Becoming a Better ME: Chinese science museum educators' expectations for professional growth

Abstract

Museum educators' (MEs) visions and desires for career development represent an idealized and aspirational identity of being better museum educational professionals. As part of a larger project that explored museum educators' self-concept as education professionals in China, this preliminary study explored 23 Chinese science museum educators' thoughts and ideas about their imagined professional identity in terms of describing personal desires for professional development pathways. Informed by a Possible Selves theoretical perspective, museum educators in this study elucidated five hoped-for professional development approaches, including cross-departmental communication, external communication, formal training in an engaging approach, peer support, and self-regulated learning. Their expectations for professional growth, to a large extent, were derived from personal reflection and social comparison on the basis of their past work experiences in museum institutions. Therefore, their imagination about future professional development was deeply influenced by the complicated sociocultural and political contexts in which they lived and worked. As the professionalization of science museum educator work in China is at a relatively early stage of emergence, this study provides insights that may help scaffold and direct professionalization efforts of museum education practices in China, and other countries and regions with similar contextual situations.