SPRING 2019 VIRTUAL SPECIAL ISSUE
Compiled by Nathaniel Prottas

This Virtual Special Issue of JME looks at our history and seeks to uncover debates around the value and role of museum education as documented in the journal between 1972 and today. The articles collected here investigate a specific issue in our history, namely how educators argued for power and responsibility in the museum, with a special focus on knowledge of the public vs. knowledge about objects. The articles highlight how museum educators used JME to argue for their relevance and importance in the changing museum landscape. While the format of the writing changed dramatically—from a more informal style to the more academic format now preferred by the journal—the debates invariably coalesce around a constellation of issues related to museum education’s role as advocate for the visitor. These include museum education’s status in relation to curators, the increased role of visitors, the emergence of evaluation as a central task, and criteria for the selection of objects for public interactions and exhibitions. In order to make clear when these debates emerged and how they shifted over the decades, the articles are presented in chronological order, rather than grouped thematically.

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FEATURED ARTICLES

Year	Article Title	Authors
1985	From the Chair	Gretchen Jennings
1985	Training for Museum Education Professionals	Nina Jensen and Mary Ellen Munley
1987	Reponses to “An Uncertain Profession”	Judith White Marcellini
1987	Response The Uncertain Profession	Danielle Rice
1987	‘Not about stuff, but about Somebody’ Michelle Spock on the Client-Centered Museum	Lisa Falk
1989	Museums and Knowledge. The Responsibility to Open Minds	Lisa Roberts
1993	Beyond the Turf Battles: Creating Effective Curator-Educator Partnerships	Jeanette M. Toohey and Inez S. Wolins
1994	Educators on Exhibit Teams: A New Role, A New Era	Lisa Roberts
1996	Listening Outside and Within	Deborah Perry, Lisa Roberts, Kris Morrissey & Lois Silverman
2006	Are Museum Educator’s Still Necessary?	Mary Ellen Munley and Randy Roberts
2006	The Educator at the Crossroads of Institutional Change	Barbara Henry
2011	Introduction: Protecting the Objects and Serving the Public, an Ongoing Dialogue	Elisabeth Sommer
2011	Shall We Go for a Ride?	Maxine Freedman
2014	The Impact of the Participatory, Visitor-Centered Model on Curatorial Practice	Catherine Evans