ABSTRACT
The research reported in this paper emerged from a dialogue between the two authors. The dialogue itself shared two goals: first, to understand more precisely how non-school environments such as museums might be understood as unique learning environments; second, to continue to develop ways that preservice teacher education experiences could improve the knowledge and understanding of future teachers. This chapter reports our findings with
respect to the first goal. A second paper (Gregg & Leinhardt, in press) reports the results of the second goal. In the pursuit of our own improved level of understanding we chose to focus both our discussions and the activities of the study in two ways. First, we selected a topic of personal and national importance, the Civil Rights Era. The struggle for civil rights is not only a part of our national past but is a vital segment in all U.S. history curricula, a topic that future teachers need to understand in deep and engaged ways. Second, we selected the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute (BCRI) as a location and museum of unique significance. The BCRI is situated in the heart of the locale of the Civil Rights struggle and it is also a particularly well-designed and provocative institution. Our exploration weaves together three issues not always associated with each other: direct and indirect invitations to student teachers to move closer to their own community of practicing teachers by learning new material; the particular role of museums as privileged settings for making connections to the world outside of the classroom walls; and the meaning of a particular moment in our nation’s history.
