The importance of evaluation to museum educators and where and how they should start the process.

What is it about?

This guest-edited issue of the Journal of Museum Education (JME) takes a new approach by providing a range of case studies highlighting how others have faced some of the challenges of conducting evaluation of museum education. The articles in this issue give museum educators, and those that support them, practical evaluation tools and techniques to maximize these efforts, even within a work environment of limited time and resources. From building staff capacity to developing standardized evaluation methods, this issue will serve as a real-world guide and inspiration for those in the field who need to demonstrate the impact of their work.

Featured Image

Photo by Kelli Tungay on Unsplash

Photo by Kelli Tungay on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Museum educators today operate in an outcomes-based work environment, one riddled with accountability and pressure to demonstrate impact to their communities, learners, and supporters. In addition, museum educators have increasingly incorporated reflective practice into their work to understand their craft more holistically and to refine their practices. This environment of accountability and reflection demands that more attention be paid toward evaluation of education at museums. However, museum educators are all too often challenged by the lack of time, resources, or experience to fully meet the needs for evaluation.