus being required to attend as they are for much of
the professional development offered in their districts.
Multiple Perspectives & Critical Conversations
The third theme that emerged in terms of program design and delivery is the idea of
seeing historical events and people through the lens of people with different points of view.
The concept that history is interpretive by nature came to life for participants as they explored
lines of inquiry related to who is doing the interpreting? Whose story is being told? And whose
story is being left out of the conversation? Helping teachers to unpack this concept so they can
pass that understanding on to their students is one of the key learning objectives articulated for
the Institute at Mount Vernon:
The first is to gain knowledge of George Washington in the world that he lived in. The
second is to examine political, social, ideological and economic histories and concepts.
We want to make sure that we're looking at these things from different perspectives,
different interpretive or historiographical approaches. And then we want to analyze
primary sources in order to investigate Washington and the founding era. So primary
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sources a big part of that. The fourth one is we want to address inclusive histories that
reflect the diversity of the 18th century. One of the things that became very clear to us is
that it's hard for a lot of people to see the 18th century beyond white men because they're
the people that are writing the documents that people are reading today. So we just
wanted to be proactive about making people understand what the 18th century looked
like - that there were lots of different people interacting with each other from different
backgrounds, different races, different economic classes. The fifth one is to create and
utilize strategies for the classroom that encourage discussion and inquiry. So that's just
putting our classroom methodology a little bit more specifically forward. And the sixth
one is relevancy - how the 18th century is relevant to today's modern world. (Educational
Leader, Mount Vernon)
Because social studies teachers are often challenged with introducing potentially
controversial topics and guiding difficult conversations in the classroom, offering them language
and tips for how to do so effectively was a stated learning objective.
In fact, at each of the sites the emphasis on a specific event or era of history offered the
opportunity to go deep on a particular topic and to offer multiple perspectives. An emphasis was
placed on historical thinking skills and the notion of “and.” This idea was expressed at
Monticello and seemed to resonate as a way to capture the notion that you don’t have to erase
one person’s history in order to add the narratives that have largely remained untold. You can do
both. At WWII, for example, there was time devoted to thinking about the experiences of
American POWs as well as the people who were placed in Japanese internment camps. At Mount
Vernon, a similar discussion took place on George Washington’s views on slavery and
emancipation and how they changed over time as evidenced by his writing. Similarly, one of the
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most poignant moments on the Monticello house tour for many of the participants was when the
guide stopped to point out the imprint of three small fingers on one of the bricks facing the
famous West Lawn. She described how the enslaved children were responsible for turning the
bricks as they were removed from the kiln to dry in the sun and that is most likely where the
fingerprints came from. Many of the participants indicated that they intended to take this image
back to their students to tell the full story of who actually built the famous structure.
One of the educational leaders at Mount Vernon described their goal of emphasizing the
interpretive aspect of history in the following way:
The thing that we can see definitively is that it changes teachers’ relationship to
history…by being at a place that is actively interpreting and actively doing research,
teachers are able to better understand that what they're teaching their students is not the
events of the past…what they're teaching their students is an interpretation of the past and
it activates their responsibility and their students’ responsibility in that there is a voice of
interpretation in the work that they're doing. (Educational Leader, Mount Vernon)
At a time when politics is influencing and sometimes dictating what can be taught in
American classrooms, teachers are on the front lines of that debate and sometimes uncertain of
how to tackle difficult subjects such as slavery:
I'm a white person teaching about slavery…it's just really horrible to think about, you
know, as an adult, so teaching it to young people has always been something I was
nervous about. I don't want to traumatize the children in my classroom by teaching about
other children who have been traumatized while they were enslaved. But I guess I just
realized like it's something you need to deal with…the world needs to understand how
slavery impacted our country. And the descendants of that are still living…miles away
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from this plantation, they're still living there. There's no denying the fact that they exist.
So you really do need to teach children about that. (Erin, Gettysburg Military Park)
At each of the institutions visited, specific time was devoted during the week for dealing
with difficult conversations in the classroom. These sessions were often led by a teacher
facilitator for those institutions who utilized a practitioner as part of the program.
Right now, you know, our teachers are facing real challenges about not just what the
content is, but if they're even legally allowed to teach it. And they're the only ones that
know the challenges facing them in their classrooms. So with a facilitator who is a
practicing teacher as well, he or she can really speak to what that means for the specific
content that we're working through more so than our staff can. So each day there is
usually some sort of facilitator time, or sometimes the scholar or the facilitator work
together and really work through the problems as they're emerging. (Educational Leader,
Mount Vernon)
In short, professional development opportunities like those described in this study can
help provide both language and tools that teachers can then use in the classroom to tackle
difficult subjects and to offer multiple perspectives on topics and events that have the potential to
be contentious. By placing primary sources at the center of program design along with feedback
from participants and colleagues, the participating organizations created authentic learning
experiences for educators. They emphasized the importance of managing challenging
conversations in the classroom and the creation of a community of professionals who can support
one another and serve as ambassadors for the institutions in the field. Finally, they used the
experiential learning opportunities as a way to show respect and appreciation for the teaching
profession more broadly.
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While not stated as a specific goal, the organizations were helping to build historical
thinking skills as defined by Carretero and his colleagues (Carretero et al., 2012) with the
program participants.
Figure 8
Historical Thinking Skills

Note. (Carretero et al., 2012).
As the teachers worked together to analyze the language in specific documents or primary
sources, they discussed the meaning and the context. At Mount Vernon, in particular, they used
actual letters and writing samples to explore how George Washington’s views on slavery
evolved throughout his lifetime and the impact that the war had on his perceptions of people of
African descent. Similarly at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s contributions as a scholar, a
founding father and a leader were presented and discussed alongside his relationship with an
enslaved woman, Sarah “Sally” Hemings. In this way, educators were exposed to the idea that
both Washington and Jefferson were men of their time and they were both courageous,
revolutionary thinkers and leaders and they were also flawed. Again, while not included as a
learning objective, this is a way to build understanding of people from the past and empathy for

Level 4

Historical empathy and an awareness of one's historical subjectivity tempers rush to judgment
Level 3:

Documents' source and historical context are static/uniform, provide basis from which to evaluate author or historical actors
Level 2:

Documents represent "given past" - no regard for authors' perspective or context
Level 1:

Historical Actors can be judged according to contemporary values
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the decisions they made at the time. To the extent that the teachers then incorporate their learning
and their experience into their instructional practice, they have an opportunity to also build
historical thinking skills in the students they teach.
Research Question 2: How Do Teachers Experience, Internalize and Act on These
Educational Opportunities?
Each of the participating organizations leveraged the power of their location as well as
the associated primary source materials in program design and delivery. For the teachers,
standing in the place where important historical events actually occurred evoked both emotion
and understanding. They also appreciated the community that was being created through shared
experience and the ability to learn from respected scholars as well as other professional
educators. By the end of each week-long experience, the participants generally expressed both
excitement and confidence in their ability to share the learning with their colleagues as well as
their students. Some commented on feeling renewed and appreciative of having new ideas and
resources to use in their classrooms.
Power of Place
Prior research from Baron et al. (2019) has shown that two of the main benefits that
teachers derive from professional learning at historic sites, in particular, revolve around the idea
of “power of place.” Teachers describe this concept as 1) being in the place where history
actually happened; and 2) interacting with real experts including historians and archaeologists in
particular. This theme was reiterated by the teachers interviewed for this study.
At Gettysburg, participants mentioned the opportunity to stand beside the tree where
Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg address. One of the most powerful learning moments
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remembered was when the participants were given a letter from a real soldier from their home
state and then asked to find the grave of that soldier in the cemetery.
There is an activity that they do with small groups there at the Park Service…where they
have done research to find letters of soldiers who are buried there…the teachers are given
a map of the cemetery and some basic information like we were given a knapsack that
had different things in it to figure out who does this belong to because that's what they
did in the aftermath of the battle…based on the stuff that this person had on them, who
are they? After identifying who they are, then you'll be given the letters that they wrote
home and then find where they're buried. And look at what they said to their family and
their loved ones about why they were fighting the war because their reasons were all very
different. (Cindy, Gettysburg Military Park)
At Mount Vernon, the teachers had a moment of reflection on the back lawn overlooking
the Potomac River and talked about being in George Washington’s house, in the places where he
ate, slept and entertained. One teacher from South Texas stated that many of her students would
probably never be able to visit the site themselves so she was taking selfies of herself throughout
the site to share with them in the classroom. She said that if her students can see that she was
actually there, it makes the place more real for them.
At the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, the power of place meant something
slightly different which was the opportunity to explore the various galleries and exhibits inside
the museum. Through guided tours, sometimes with an actual WWII veteran, teachers were able
to immerse themselves in the various theaters of the war including the European Front, the
Pacific Front and the Home Front:
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Our guide had that extra information to add to the story…like he was talking to us about
the reason why they chose the USS Missouri to sign the surrender of Japan because of
you know Truman being from Missouri. I saw some things…like the powerful image of
the Shanghai baby, which is the picture of the baby sitting on the railway platform, just
screaming you know, being able to look that up and see the after-effects to see what
happened there was powerful. (John, National World War II Museum)
In the past, the WWII Museum has offered a different kind of place-based experience
where teachers participated over a two-year duration. During year one, they attended one of the
week-long seminars in New Orleans themed around one of the wings of the Museum and then
delivered some form of “teach back” opportunity in their own schools and districts. In the second
year, they actually traveled to one of the key sites involved in the War including various places
in Europe as well as Pearl Harbor. The travel portion of this experience was paused during the
Covid-19 pandemic. It also represents a significant investment on the part of the Museum. One
of the education leaders interviewed, however, had just returned from Munich with the cohort
from 2020 whose trip was canceled. She described it as a profound experience and expressed a
desire to continue it as long as funding is available.
What they (the teachers) said to me is being able to show the students that these places
exist…that they were there adds an incredible amount of validity to what they're teaching
and so that is what I've sort of consistently heard from the educators getting off of that
most recent trip. (Educational Leader, National WWII Museum).
Christy had this to say about her experience in getting to travel to Germany through another
international program:
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I think traveling to a place where it really happened...I was able to touch the Berlin Wall
and I showed my students pictures of that…and you could see where the watchtower was
- you could see how far would you have to run from the Watchtower to reach the wall
and I think it gives you a totally different perspective rather than watching it in a video
or, you know, seeing it in a picture…I think that's probably why the museum part of it is
so beneficial because I know it's not the place where it happened, but you kind of feel
like you're going to the place where it happened. You feel like you're immersed in it.
(Christy, National World War II Museum)
The teachers also commented on the ability to interact with subject matter experts from the
sites, especially resident historians and archaeologists. For example, the archeologist at
Monticello described findings from recent excavations across the grounds and showed artifacts
that were discovered ranging from nails, buttons and eggshells to ceramic pieces, furniture
fasteners and marbles. Through these objects, she explained how they are learning more about
the daily lives of enslaved people at the site. Similarly at the National WWII Museum, the group
heard lectures on a variety of topics ranging from military strategy in the Pacific to the
experiences of Japanese Prisoners of War from staff historians. In terms of general feedback
about their experiences and impressions, the teachers appreciated when the lectures were
combined with time to explore. For example, teachers at Gettysburg typically engage in
classroom-based activities or lectures in the morning and then spend time out on the battlefield in
the afternoon. This combination allows participants to interact with both internal and external
experts, to ask questions and to deepen their own subject matter knowledge while also leveraging
the Power of Place theme described above.

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Professional Network and Personal Growth
For the teachers themselves, another benefit is a network of like-minded professionals
who can be consulted when facing a particular challenge as well as a source of new ideas and
teaching strategies. One of the teachers from the National WWII commented that she did not
really understand why people said that teaching can be a very isolating profession when you are
technically with other people all day. Once she became an educator, she understood the need to
be able to have time to talk to other teachers, to share ideas and to problem solve together. This
is one of the benefits that was mentioned consistently across the different sites.
The other actual quote that always sticks out in my head, which wasn't in a survey or
anything, it was from a teacher who came back bringing his students on a field trip. We're
just standing in the visitor center talking…and he said I didn't have a professional
network before I came here and now I do. That's pretty powerful. (Educational Leader,
Monticello)
The experiences at both Mount Vernon and the WWII Museum included 25 and 28
teachers respectively. These were much larger than the cohort at Monticello which was just 10
teachers due to a decline in applications following the Pandemic. It was, however, evident that it
was easier to form collaborative relationships more quickly in the smaller group.
This is the first one that I have been in with this small group…you’re typically with like
30 teachers. You don't get to know everybody and you don't have that same sense of
collaboration. You might talk to one person. (Monticello Focus Group)
At the sessions observed at Monticello and the National World War II Museum, the
majority of the participants were secondary educators teaching at either the middle or high
school levels. At Monticello, for example, there was only one elementary educator and she
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talked about the struggle to find time for applying some of the lessons when social studies is
treated as a “special” along with art or music and classes are held on only certain days of the
week. She expressed getting around this by incorporating the special subjects together and
showed pictures of a Colonial theater production she had her students perform the year prior with
authentic clothes she made herself to teach the children about period specific textiles. Similarly,
the participants from Gettysburg were also either secondary teachers or administrators. The one
exception was Mount Vernon where there was a mixture of both elementary and secondary
educators. Because of this, for some of the sessions focused on classroom application, the two
groups would be separated to discuss age and grade appropriate strategies. While adding a layer
of complexity to the session, the teachers expressed appreciation for the benefits of being
together and learning from one another:
I also liked the fact that when they group us to do any kind of short activity, we’re not
always with the same teachers. Exactly. And we're not always with the same grade level.
When you collaborate back at our schools, you're in your teams of teachers so you're
seeing content at your same grade level. But I'm learning so much being with high school
teachers and middle school teachers and teachers who are teaching different classes, and I
liked that part of this workshop. (Mount Vernon Focus Group)
In addition to building and cultivating relationships with peers, the learning experiences
can lead to additional career growth opportunities including incremental compensation. At
Mount Vernon, for example, one of the lead teachers was an educator who first became involved
with the organization as a participant in a summer teacher institute. He then returned as a fellow
conducting his own research in the library and finally, was recruited to serve as one of the
lecturers with a focus on classroom application. The same was true at the WWII Museum in New
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Orleans. A teacher from a local high school was serving as one of the lead presenters and
facilitators, bringing thoughts and ideas about how he teaches students about the War in the
Pacific in particular.
He brings his students to the museum every month. And so we were not initially going to
have a master teacher. I was going to be facilitating this jointly with my boss, but then he
left and so the museum opened up additional money for us to hire people to help us. And
actually, I think it worked out significantly better…it's a framework that I want to use
moving forward…next week we're gonna have a master teacher and a lead scholar, and I
think that's what this week is missing…I would like to be able to pay both a master
teacher and a lead scholar to be with us for the entire week.(Museum Educator, National
World War II Museum)
The teachers also expressed appreciation for having a practitioner as part of the content
delivery team:
You know, I've been teaching for 17 years. So sometimes you get stuck in a rut. And
you're like, wait, I used to do that. Alright, I'm gonna pull that back out of my hat, you
know. I feel like he (the teacher) understands that…he's showing us this is what I talk
about and how we approach it. But then he also says, okay, I'm gonna throw this in
because this is what I would do with my class. So you have a good mix of the strategy
and the content. (Christy, National World War II Museum)
Each of the week-ong experiences included social receptions and offsite dinners where
the teachers could converse and learn from each other more casually and allowed time for fun
and rejuvenation. Many commented that they were learning just as much from each other as they
were from the presenters and educational facilitators. From the taverns at Mount Vernon and
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Monticello to Café Du Monde in New Orleans, these are experiences and memories that the
teachers will take with them as they begin a new school year which will undoubtedly include a
host of challenges.
We talk at our table and we share stuff but it might be when we're going to dinner and
you just happen to mingle with someone else and you start talking about how you're
doing stuff…and they say, oh, I have a great lesson for you. We're sharing resources with
each other…I feel like it's really the camaraderie and the conversation over dinners and
lunches and ways that you can implement something at your school that maybe they have
in another state. I was talking to one of the girls that was sitting at the table with us, she
teaches in LA and she teaches an ethnic studies class. And we were just kind of talking
about how I can incorporate that into my school. Her school is very ethnically diverse.
Mine is like probably 89% white but she was giving me ideas like well, what if you did
this? What if you did that? So it’s almost just brainstorming through friendship, at the
table over food. (Christy, National WWII Museum)
One participant at WWII did mention that would be nice if they had a chance to get to
know one another a bit either before the start of the session or when they first arrive so the
process of coming together as a cohort could start earlier, but that was one of very few
constructive critiques of the program. Overall, teachers were extremely appreciative and honored
to be part of a cohort of like-minded colleagues and for their affiliation with the hosting
organizations which was a definite point of pride.
Sharing the Learning/Classroom Application
There is both a formal and informal expectation that teacher participants will share the
learning with others back in their schools and districts. Mount Vernon was the only institution
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that required documentation of a professional development session to be created and delivered
by teachers who participate in the Summer Institute.
We have three requirements for their presentation. It needs to align with our mission in a
meaningful way for the community that they're from. Second, they have to reach teachers
that are outside their daily interactions…we don't want to just have a department report.
And so maybe that's teaching at a neighborhood school or teaching, you know, at a social
studies conference at the state level. And the third thing is just administrative. We ask
them to report back what they did and that reporting can be as simple as I did it, or it can
be like, here's the PowerPoint that I used. We provide an evaluation form for their
teachers to fill out so we can understand how our mission came across in their session.
We really just encourage them to think about what their experience was that week, and
what they feel is most important for their school district to learn. (Educational Leader,
Mount Vernon)
At both the WWII Museum and Monticello, teachers actually developed their ideas for
sharing during the session and delivered the content to the other participants. At WWII,
participants could choose to work in a group for this activity called “Ignite Talks” or they could
present individually. On the final day of the session, they delivered their presentations which
focused on an individual lesson centered around a primary source document, one of the oral
histories they learned about during the week or both. John, for example, planned to have his
students interview somebody that they know over the age of 65 and then create a PowerPoint
slideshow presentation for their classmates and a short, written summary for submission.
At Monticello, program leads returned to the concept of the power of place and each
participant delivered a short talk (three to five minutes) while standing in a relevant location in
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and around the main house such as the gardens, the cemetery or Mulberry Row where the
enslaved people lived. All of the lessons and activities created by participants are then made
available on their web site for other teachers to access and use. One teacher, in particular,
delivered a compelling talk about the “pedagogy of partnership” or POP, and described how she
sees her role as an educator while standing beside the grave of Thomas Jefferson:
It doesn’t matter what I teach – it matters what my students learn…so I try to avoid
leading them…When we work together to understand text, I ask them what is the text
telling you instead of what do you think?...We talk about what they notice and wonder
and construct meaning from there…I want to know how certain things change their
perspective….I see my role as a guide and facilitator – I’m not there to tell…Thomas
Jefferson was insatiable in his search for knowledge and I want my students to leave with
more questions than answers.
John, the only administrator who was interviewed, created a comprehensive presentation
including a variety of tools for the other teachers in his district to use ranging from photographs
and letters to references in popular culture including clips from movies such as Glory and The
Red Badge of Courage along with Gone With the Wind and Saving Private Ryan.
I was a science teacher…so, you know, doing labs and experiments and things like that,
it's natural for me, but you know, for math teachers and English teachers and art and
social science teachers doing hands-on things might look different. So I think that's the
biggest thing…having these primary sources to use in all subjects. That’s the point I’m
trying to get across to my faculty. In English, for example, there are tests where the
students have to read a passage and then they have to analyze it…to pick out information
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and using primary sources, that's a great way to practice (John, Gettysburg Military
Park).
In addition to sharing the learning with other professionals in their schools and their
districts, some of the teachers also participate and present at professional conferences such as the
annual NCSS meeting. These presentations are sometimes done independently with support from
the organization who hosted the institute or seminar and sometimes they are delivered jointly
with members of the staff. In addition, a few of the participants also teach courses at the college
level for people entering the field:
I want to figure out how I can use some of the resources that they've shared with us to
redo one of the classes that I teach at UCF in the social studies course for future
teachers…it's a content course, and we do a great deal on the founding of the government,
the Constitution and citizenship and civics…it's a web-based course through Canvas and
I keep thinking about how I can insert some of these additional resources in there for the
future teachers.(Mount Vernon Focus Group)
Both the museum professionals designing the experiences as well as the teacher
participants commented on the desire to balance content with classroom application. One teacher
from Monticello described it as the balance between thinking and doing:
I really liked the Mount Vernon program on slavery intellectually…it was a lot of lecture
based content but also discussions about slavery and the impact on our students including
the social emotional aspect. So that changed the way I thought about slavery. I work at a
vocational school so hands-on learning lessons are really useful for me… I think this
(Monticello) is much more public history…we have the living history of Thomas
Jefferson and we have the children's programs which is very different than Mount
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Vernon…where there can be an hour lecture. It's very intense…not necessarily applicable
to the classroom but changes the way you think, which to me is why thinking and doing
are very different experiences. (Focus Group participant, Monticello)
Teachers generally expressed a desire for both the intellectual stimulation provided by
lectures and sessions from outside experts but also want to be able to apply what they are
learning in their daily work. This can be a tricky balance to achieve while also offering
immersive experiences that leverage the power of place. One of the participants interviewed
attended both the sessions observed at Mount Vernon and Monticello and commented that
Mount Vernon was a bit lecture heavy but very stimulating while Monticello had no
presentations from external experts or scholars which was an intentional decision by the program
designers but seemed to be a missing piece for her.
Some workshops, you know, they give you a lot of information on the surface…I like the
way each of the speakers is going really in depth and is extremely knowledgeable in a
very narrow focus area. For example, I had no idea about the beginning of the Cabinet,
and while I knew that the Capitol wasn't in DC, I certainly have learned more about how
Washington worked in New York for a while and then Philadelphia and so that has filled
in a lot of gaps for me. (Mount Vernon Focus Group)
At Mount Vernon, particular care was also given to the types of scholars who are invited
to attend.
The goal in finding an academic lead scholar is to find someone who is an expert in their
field or someone who is up and coming. You know, it's great when you have a familiar
name, but it's more important that you have someone who has a huge amount of respect
for where the teachers are coming from…they have the expertise in the content, but the
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teachers in the room have the expertise of how to teach it to their students and there needs
to be a mutual respect between the teacher and the lead scholar…We've moved away
from some more high powered names in that arena to people we feel like are actually
cultivating a really strong relationship. (Educational Leader, Mount Vernon)
At all of the participating sites, teachers received tangible tools to use in the classroom –
handouts, posters, lesson plans and more. For the institutions, the workshops offered an
opportunity to train teachers in a hands-on fashion how to use the extensive materials that they
produce. When asked about specific elements or activities that teachers intended to actually use
in their classrooms, a range of experiences were described. At Mount Vernon, jigsaw activities
were used to model a collaborative learning technique to engage students in a variety of topics
ranging from the Bill of Rights to the Constitutional Convention and many teachers expressed a
desire to replicate the activities with their students. At Monticello, an interactive timeline activity
as well as the approach to teaching about slavery resonated with the participants including the
tour devoted to telling the story of enslaved people at the site. At the WWII museum, significant
attention was devoted to the utilization of oral history in the classroom. Throughout a week-long
session hosted in July of 2022, teachers listened to a variety of clips from soldiers and civilians
to tell the story of the war through multiple perspectives. Many of the teachers stated that they
had never used oral history before but felt confident in their ability to use the resources provided
by the Museum moving forward.
I feel like I probably will use a lot of the oral history clips for sure. The lessons - I had
already used one before I ever applied to the program - it was race and the war in the
Pacific because like I said, that was a subject that I wanted to expand my knowledge on. I
think the kids found it fascinating to see that there was propaganda on both sides,
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showing that the other person was evil. It’s just interesting I think for them to look at the
war from that perspective versus, you know, like a battle. (Christy, National WWII
Museum)
WWII was also the most developed in terms of offering inter-disciplinary programming,
which the teachers seemed to appreciate. At the same time that the Voices from the Pacific
seminar was being offered to humanities teachers, there was a similar workshop taking place for
STEM teachers. The STEM program facilitator came over to deliver sessions on water and on
how to make an atom to show the teachers how they could partner with a colleague from a
different subject area such as English Language Arts (ELA) or science. The teachers felt that this
would be easier to do at the elementary grades versus secondary where subject lines can be more
rigid and the breadth of content to be covered leaves less room for flexibility.
I really liked the STEM guy that came in but it's really difficult as a high school teacher
to do kind of interdisciplinary lessons. I do have all the freshmen for world history, but
it's very uncommon that they would have the same person for math and science. So to
incorporate that STEM across to another class might not work. But I'm also teaching a
current events course this year so that water lesson he did with us... I could totally use
that in my current events class because that could be a branch for us to go into talking
about water across the world. And our school actually just had a piece of land donated to
us with a small body of water and some wildlife. They donated it with the intention that
the school has to use for learning so the science teachers are really gearing up for that and
I thought - my current events kids can go across the street. We can scoop up some water
and then we can get water from their home and water from different places and test it
with the pH and we can talk about clean water and what people have access to. And then
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that can branch off into even bigger lesson…that got my wheels going not for my world
history class, but for my other current events class. (Christy, National World War II
Museum)
Teachers commented positively on the number of ideas they gathered to increase
relevancy for students and to help emphasize the importance of civic engagement. At
Gettysburg, for example, one of the sessions listed as a favorite focused on the war in popular
culture – such as in movies, songs, and books. This helped the teachers to connect the material to
things familiar to their students:
Students love individual stories that kind of help them understand the bigger picture.
They can hang on to stories of people who maybe resemble themselves in some way…at
Gettysburg, there was a story of a boy who was a resident of Gettysburg and he was
nearly kidnapped by the Confederacy when it came through to be conscripted into
military service and he talked about how people came out and stopped him from being
kidnapped. And, you know, students are used to their parents wanting to know where
they are and…stranger danger and all those kinds of things. And so those are things that
are relatable to them. And making things interactive…looking at the letters between this
person and this person to figure out what went wrong in their relationship and why this
happened politically…those are the things that they remember and then that helps them
see that bigger picture. (Cindy, Gettysburg Military Park)
In terms of impact on students, neither the teachers nor institutions described robust plans
or processes for measuring outcomes. For one, it would be extremely difficult to determine
causality since there are so many variables that impact student learning, especially in the midst of
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a global pandemic. In regard to trying to collect longitudinal data, one museum professional
commented:
It’s a hard thing to do and to organize…you would really need to do it with only a couple
of teachers and a couple of teachers who you already know…and that might even bias the
information…The problem is one of the most common ways to collect data is having the
teachers rate their own efficacy and that's also kind of hard. (Museum Educator, National
WWII Museum)
In 2018, Mount Vernon did conduct an ex post facto evaluation in preparation for the 20
th

Anniversary of their Summer Institutes in addition to the surveys that are done annually to
measure participant intent to use the content they learn in their classrooms. They also conducted
one longitudinal investigation which showed a change in the language students used to describe
George Washington.
I asked teachers who were coming to Mount Vernon in the summer to ask their students
what words came to mind when they heard George Washington, Mount Vernon and
history…it was just a three-question survey for their students to fill out and we did it
again at the end of the school year...We were able to see a difference in the words they
used to describe George Washington and the words they used to describe Mount Vernon
but not so much in the words they used to describe history. It wasn't huge, but with
Washington, the amount of people that said President decreased, which for us is a good
thing…it’s not just that he was the President. The variance in the words that the kids were
using was more diverse. We saw an increase in the number of kids using the word leader
in the way that they described him. It was really fun to sort of poke and prod in looking at
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that but I've never shared the results beyond our stakeholders…I used it to just help
explain what we were seeing. (Educational Leader, Mount Vernon)
Each of the seminars that were observed included sessions focused on content as well as
classroom application. The content sessions were often delivered by resident historians as well as
academic researchers while the application sessions were delivered by a practicing teacher who
also served as a facilitator. Teachers seemed to appreciate this balance and the incorporation of
practical examples and resources that they could use in their classrooms immediately. While it is
outside the scope of this study to measure the impact on classroom practice over the long term, the
participating teachers did express a strong willingness and desire to share the learning with their
peers and their students.
Conclusion
While a total of six themes were identified, three for each of the research questions
posed, some were overlapping. For example, the creation of a community of practice or
professional network had benefits for both the hosting organizations as well as the educators
themselves. Similarly, both commented on the importance of utilizing primary sources and
maintaining a careful balance between content knowledge and classroom application. In short,
there is power in the professional learning opportunities for teachers that can be created in the
places and spaces where history actually happened and where it is studied and interpreted by
experts. In addition, such experiences can help teachers with some of the challenges they are
facing today in a politically polarized world. In terms of program assessment and evaluation,
most of the institutions are focused on the feedback from teachers and their desire as well as
efficacy to transfer the learning. All of the institutions offer surveys, usually at the end of the
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week, but one participant described an experience where she had the opportunity to offer
feedback daily which while time-consuming helped in recall because the learning was still fresh.
In Chapter Five, some of the recommendations for further research will focus on the opportunity
to study the impact on classroom practice over time and the potential meaning for student
outcomes. In addition, these free, immersive experiences could have implications for the design
and delivery of professional development and continuing education for teachers more broadly.

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CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PRACTICE

Many museums and historic sites across the country currently offer multi-day
experiential professional development (PD) opportunities for teachers. The purpose of this study
was to understand the theories and frameworks that inform the design of such experiences and to
explore the ways that teachers who participate internalize and act on what they learn. The two
theoretical frameworks that served as the foundation for the study include Knowles’ six pillars of
andragogy or adult learning and Kolb’s Theory of Experiential Learning. The idea was to
explore how museum professionals are intentionally or unintentionally incorporating the
principles identified by Knowles and Kolb into the design of PD seminars and institutes for
teachers. These principles include 1) a problem orientation 2) leveraging the intrinsic motivation
and experiences of adult learners 2) allowing time for reflection and 4) active experimentation
(Taylor & Kroth, 2009).
Table 6
Relationship between Kolb and Knowles
Kolb’s Theory of Experiential Learning Knowles’ Theory of Andragogy
Creation of concrete & engaging experiences Intrinsic Motivation & Need to Know
Reflection Experience & self-concept
Abstract conceptualization Readiness to Learn
Active experimentation Problem orientation

In addition, the seven characteristics of effective professional development defined by
Linda Darling-Hammond and her team at Stanford University served as a benchmark for
understanding the quality of the experiential learning opportunities offered by each participating
institution (Darling-Hammond., 2017). These characteristics are: 1) content focus 2) active
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learning using adult learning theory or andragogy 3) support for collaboration in a job-embedded
context 4) the use of modeling 5) ongoing coaching and support 6) the inclusion of feedback and
time for reflection and 7) support over a sustained duration.
The qualitative study included a series of interviews and focus groups with museum
professionals and teacher participants at four sites – Gettysburg National Military Park, Mount
Vernon, Monticello and the National WWII Museum in New Orleans - along with informal
observations at three of the sites that were offering in-person programming during the summer of
2022. A total of six themes were identified, three for each research question that was posed. In
this chapter, recommendations are presented for ensuring that a wide range of teachers have the
opportunity to take advantage of such opportunities, especially those serving the most
disadvantaged students, and for further research on the impact of this type of professional
development on classroom practice. An evaluation plan for the recommended solutions is also
included.
Discussion of Findings
As outlined in Chapter Four, a total of six key themes emerged from the study. The
themes relate both directly and indirectly to the five recommendations that follow and they they
are summarized in the figure below:

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Figure 9
Summary of Emerging Themes

The first three themes relate to research question number one: What principles and goals
underpin the design and delivery of experiential learning for K-12 teachers at key U.S. historic
sites and museums? The findings were based on interviews conducted with six museum
professionals responsible for the design and delivery of experiential learning opportunities for
teachers. In general, the design for immersive PD experiences at the participating museums and
historic sites was focused on the utilization of place-based primary sources along with feedback
from participants and peers and not on any specific learning theory or framework. The majority
of program designers who were interviewed described taking a constructivist approach to their
work with a goal of helping teachers to better understand and utilize the resources offered by
their organization. Each multi-day immersive experience did, however, meet a key criteria for
adult learning as defined by Kolb in that they were all concrete and engaging. In addition, the
Constructivist
Design Driven by
Primary Sources
Creation of
Community/Respect
for the Profession
Multiple
Perspectives &
Critical
Conversations
Research
Question
One
Power of Place
Sharing the
Learning/Classroom
Application
Professional
Network & Personal
Growth
Research
Question
Two
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teachers who participated chose to apply to be there and give up time during their summer break,
demonstrating their intrinsic motivation and readiness to learn as described by Knowles.
Themes two and six were related in that both the institutions hosting the PD experiences
and the teachers who participated described the creation of a community or professional network
of practitioners as an important benefit. For the museums and historic sites, this took the form of
an advisory group of practicing teachers to offer feedback on future programming ideas and a
network of institutional ambassadors who can spread the learning and encourage their peers to
engage with the organization. For the teachers, it helped to reduce feelings of isolation by
cultivating relationships with like-minded peers as well as professionals who could serve as a
resource and help them work through classroom challenges they might encounter down the road.
In addition, some of the museums and historic sites offered additional opportunities for
professional growth through fellowships and/or the chance to serve as a part-time facilitator
during future seminars or institutes. The fact that both Mount Vernon and the National WWII
Museum actually engaged former participants to serve as facilitators for many of the sessions
focused on classroom application demonstrated their desire to leverage the experience of the
participants, another key component of andragogy as defined by Knowles.
Each of the four sites intentionally looked at the historic content being presented through
different lenses and perspectives which was appreciated by the teachers. Through both content
and classroom application sessions, teachers were offered practical and creative strategies for
tackling sometimes contentious topics such as slavery with students. Though the participating
sites did not list the development of historical thinking skills as a learning objective and they did
not actually refer to the four different levels described by Carretero et al. (2012), the participants
who were interviewed spoke about specific tools such as language and activities that could help
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them build such skills in their students and better manage difficult conversations in the
classroom. By utilizing personal letters, photos, and oral histories, participating sites each
demonstrated their desire to have diverse groups of visitors, teachers and students be able to see
themselves in the stories of people and events from the past. For the participating educators, this
was viewed as a strategy to help them to solve a current challenge they face in their classrooms
on a regular basis. This approach aligns to the suggestion made by both Kolb and Knowles that
adult learning should focus on the solution of real problems.
Themes four through six relate to research question number two: how do teachers
experience, internalize and act on these educational opportunities? A total of five interviews and
two focus groups with teachers were conducted at the four participating sites for a total of 11
educators whose voices were captured. The participants liked being able to learn from outside
scholars as well as fellow educators in the place where important historical events actually
occurred. The “power of place” was evident in the utilization of primary source documents and
artifacts but also in the emotional response from the teachers as they stood in the places and
spaces where history actually happened from the back lawn at Monticello to the cemetery at
Gettysburg. Generally, teachers were offered time to reflect on these experiences throughout the
sessions during small group and collective discussions. Teachers at some of the sites did,
however, express a desire to have more time to unpack the learning or for reflection on their own
which aligns with Kolb’s framework. By the end of each experience, the teachers generally felt
excited and empowered to share their learning with their colleagues back in their districts as well
as the students in their classrooms. In many cases, the teachers were actually creating and
building real lessons and activities during the week-long PD experiences which mirrors another
component of Kolb’s framework which is active experimentation. The materials created by
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participants for these activities were then shared with other educators on the website of the
museum or historic site. In other cases, the teachers intended to share their learning more broadly
through professional conferences or teaching at the collegiate level.
In general, the informal observations that were conducted revealed evidence of both
Kolb’s Theory of Experiential Learning anf Knowles’ definition of andragogy in addition to at
least five of the characteristics of effective professional development. Because these experiences
were designed to be place-based and immersive rather than job-embedded, collaboration within a
school setting and ongoing support and coaching over a sustained duration were not observed.
However, the feedback from educators about their experiences at each of the four sites was
overwhelmingly positive and enthusiastic. Many commented on the reasons why they prefer
these types of experiences over the more traditional PD typically offered in and required by their
school districts. They also expressed a desire for more teachers to be aware of and participate in
immersive PD like that observed as part of this study. Thus, the first of the recommendations
below deals with the expansion of outreach to specific types of teachers who might benefit from
such experiences.
Recommendations
The recommendations that follow are offered to inform the design and delivery of
experiential PD for teachers at other museums and historic sites such as the Alamo in San
Antonio, Texas, as well as to inform future researchers interested in this topic. The
recommendations focus primarily on the intentional recruitment of a more diverse group of
teachers, ongoing support for those who do participate as well as ideas for the development of a
plan to document the impact on teaching practice. In addition, the recommendations could have
implications for those responsible for designing professional development for teachers more
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broadly, particularly those working at the district level. The five recommendations are
summarized in Table 2 below.
Table 7
Overview of Recommendations
Relevant Findings Recommendations
The majority of teachers participating in
multi-day experiential professional
development opportunities at the museums
and historic sites where informal observations
were conducted were white or Anglo with
significant classroom experience
1. Include relevant demographic information in the
application process including data about the
students they serve as well as programming
targeted to teachers who are younger and earlier in
their careers and those who teach various subjects
and grades
Ongoing support provided by the
participating institutions to the teachers was
informal and inconsistent
2. Dedicate staff resources to create ongoing
communication strategies to maintain engagement
with past participants and to provide support during
implementation and execution
Make institutional resources such as primary
source documents and artifacts more
accessible to teachers
3. Digitize and organize resources on a web site
specifically designed for teachers that is easy to
access and search and include lessons and activities
that require less classroom time
The participating museums and historic sites
did not have a mechanism in place to measure
the impact of the professional development on
classroom practice over time
4. Develop a plan using surveys and observations to
track both changes in classroom practice as well as
impact on student performance
Many of the teachers who were interviewed
preferred the place-based professional
development experiences over more
traditional, “sit and get” sessions required by
their school districts
5. Districts should consider the principles of
andragogy and the role of choice in creating
meaningful professional development experiences
for teachers and leverage the learning from teachers
who participate in multi-day experiential learning
opportunities

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Recommendation One: Increase the Diversity of Participants
When it comes to the diversity of teachers who participate in multi-day professional
development opportunities, there are multiple factors to consider. The first, of course, is
demographic diversity, but there is also an opportunity to consider the demographics of the
students they serve along with teacher tenure and the grades and subjects that are taught. If one
of the goals of these educator experiences, whether stated or not, is to develop historical thinking
skills in teachers so they, in turn, can develop those same skills in their students, then reaching
those teachers who need this type of support the most could be beneficial. First, it would ensure
that teachers serving our most disadvantaged students would have the opportunity to build both
their content knowledge and their instructional skills and it would bring an even wider array of
perspectives and personal experiences to the discussions that take place during the seminars.
Thus, this recommendation relates most directly to the theme of including multiple perspectives
in order to effectively manage critical conversations in the classroom.
Diversity of Experience and Students Served
Most of the teachers who were interviewed were veteran educators with more than 20
years of experience in the classroom. In addition, they were mostly white or Anglo and from
middle-income districts and schools. Many of them had participated in multiple experiences at
various museums and historic sites becoming self-proclaimed “frequent flyers” of this type of
professional development. This contributes to a rich but relatively small network of professionals
who are aware of such opportunities and likely to take advantage of them. When asked why
more of their colleagues may not take advantage of such experiences, three reasons were offered
1) they may not know 2) they could have personal or family conflicts such as having young
children at home or 3) they just don’t care.
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As a point of reference, the teachers in the Mount Vernon focus group each had more
than 20 years of experience in the classroom. They said that they do work hard to share the
information with their colleagues, but they still might not take advantage because of a lack of
interest, time or personal finances which can also be a constraint for those experiences that are
not fully funded.
The question raised from these observations and comments is whether or not the teachers
who need it the most either because they are teaching in lower-income, marginalized
communities or they are relatively new to the profession are able to take advantage of these
immersive learning experiences. As a way to attract a more diverse set of participants, four
suggestions are offered:
1) Develop a specific marketing and recruitment strategy that targets low-income
campuses and districts.
2) Include personal as well as school demographic information on the application such
as Title 1 designation and percentage of students eligible for free and reduced lunch.
3) Ensure that all expenses are covered through additional fundraising activities.
4) Offer a shorter program over an extended weekend specifically geared toward
beginning teachers who may have different needs in terms of their learning.
Diversity by Grade
In addition, the majority of participating teachers taught at the secondary level. This speaks
to a potential need to specifically target elementary social studies teachers who also might have
different needs. Mount Vernon was the only site that offered breakout sessions during the
program specifically for elementary teachers. The participants liked being able to learn from
their secondary peers during general content sessions and then the more targeted programming
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that occurred for those sessions focused more on classroom application. With this mind,
institutions that offer such experiences should think about how they target and attract elementary
teachers and also how they tailor programming to meet their specific needs. Because social
studies is not a tested subject in the early grades, it can sometimes get squeezed out of the
curriculum and in some schools the subject is treated as a “special” subject similar to art or
music and not offered every day of the week (Heafner & Fitchett, 2012). Museums and historic
sites could support elementary teachers of history and social studies by offering creative
strategies for maximizing the time that they do have with students and working with their
colleagues on interdisciplinary lessons. If teachers in the early grades are given the training and
tools, they can begin to build historical thinking and empathy skills in students at a much
younger age. This learning can then be scaffolded and deepened at the secondary level.
Diversity by Subject
The National WWII Museum in New Orleans was the only site that included sessions
focused on STEM education which the teachers enjoyed. One of the program leaders there
thought it would be interesting to have teams of teachers from a particular campus participate at
the same time. This could help teachers to work together to design multi-disciplinary lessons that
meet changing and evolving state standards. For example, a team of teachers from a middle or
high school who teach a variety of subjects ranging from U.S. History, English/Language Arts
and geography could participate together to create a project-based learning unit that spans the
different domains. As mentioned in Chapter Two, the national curriculum standards for social
studies were rewritten in 2010 to focus less on specific dates and events and more on the
development of specific skills such as historical thinking. The C3 framework (College, Career
and Civic Life) was then introduced by the NCSS in 2013 specifically to assist states in adapting
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their social studies standards to meet the new requirements (Grant et al., 2017). The framework
emphasizes multi-disciplinary practices and concepts with inquiry placed at the center of
instruction. Museums and historic sites have an opportunity to support educators in making this
instructional transition by offering professional development experiences that demonstrate how
to weave together different subjects such as civics, economics, government, geography, and
history. Including more than one teacher from a specific school would also help with the creation
of a campus community comprised of educators who experienced the PD together and could
continue to support one another and hold each other accountable during implementation.
Recommendation 2: Provide Intentional Ongoing Support
As expressed in two of the emerging themes from the study, both the organizations
hosting the professional development experiences as well as the teacher participants saw the
creation of community as a benefit. For the organizations, it was an opportunity to create a group
of practicing advisors who could offer feedback on future programming ideas. For the teachers
themselves, the creation of a professional network of like-minded peers helped to reduce feelings
of isolation. Teacher isolation can be driven by multiple factors including the physical structure
of schools where the majority of work is conducted in individual classrooms, the lack of time
afforded for professional collaboration and feelings of being overwhelmed (Ostavar-Nameghi &
Sheikkahmadi, 2016). To the extent that immersive experiences at museums and historic sites
can help to foster and enable higher levels of collaboration with peers, such opportunities can
also help to reduce the loneliness that teachers sometimes experience which can lead to burnout
and eventually exiting the profession. Teachers at the participating sites generally felt that they
could call on each other or the staff from the hosting institutions if they needed assistance with a
particular challenge in the classroom or just wanted to bounce ideas off of someone in the future.
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While the participants took it upon themselves to create channels for staying in touch through
social media, the institutions did not have formal ways of keeping the community together.
Mount Vernon, for example, was the only institution who had hosted a reunion or convening for
past participants.
The recommendation, therefore, is to create a plan for ongoing communication with
participants beyond e-mail. This could take the form of regular virtual check-ins as well as future
in-person convenings. The goal would be to ensure that there is a mechanism for teachers to
communicate to the institutions and to each other how they are utilizing what they learned over
time. There could even be incentives or awards for teachers who go above and beyond to share
their experience with their colleagues and with students. Another suggestion would be to have a
specific staff person designated to follow up with past participants to keep them engaged. This
person could offer ongoing coaching and support, observe teachers using the material in their
classrooms, share innovative ideas with the group and also publicize additional career growth
opportunities. For example, at Mount Vernon and the National WWII Museum in New Orleans,
teachers who were once participants in the program progressed to become facilitators who were
delivering much of the content focused on classroom application. With dedicated staff resources,
hosting organizations could help ensure that more teachers have access to these sorts of
opportunities.
Recommendation Three: Continue to Make Institutional Artifacts and Resources More
Accessible to Teachers
It was evident during the informal observations that the hosting organizations used the
multi-day learning experiences as a way to train teachers on how to effectively use both primary
sources from the collection as well as other resources that they produce such as lesson plans and
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curriculum. When it comes to classroom resources offered by museums and historic sites, there
are two main considerations – ease of access and time. The first relates to making the resources
easy for teachers to find as in the traveling trunks that some institutions provide which are trunks
filled with replicas of artifacts that can be shipped to a campus or classroom. This is a physical
example of how to engage with teachers who cannot bring their entire classroom for an in-person
field trip or experience. The other way to make entire museum collections more accessible is
through digitization. This is also a strategy to help increase the number and diversity of teachers
who have access to materials and resources and therefore relates to the theme of including
multiple perspectives as well as the theme of sharing the learning to an even wider audience.
I think, another weak spot of the museum is access to our digital collections, you know,
we have a lot of really fantastic resources but they're not super accessible to
teachers…We need to put oral history clips that are both shorter and more produced on
our YouTube channel and have them in playlists that are organized by standards, topics
and events. There's a lot of room for growth, and I think that will help not only keep
teachers connected to the museum's resources once they leave here because they can
easily access it but will also help us reach out to even more teachers because the first
thing I did when I was in the classroom when I was struggling to come up with a lesson
plan or a lesson activity, I googled it and if you're teaching six lesson blocks, you know
that's what you do, especially if you're early in your career, and you haven't had the
chance to really build up your curriculum yet. (Museum Educator, National WWII
Museum)
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As referenced in this quote by a program leader at the National WWII Museum in New
Orleans, when creating and building digital resources, it is critical that they are easy to search by
specific content or standard. Teachers need to be able to find what they are looking for quickly.
The second consideration also referenced in the quote is the importance of time. Teachers
need activities and lessons that are easily adapted into the classroom regardless of geography.
They do not have a week to spend on any given historical topic as in the PD they experienced
given the breadth of material that they are expected to cover in a year. Thus, museums and
historic sites can help by breaking lessons and activities into more manageable increments of
time. For example, shorter oral history or video clips can be organized and presented as tools for
introducing students to a specific topic as they enter the classroom. Similarly, primary source
documents can be accompanied by activities that take less than 15-20 minutes to complete with a
group of students. At Monticello, the teachers participated in a timeline activity featuring quotes
from different historical figures using language from the Declaration of Independence. The point
was to open a conversation about how the notion that “all men are created equal” has meant
different things to different people throughout our nation’s history and is still a topic for debate.
Such an activity could easily be used to facilitate a discursive lesson focused on a few essential
questions for students to consider. This is a very specific example of the theme related to
classroom application and the desire for teachers to have access to tools and materials that can be
put into practice right away.
Recommendation Four: Develop a Mechanism to Measure the Impact on Classroom
Practice Over Time
This recommendations also relates directly to the theme of classroom application and was
also the most significant gap that was identified. Of the participating sites, only Mount Vernon
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attempted to understand longitudinal impact of the professional development experiences they
offer by tracking changes in the language that students use to describe George Washington in
one teacher’s classroom over a two-year period. In addition, as stated in Chapter Two, the only
formal study looking at the impact over time was conducted by Christina Baron and her
colleagues at Columbia University over a three-year period looking at teachers who had
participated in summer institutes at Mount Vernon and Monticello (Baron et. al, 2020). Using Q-
methodology in pre- and post-interviews, they studied the impact of HSBPD on four specific
domains: 1) historical thinking and analysis 2) historical pedagogical content 3) peer
collaboration and feedback and 4) general pedagogy using diverse perspectives. They saw the
biggest impact on factors 1 and 2 and found that through place-based instruction where teachers
experienced “history in action,” they were able to see how new findings and discoveries impact
the interpretation of history in real time. In addition, by engaging in dialogic instruction as
learners, the teachers reported a desire to transfer the same methods into their classrooms.
There are complexities in this type of analysis, but to the extent that the goal is to actually
change what happens in the classroom and to benefit students, it represents the largest
opportunity for further research. Such research would need to be linked directly to the learning
objectives for each program. Through the collection of both self-reported data, classroom
observations and student growth information, the institutions could better assess whether or not
the stated objectives are being met. Again, if one of the goals to be pursued is the development of
historical thinking skills in both teachers and students, then strategies should be developed to
measure changes in both attitudes and behavior. For example, if the inclusion of multiple
perspectives is an intentional part of program design as it is at Monticello, program designers
could capture what the past participants say has changed about their practice, observations could
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be done to assess the inclusion of different lenses and students could also weigh in on whether or
not they felt this strategy was being used effectively. Through a combination of surveys for both
teachers and students as well as formal observations of specific lessons, the introduction and
utilization of multiple perspectives to teach about significant historical events and people could
be tracked over time along with changes in how students think about those people and events
based on Carretero’s et al. (2012) four stages of historical thinking.
Recommendation Five: Consider Implications for other District-led Professional
Development Opportunities
Many of the participants who were interviewed commented that most of the professional
development that they take part in within their individual districts is mandatory and driven by
district level priorities. They preferred these multi-day experiences because they had the
opportunity to choose to apply to those institutions focused on their specific subject and area of
interest. This speaks to the need to allow teachers to have discretion and choice when it comes to
participation in professional development (Walter, 2012). It also reinforces two of the six
principles of andragogy first described by Malcolm Shepherd Knowles which is the importance
of intrinsic motivation and the need to know in driving adult learning (Taylor & Kroth, 2009).
The second key takeaway for school districts and other providers is the balance between
content knowledge and classroom application and the use of outside scholars as well as
practicing educators. Participants felt professionally respected and intellectually stimulated by
the opportunity to learn from actual historians, archaeologists, and leading academics. Each of
the institutions worked diligently to balance lecture with actual activities that could be replicated
in the classroom with students relating back to the themse of both classroom application and
respect for the profession.. At Mount Vernon and the National WWII Museum, the classroom
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application sessions were led by active teachers which the participants appreciated. At
Gettysburg, they specifically appreciated the opportunity to learn from experts in the morning
and then to head out onto the battlefield to explore in the afternoons. This is important insight for
other more traditional professional development opportunities that are often referred to as “sit
and get” sessions and speaks to the theme of “power of place.”
Further, the home districts of the teachers who invest their own time to participate in
multi-day, professional development experiences at museums and historic sites should think
about how they can leverage that learning to serve even more educators and build community
within the district at the same time. For example, the designers of other district-led professional
development experiences could spend time with the teachers to understand the specific speakers,
activities and resources that had the greatest impact on them and why. Certain ideas and concepts
could then be woven into other programs offered by the district. Second, districts should consider
how they can spread nad share the learning beyond just a one-day session required by the hosting
organization. This could be as simple as recording the session for other teachers who aren’t able
to attend in person. In addition, other social studies and history teachers could participate in
observations of a specific lesson or activity designed based on the PD experience being delivered
to students. Finally, the districts could identify a social studies or history teacher on each campus
to participate in a professional learning community (PLC) with the teacher or teachers who
attended the PD session. Research suggests that well organized and supported PLCs can have a
positive impact on both teaching practice and student achievement (Vescio, Ross & Adams,
2008). The goal of the PLC in this context would be to understand the design of classroom
activities using the resources the participating teacher learned about followed by an observation
and then a debrief to discuss the reaction from students. This would require time away from
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direct instruction on their own campuses, but it could lead to higher levels of collaboration and a
sense that teachers are being given the freedom and space to hone their craft which links back to
the themes of respect for the profession as well as the support of professional networks and
personal growth for teachers.
Evaluation
As mentioned above in recommendation four, any museum or historic site such as the
Alamo that chooses to invest in multi-day experiential professional development opportunities
for history and social studies teachers should consider how they will evaluate the impact on the
participating teachers as well as their students. As outlined by Kirkpatrick and Kirkpatrick
(2016), there are four levels of evaluation that should be considered. Because the Kirkpatrick
model was first created to evaluate the effectiveness of organizational training programs, it can
easily be applied to professional development experiences for teachers which are also a form of
training. The first level in the model is the general reaction to the experience which the
institutions participating in this study captured using surveys. These surveys were used to make
programmatic tweaks and changes and to measure feelings of efficacy among participants as
well as their intent to implement what they learned. In the Kirkpatrick model, shifts in
knowledge and skills as well as attitudes are defined as learning. This is where the hosting
organizations included in the study stopped any formal measurement or evaluation which means
they were not currently assessing levels three and four – behavior and results.
Level One: Reaction
Kirkpatrick describes the short surveys or tools used to capture a participant’s initial
reaction to a program or intervention as “smile sheets.” In the case of the informal observations
conducted at each of the four participating sites for this study, the reactions from educators who
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attended the week-long sessions was very positive which is an important indicator for justifying
the continuance or expansion of this type of professional development. The surveys that were
used were typically issued to teachers on the final day of the experience and collected before
they left. This is best practice according to Kirkpatrick in order to insure high completion and
submission rates (Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick, 2016). In contrast, the surveys at Monticello were
issued two days following the seminar and participation fell to 45% of teachers. The surveys
generally included questions related to specific speakers, activities, and resources as well as
questions related to feelings of motivation and excitement to utilize the materials that were
shared. In addition, many of the institutions also hosted quick wrap-up discussions at the end of
each day to capture key insights and ideas and these were documented. Below are a few of the
highlights captured by a program leader at Mount Vernon in terms of responses from teachers:
• Teachers felt that not only did they walk away with a better understanding of George
Washington’s life and legacies, but also will use Mount Vernon digital classroom
resources to support the study of Washington and Mount Vernon.
• Teachers appreciated the intentional choices made to include women, indigenous and
enslaved individuals, and underrepresented communities in the 18
th
century during the
majority of sessions.
• Teachers will use Mount Vernon digital museum, archaeological, and library collections
online to provide inquiry-based primary source learning opportunities for their students.
• Teachers were engaged throughout the institute due to the mixture of the types of
sessions and experiences that were included and were excited to bring this engagement
back to their students.
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• Teachers expressed the need for increased time for independent reflection and processing
away from others and the site amidst intense days of professional learning and
networking.
Level Two: Learning
This level of the evaluation model would be used to determine the changes in attitudes,
knowledge, and skills of participating teachers. Two of the hosting organizations – the National
WWII Museum in New Orleans and Monticello – had participants actually demonstrate their
learning during presentations at the end of the week-long experiences. In New Orleans, this took
the form of “Ignite Talks” which could be conducted individually or in groups and focused on a
specific concept or theme that they intended to use in their classrooms and included classroom
strategies as well as resources from the Museum. At Monticello, the teachers similarly developed
a specific lesson that they intended to use with their students and delivered their presentations in
a place representative of their topic such as near Mulberry Row where the enslaved people lived
or next to the cemetery where Thomas Jefferson is buried. These lessons were then submitted to
Monticello staff to be uploaded to their website and shared with other educators as open-source
material.
Another way to capture changes in knowledge would be through a test or short quiz
based on the content of the seminar or teacher institute. This could be administered at the end of
the week either electronically or using paper and pencil or could be woven into an interactive
game such as Thomas Jefferson Jeopardy or a family feud format with the teachers divided into
teams. Tests or quizzes would also be easy to administer of the beginning of the week and then
again at the end of the session to assess pre and post knowledge and skills. In terms of attitudes,
such shifts could be assessed through focus groups and interviews similar to those that I
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conducted at each of the sites. For these, a question protocol would need to be developed,
especially in the case of interviews, to be able to compare and contrast responses from different
participants. One specific area that might lend itself to this strategy would be changes in attitudes
related to looking at historical events and people from multiple perspectives. It would be
interesting to understand the changes in the attitudes of teachers that then might lead to changes
in attitudes among their students.
Level Three: Behavior
This is perhaps the most important level to understand moving forward as it would
capture changes in actual teacher behavior in the classroom. With that said, Kirkpatrick and
Kirkpatrick do not recommend skipping the reaction and learning levels as they are designed to
assess shifts that are necessary before changes in actual behavior can occur (Kirkpatrick &
Kirkpatrick, 2016). There are two main strategies that could be employed to assess changes in
behavior in this instance – the utilization of a control group and/or classroom observations. For
both, a critical first step is the identification of a subset of participating teachers who are willing
to engage over time. From there, intervals of measurement could be established such as once per
semester over three years or even five years depending on the resources and commitment of the
institution conducting the evaluation.
Proximity to the site or museum, demographics of the individuals and the students they
serve, grade level and experience in the classroom are examples of the types of criteria that
would need to be considered when establishing both the test group and the control. From there, a
protocol for behavioral observations could be developed. In other words, based on the specific
learning objectives and outcomes identified by the institution, specific behaviors could be
identified such as the utilization of primary sources in the classroom or the incorporation of
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inquiry-based instruction with a central question at the center of a specific lesson. Another metric
would be the utilization of museum resources as well as both physical and virtual field trips.
Even without the incorporation of a control, observations could also help inform such changes in
individual behavior over time. For example, if a teacher heavily utilizes the resources and
strategies that were included during the first year after attending the seminar or institute, does he
or she continue to use them in years two, three, four and five? Also, do they continue to return to
the institution’s website or seek out other, similar learning opportunities if they change subjects
or grades or are faced with a new challenge in the classroom? In addition, it would be important
to understand to what extent they continue to remain actively engaged with the hosting
institution and with each other because of the emphasis on the creation of community.
Level Four: Results
At this level, the hosting organization would move beyond the impact on the teachers in
terms of their learning and behavior and begin to dive into the impact on students. Again, this
could take the form of surveys to measure changes in student attitudes, knowledge, and skills.
The surveys could be administered at the beginning of the school year following the teacher’s
participation in a summer professional development experience and then delivered again at the
end of the year, once the educator has implemented the strategies that were learned using the
museum or historic site’s resources. This is the strategy that was employed by the team at Mount
Vernon to measure changes in the language students used to describe George Washington.
Another way to assess such changes in students would be through pre and post-interviews and/or
focus groups administered once again at the beginning and end of the school year.
In addition, student performance on more formal assessments such as standardized tests
could be tracked over time. In this scenario, the outcomes of students whose teachers participated
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in a multi-day professional development experience at a museum or historic site could be
compared with those who did not providing that the appropriate permissions to capture such data
could be secured. The difficulty with this approach would be related to causality. It would be
very difficult to prove that the seminar or institute itself was the driving factor leading to higher
levels of student performance. Another way to get at the same question would be the utilization
of a control and an intervention group. In this scenario, two teachers with a history of similar
student outcomes in the same school serving the same type of students could be compared. One
would attend the seminar or institute, while the other would not. Students in both classrooms
would be given the same assessment of attitudes, knowledge, and skills at the beginning of the
year and the end of the year to determine if one group’s performance was substantially or
measurably different from the other. This seems like a more likely scenario provided that the
museum or historic site could identify a single campus or multiple schools that might be willing
to participate. Similar to the methodology described in Level Three, such assessments could be
delivered over the span of one year or multiple years to try to understand the impact and changes
over time.
Suggested Evaluation Plan:
Based on the discussion above, Table 12 offers an overview of an evaluation plan based
on the five recommendations:

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Table 18
Evaluation Plan for Recommendations
Recommendation Reaction
(Level One)
Learning
(Level Two)
Behavior
(Level Three)
Results
(Level Four)
1. Include relevant
demographic
information in the
application
process including
student data as
well as grade,
subject, and years
of experience
Track the
relevant data
collected over
time

Use “smile
sheets” for any
new programs
targeted to
specific groups
of teachers
Use interviews
and focus
groups to
determine if
different types
of teachers are
internalizing and
using the
strategies &
resources in
different ways
Use classroom
observations to
also understand
differences in
actual practice
in diverse types
of schools, i.e.
Title 1
Collect and
track student
data in addition
to teacher data
in order to
measure trends
in diversity over
time
2. Dedicate staff
resources to create
ongoing
communication
strategies and
implementation
support
Create a
database of all
past participants

Use surveys to
gather feedback
about whether
the new
strategies are
working

Conduct focus
groups and
interviews to
determine if
there are other
ways the
organization
could continue
to support
former
participants
Track the
number of
teachers who
continue to
participate in
cohort-based
activities and
coaching

Track the
number of
teachers who
continue to
serve as
ambassadors by
presenting at
professional
conferences and
return as teacher
facilitators at
future seminars
3. Make
institutional
resources such as
primary source
documents and
artifacts more
accessible to
teachers
Track site
utilization once
items from the
collection are
digitized

Use surveys to
gather feedback
about the new
tools
Conduct focus
groups and
interviews with
teachers who are
using the
resources to
gather
suggestions for
improvement as
well as
additional
support
Use classroom
observations of
teachers to see
how they are
actually using
the resources
provided
Use student
surveys,
interviews or
focus groups to
gather student
reactions to the
resources being
utilized by their
teachers

146
Recommendation Reaction
(Level One)
Learning
(Level Two)
Behavior
(Level Three)
Results
(Level Four)
4. Develop a plan
to track both
changes in
classroom practice
as well as impact
on student
performance
Conduct a
comprehensive
analysis of all
prior survey
data to
understand
trends and
themes
Develop
instruments for
pre and post
testing to
understand
changes in
attitudes,
knowledge, and
skills
Conduct
classroom
observations to
understand
changes in
practice for
participants
Develop an
instrument to
conduct pre and
posttests with
students
following their
teachers’
participation
5. Leverage the
learning from
teachers who
participate in
multi-day
experiential
learning
opportunities
Conduct a
survey of
participating
districts to
determine
whether or not
they are
leveraging the
learning from
their teachers
who have
participated
Conduct
interviews and
focus groups
with districts to
understand how
they are
leveraging the
learning and
sharing the
strategies &
resources more
broadly
Conduct
observations of
PD sessions or
PLC meetings
with teachers
conducted by
past participants
and/or based on
the learning
Establish a
control district
and conduct
surveys with
students about
the quality of
history and
social studies
instruction they
experience in
those districts
who regularly
have teachers
participate and
who proactively
leverage the
learning versus
those who do
not

Limitations and Delimitations
Limitations are influences that exist outside of the control of the researcher while
delimitations are those things the researcher has identified as being outside of the scope of the
study (Creswell, 2014). The main limitation of this study is the inability to track the participating
teachers over a longer period of time in order to truly understand the impact of the HSBPD
experiences on actual practice in the classroom. Instead, the study captures their reactions to the
professional development they experienced and their personal feelings of efficacy and
147
empowerment to be able to successfully utilize what they have learned. In addition, while four
institutions can be considered an ambitious sample for one researcher, there are thousands more
historic sites and museums across the country of all sizes and with very diverse missions and
resource constraints. Therefore, the transferability of the insights and recommendations may be
questioned based on their applicability to a different context. Even within the sample, the
governance, funding and operational structure of each participating site was quite different.
However, they are all large, well-established organizations with more resources than many other
similar but smaller institutions.
Further, the study includes feedback and informal observations from only one teacher
workshop or training at each location rather than assessing the full range of programming
offered. There is a risk that the programs that were observed are not representative of the content,
quality or impact of other, similar opportunities. There is also a chance that the participants
themselves are not a representative sample. The type of educator who might be willing to
participate in such opportunities may be atypical and, therefore, their views and opinions may
not represent those of their colleagues and peers.
Another limitation is that each of the participating institutions was still in the process of
rebounding from the COVID-19 global pandemic. In the case of Gettysburg, this meant that they
were not offering in-person sessions during the summer of 2022. For the other three
organizations, it meant that their application numbers were slightly below prior years and some
of the teachers who were selected were unable to participate at the last minute due to illness. This
may have impacted both the size and the composition of each of the participating cohorts.
The use of interviews and focus groups to collect data was also a potential limiting factor.
Interviews are informed by memory as well as opinion which can be flawed as well as biased.
148
Selection bias could have also impacted participation in the focus groups held toward the end of
each observed session as teachers of a certain type or profile may have been more likely to
participate. In facilitating the focus groups, careful attention was paid to ensure that every voice
was heard and that the conversations were not dominated by teacher participants who tended to
be more outspoken. Another potential limitation was the willingness to participate on the
potential diversity of the sample. There was a risk of selection bias both in the types of
professionals who are motivated to attend such sessions as well as those who willing to
participate in a focus group or interview.
This study was limited to the information and data gathered at the four participating
historic sites and museums. Information gathered during interviews was limited to the director of
education at each institution as well as the person responsible for professional development
programs for teachers. The informal observations were limited to only one session or workshop
at each site. In addition, the focus groups and interviews with educators were limited to three
participating teachers at each location. There was not sufficient time to speak to each participant
individually. Therefore, those who agreed to participate may not be representative of all
attendees. Further, the participants who were interviewed may or may not represent the diversity
of teachers currently serving in the more than 1,000 school districts in Texas or across the
country.
This study is not designed to formally assess the effectiveness of the professional
development opportunities that were observed. Rather, it provides insights that could be useful to
other museum professionals about the design and delivery of such experiences for teachers as
well as feedback and reactions from the participating teachers. Understanding those elements and
149
strategies that have the greatest impact on how they think about their work in the classroom
could be helpful to others looking to offer similar programs.
Delimitations of the study include the fact that it was focused on in-service professional
development experiences which are not the same as immersive learning opportunities for pre-
service teachers whose needs may be quite different. In addition, the study was designed to be
qualitative in nature and did not include a quantitative analysis of the survey results collected
from participants at each of the four sites. It was also specific to history and social studies
teachers participating in multi-day experiences at historic sites and one historically oriented
museum which may not have application for other types of sites such as art institutions.
Suggestions for Future Research
The main suggestion for future research is a longitudinal study to understand the impact
on classroom practice. While the reactions from teachers who participated in the experiential
learning opportunities hosted by each of the four participating sites were generally positive and
the teachers expressed a desire to utilize what they learned, the actual impact on behavior is not
presently known. To the extent that offering such experiences represents a significant investment
by each of the institutions, this seems like the next logical step in terms of measurement and
evaluation. As noted by the teachers who were interviewed, their time is limited, and they have a
great deal of content to cover in any given school year. In addition, some of the participating
teachers commented on being moved by their districts to a different campus, grade or subject
area which could also impact their ability to actually use the resources provided or to apply the
strategies that were learned. Similarly, the impact on student performance and outcomes is not
clearly understood. Through the utilization of pre and posttests as well as surveys and/or focus
150
groups, an analysis of the changes in student knowledge, skills and attitudes also represents an
important area for future study.
To the extent that the positive reaction from teachers to this type of multi-day,
experiential professional development could have implications for the design of other types of
PD, this represents another significant area for further analysis. For example, if social studies and
history teachers suggest that elements such as the utilization of primary sources, the presentation
of multiple perspectives and the balance between content and classroom application are
important elements of quality professional development, how might these principles be
incorporated into other experiences offered at the district level? Further, how can districts fully
leverage the learning from teachers who choose to participate in immersive opportunities that
involve travel by sharing the insights with other educators as well as administrators? And finally,
what resources and supports are needed to ensure that teachers who do participate are able to
successfully apply what they have learned in the classroom with students?
Conclusion
The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the impact of experiential
professional learning opportunities for history and social studies teachers hosted at museums and
historic sites around the country. The underlying premise was that teachers must first experience
and practice a more discursive and inquiry-based approach to history and social studies
instruction as a learner before they can successfully implement such strategies in the classroom.
A total of four sites of informal learning were included – Gettysburg National Military Park, the
National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, and George
Washington’s Mount Vernon. Through informal observations of week-long experiences at three
of the sites and a series of interviews and focus groups with both museum professionals as well
151
as teacher participants, the goal was to understand the theories that drive such learning
opportunities and the benefits derived by both practicing educators and the organizations
themselves.
Conducted in the summer of 2022 as the world was emerging from the COVID-19 global
pandemic, the timing was significant given the highly polarized political environment in which
history and social studies education is embedded nationally as well as globally (Yogev, 2013).
The professionals at each of the participating sites articulated their goal to share multiple
perspectives related to a specific person or historical event and to support teachers by offering
language and tools that can be used to manage sometimes contentious conversations in the
classroom. They also talked about the ability to express their deep appreciation for the teaching
profession through immersive professional development experiences. In terms of program design
and delivery, they described a constructivist approach driven by primary source materials and
input from teachers. Having a community of engaged educators who could offer feedback on
current and future programming ideas was described as one of the main organizational benefits.
For the teacher participants, the power of learning in the place where history actually
happened and being able to bring that experience back to their students was a key benefit.
Similar to the organizations themselves, they also expressed appreciation for having built a
network of like-minded professionals that they could turn to in the future for ideas and support.
The teachers also conveyed feelings of enthusiasm and efficacy when describing their plans to
transfer the learning to their colleagues back on their campuses and in their districts. In short, the
ability to travel to the actual site where a certain event took place or a person lived helped to
make history come to life through interactions with subject matter experts and hands-on
activities using real artifacts and resources.
152
As first described in Chapter Two and reinforced by this study, professionals at museums
and historic sites have an opportunity to create meaningful, authentic learning experiences for
teachers driven by clearly articulated learning objectives. These experiences can be strengthened
by focusing on real challenges that teachers are facing in their classrooms, leveraging their
personal and professional experience, and allowing ample time for discussion and reflection. The
creation of community that occurs through such shared opportunities for learning is of benefit
not only to the participating teachers, but also to the institutions themselves. In short, the findings
described in Chapter Four could have important implications for museums and historic sites that
are already hosting professional development experiences for teachers as well as those who are
contemplating offering them in the future such as the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas. Further, the
findings could also have significance for school districts and other providers who are designing
PD for history and social studies teachers in particular. Thus, the recommended areas for further
research and exploration include the impact on classroom practice and student outcomes as well
as implications for district-designed professional development for educators. Prior research by
Linda Darling-Hammond and her colleagues at Stanford indicates that most professional
development is largely ineffective and tends to reinforce existing practice rather than positively
alter instruction in the classroom (Darling-Hammond et al., 2010). In contrast, the experiences
observed for the purposes of this study were chosen by educators who were willing to participate
in the application process and to give up personal time to attend. Those who did attend rated their
experience as very positive and generally felt excited and empowered to share the learning with
others. Therefore, there could be important lessons for professional development designers and
providers beyond those at museums and historic sites.
153
Further, during a time of heightened political divisiveness, Texas teachers as well as
those across the country are often on the front lines of the culture wars in the United States. They
are also being called upon to adjust their instructional strategies and practices to meet shifting
standards which focus more on building cognitive practices and skills versus rote memorization
(Kenna & Russell, 2014). Beyond offering traditional field trips, museums and historic sites have
an opportunity to play a critical role in providing additional support to teachers as they work to
make this instructional transition while managing difficult conversations in the classroom. In
addition, at a time when teachers are leaving the profession in large numbers following the
challenges presented by the COVID-19 global pandemic, the expansion of opportunities that
make educators feel valued and appreciated is needed now more than ever. Sites of informal
learning such as the Alamo should consider leaning into this opportunity with urgency and
intention in order to offer critical support and resources to teachers of social studies and history.
Since its creation in 1916, the subject of social studies was designed to assist in promoting civic
engagement and the preservation of democracy (Hardwick et al., 2010). Therefore, it cannot and
should not be overlooked in its importance as a subject and neither should the educators
responsible for its successful delivery. Now is the time to increase the number of experiences
that treat history and social studies teachers as professionals and provide them with the tools to
deliver high-quality dialogic instruction that promotes historical thinking skills in students.

154
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163

Appendix A
Protocol for Interviews with Museum Professionals

Research Question:

1. What principles and goals underpin the design and delivery of experiential learning for K-12
teachers at key U.S. historic sites and museums?
Andragogy
Construct
Staff Competency Interview Question
Intrinsic
Motivation
Staff members should be
able to clearly articulate the
internal educational
philosophy that guides
their work
Tell me about your educational philosophy
here at _____.

Draws upon
experience
Staff members should be
able to articulate how the
educational philosophy is
manifested in the programs
that are developed and
implemented
How is that philosophy reflected in the
programs that you offer?

Learning needs
based on social
roles
Staff members must
understand the unique
benefits of place-based
professional development
at museums and historic
sites
How would you describe the specific benefits
of participating in professional development at
a museum or historic site?
Intrinsic
Motivation
Staff members must be
motivated to prioritize
inquiry-based professional
development for teachers
among other, competing
activities and initiatives
understand the unique
I know you have many priorities as an
organization. How do you view prioritizing
professional development for teachers among
competing initiatives and activities?

164
Problem
centered/
immediate
application
Staff members should be
able to clearly articulate the
design process utilized to
create new PD
opportunities for teachers
Tell me about the process you use to design
new or different professional development
opportunities for teachers.

Draws upon
experience
Learning objectives should
be clearly defined as part of
understanding whether or
not they have been met
What are the primary learning objectives for
the PD that you offer?

Problem
centered/
application of
knowledge
Problems of practice to be
addressed should also be
clearly identified
What are the specific problems of practice that
you focus on helping teachers to solve?
Draws upon
experience
Strategies should be
grounded in the principles
of andragogy and an
understanding of what
constitutes effective PD
Tell me about any theories or principles that
help to guide the instructional strategies that
you use.

Learning needs
based on social
roles
Staff members should be
able to articulate defined
processes for engaging
teachers and encouraging
their participation
How do you go about recruiting teachers who
can benefit from the programming you offer?
What barriers and challenges do you face in
terms of recruitment, especially in the midst of
a global pandemic?
Self-directed
learning
Staff members have spent
time reflecting on why
teachers should participate
in the PD that they offer –
what are the benefits of
attending?
What is the value for teachers who participate
in PD here at _____?

Problem
centered/
immediate
application
Staff members should be
able to describe the process
for gathering feedback
from teachers who
participate in PD
How do you solicit feedback from teachers
who participate?

165
Problem
centered/imme
diate
application
Staff members should be
able to recall both positive
and constructive feedback
from educators that has
been internalized and
considered
What type of feedback have you received from
teachers about their experience at ____?

Problem
centered/
application of
knowledge
Staff members should have
a process for understanding
whether or not the learning
objectives have been met
How do you assess any changes in classroom
practice for the teachers who participate in
your PD programs?

Self-directed
learning
Staff members should be
able to articulate what is
being done to support the
development of a learning
community among
participants
What if anything do you do to develop and
support a learning community over the long
term?
Problem
centered/
immediate
application
Staff members should be
able to describe what
strategies if any they are
utilizing to understand the
transference of learning
into the classroom
How do you measure the impact of the PD on
students?

166
Appendix B
Protocol for Focus Groups/Interviews with Teachers

Research Question:

2. How do teachers experience, internalize and act on these educational opportunities?

Seven Principles of Effective PD Questions
1) Content-focus Overall, how would you describe the
learning experience here at ____?
What did you learn that you didn’t know
before in terms of content?
2) Active learning How did the instructional strategies that
were used either enhance or detract from
your engagement?
3) Supported collaboration

In what ways were you and your colleagues
encouraged to collaborate during the
session?
4) Coaching and expert support What types of coaching and expert support
were provided to you by the staff?
5) The use of models and modeling

How were the strategies that you were
learning about modeled during the
workshop?

6) The use of models and modeling How were you given opportunities to practice
and/or model the strategies for the other
participants?
7) Opportunities for feedback and
reflection

Tell me about some specific “a-ha”
moments you had during the
week/weekend.

167
8) Sustained support – what happens after the
workshop or intensive?

How are you feeling about your ability to
transfer some of the things you learned into
your classroom?
What challenges and/or barriers do you
think you might face?
Do you expect and hope to receive support
from _____?

Abstract (if available)

Abstract The role of museums and historic sites as institutions of informal learning has been interwoven with the delivery of social studies education since the National Council for the Social Studies and the United Sates Park Service were both formed in 1916. Places like George Washington’s Mount Vernon, Gettysburg National Military Park and Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello are integral to the preservation of our collective past and our common identity as a country. In the midst of a highly polarized political environment and the recovery from a global pandemic, social studies teachers in American classrooms are often on the front lines of the modern culture wars. In addition, state standards for the delivery of social studies education have been evolving to focus more on the development of cognitive practices and skills such as historical thinking and empathy and less on the rote memorization of specific dates and events. Teachers of history and social studies need support to effectively make this transition. This qualitative study looks at professional development opportunities for teachers at the three national historic sites names above as well as the National World War II Museum in New Orleans. Through a series of interviews with museum professionals and participating teachers as well as focus groups and informal observations of weeklong immersive experiences offered during the summer of 2022, the study seeks to understand the theories and frameworks that inform the delivery of such experiences and the ways that teachers internalize and act on what they learn. Based on the findings, teachers expressed a strong preference for this type of place-based experiential learning over more traditional methods of professional development. The multi-day seminars and institutes also made them feel appreciated and valued as professionals. Ideas and suggestions are offered for other museums and historic sites that might be interested in offering similar opportunities for educators in the future. Implications for designers of other professional development opportunities at the district level are also discussed. Finally, areas for improvement and further research are identified and solutions are recommended along with an evaluation plan.

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Asset Metadata

Creator Rogers, Kathryn Ann (author)

Core Title The role of U.S. historic sites and museums in supporting social studies instruction in K-12 classrooms

School Rossier School of Education

Degree Doctor of Education

Degree Program Global Executive

Degree Conferral Date 2023-05

Publication Date 04/13/2023

Defense Date 04/12/2023

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag Commemorative Museum Pedagogy (CMP),contested histories,discursive instruction,historic site-based professional development (HSBPD),historical empathy,historical reconciliation,historical thinking skills,inquiry-based instruction,interpretive planning,OAI-PMH Harvest

Format theses (aat)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Krop, Cathy (committee chair), Picus, Lawrence (committee member), Robison, Mark (committee member)

Creator Email krogers@thealamo.org,rogerska@usc.edu

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-oUC113013923

Unique identifier UC113013923

Identifier etd-RogersKath-11617.pdf (filename)

Legacy Identifier etd-RogersKath-11617

Document Type Dissertation

Format theses (aat)

Rights Rogers, Kathryn Ann

Internet Media Type application/pdf

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Source 20230413-usctheses-batch-1021 (batch), University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

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