| Field trips to museums are not just fun experiences for students; they also have the potential to enhance in-service teachers' professional learning and practices when teachers use the educational resources of museums. There is a need to find new financial and professional development resources for social studies teachers, due to the devaluation of social studies as a core subject since the passage of the No Child Left Behind legislation of 2001, which does not require social studies as a tested subject (Neil, 2004; Virginia Consortium, 2006). Museums have the financial and educational resources (AAM, 1984, 1992) to contribute to social studies teachers' professional development. While reviewing the literature, patterns emerged in the areas of teacher professional development and museum education, such as characteristics of situated learning, teacher and museum collaborations, and a lack of research focusing on social studies teachers' learning in historical museums.; This instrumental and collective case study used qualitative research methods to investigate the following research question: How are the educational practices of four urban eighth grade social studies teachers affected by the educational resources of a historical site? Reformers in the social studies field have called for more case studies to be conducted on the practices of social studies teachers.; Using a purposeful sampling procedure, four eighth grade social studies teachers, who collaborate with a historical site located in their school district, participated in the study. The data resources used for the study were semi-structured pre- and post-field trip interviews, observations, participant logs, visual data, and artifacts that were managed and analyzed with NVIVO7 software. To strengthen the validity of the study a variety of strategies were used such as triangulation, member checking, the use of rich data and description, and NVIVO7 software query tools.; The analysis of the data revealed that the historical site's educational resources affected three key practices of the social studies teachers: classroom instruction, pedagogical content knowledge, and collaboration. The professional development of the social studies teachers was enhanced by using the historical site's educational resources.; The findings from this study suggest that the effect an external source has on socials studies teachers' practices have implications for practice, policy, and research in two educational communities: schools and museums. When collaborating with external sources, the school community benefits at multiple levels: administrators, teachers, and students. Museums benefit from working with school districts by expanding their programs, which enhance their finances. Further research that focuses on teacher learning at museums needs to be conducted by the educational professional development field and the museum education field. |
