If you came this way,
Taking the route you would be likely to take From the place you would be likely to come from, […]
And what you thought you came for Is only a shell, a husk of meaning
From which the purpose breaks only when it is fulfilled If at all. Either you had no purpose
Or the purpose is beyond the end you figured And is altered in fulfilment.
T. S. Eliot, from Little Gidding I
In this chapter I reflect on the research process and methods that were shaped by the course of investigation. I begin by situating the research: discussing the genesis of the study and initial decisions about its conduct; where the study would be located and the rationales for the choice of sites and participants. Then I explain the consequences of those decisions in terms of strategies of inquiry, sources of information and the research design. Next, I consider the inductive process of grounded research theory that led to the development of a conceptual framework far from what I had initially imagined or planned. Finally, I explain why the material is presented in several distinct voices and a variety of formats.
In doing this, I draw on passages from Little Gidding, T.S. Eliot’s meditation on time and journeying, exploration and knowing. I use it to speak to key moments in the research process because it is a metaphor for “the purpose beyond the end [I] figured”. The grounded theory research process became just that.
Policies. Practices. Public Pedagogy.
I
LOCATING THE RESEARCH
Art museum educators’ roles are complex and demanding.
Unlike teaching in formal settings, art museum educators’ interactions with their ‘students’ occur in public, are short-lived and centred on specific encounters with objects within the setting of an art museum. Participants in education programmes range from pre-schoolers to senior citizens. A school class or a group of adults is likely to work with an art museum educator face-to-face just once a year for two to three hours. A family may use materials designed by an art museum educator and visit three or four times a year. Adult groups can include postgraduate students, seniors involved in University of the Third Age, community groups or tourists, where outings are designed to combine social, learning and leisure opportunities. Museum educators operate within an organisation that is open seven days a week and offers public programmes on site throughout that time. Evening and weekend work is commonplace. Art museum educators are free from marking, exams and parent-teacher interviews. However, their skill-set is broadly based. They require thorough knowledge of the primary and secondary school curriculum and familiarity with a variety of learning styles and resources including technologies. They must demonstrate accountability for the use of public funding. In addition to their formal qualifications in teaching, they also hold academic qualifications in art history and theory or art practice, sometimes to post-graduate level. They must be familiar with all the museum’s collections and be competent in interpreting a range of visiting exhibitions. While most often working in the public eye to develop transient teaching and learning moments, their professional profile is overshadowed1
by curators whose research results in visible, long-term outcomes such as exhibitions, acquisitions for the permanent collection and publications.
One reason for embarking on this study was to capture and convey the working lives of art museum practitioners whose practices have gone largely unremarked2 and
whose motivations, philosophies and pedagogies are obscured. I am interested in these aspects because I once practised as an art museum educator and now work as a teacher, albeit in a very different milieu. I recognise that teachers are central to the creation of pedagogies. Even a single teacher who models critical intelligence and fosters such thinking can help to change perspectives and gradually contribute to positive social change in others. Furthermore, I deem it important to consider individuals within broader social processes, contextual narratives of institutional and professional histories and policy development. Moreover, by background, formal
education and inclination I respect ideas and value the dignity that comes when human beings seek and express creative excellence – as New Zealand has taught me, He toi whakairo he mana tangata.3
From the outset I wanted art museum educators to be seen and heard as protagonists in this study4 so that they, their managers and colleagues could see the way they
once were; the way they are now; and the way they might become.5 For this to
happen, close attention to the everyday realities of educators’ work, capturing their voices and practical knowledge, and an understanding of the unique milieu of the art museum as a teaching site were needed. A series of qualitative research strategies had the potential to meet this aim and the exploratory nature of the study.