F 2 · Education staffing
The education work carried out at historic sites tends to be achieved with modest resources. There is a strong reliance on volunteers, particularly at sites with no designated education managers, as well as staff on short-term contracts paid for by grants. Without these two sources of assistance, the learning facilities of many sites would become inoperable. The education staff is generally limited either to a part-time person with substantial responsibilities elsewhere, or to a member of staff coordinating numerous volunteers. While many organisations claim that the encouragement of learning is central to their mission, not so many can, or will, put substantial resources into achieving this objective.
This situation may put excessive strain on individual members of staff, especially since many of the most successful activities are held at weekends and in the evening. We have found several examples of truly inspired and dedicated individuals working long hours because of their idealistic belief in the importance of what they are doing. In some instances, their dedication leads to ‘burn out’ and retirement from this type of work.
One highly regrettable feature is the very low salaries paid to the majority of education staff at heritage sites. The salaries encourage rapid turn-over of staff and discourage experienced teachers from moving into this sector.
As in museums, there is still in many cases a strong division between the education/ learning section and the managers and curators – with education staff seen as an extra rather than an integral element of the site (an attitude reflected in the salaries paid). We suggest that this is unhelpful and that the preservation, presentation, interpretation of sites should be seen holistically.
Short-term funding for staff is provided by a number of funding organisations, notably the Heritage Lottery Fund. The hope is that such support will ultimately lead to the provision of financial support by the institution or by other funding bodies, but in many cases this hope is not realised. Some of the most interesting activities (as at the Ancient House Museum, Thetford, in Norfolk, where the HLF supported an education officer to provide services for a large and under-privileged rural community, with great success) have been forced to close when the project funding ran out.
Our research into the professional backgrounds of education staff, and the training available, presented a mixed picture. Heritage learning staff quite frequently have a professional background in education. At the most active sites just over 50% of volunteers are experienced teachers. On the other hand, teaching staff often have marketing or curatorial backgrounds, and have embarked on learning activities voluntarily, fired by their own enthusiasm. We would suggest that it would be detrimental to the historic environment if education staff were only employed from teaching backgrounds. Many recruitment drives at such sites do not currently take into account the quality of educators trained in spheres outside the teaching profession.
While the staff working for large organisations have some support and a shared policy from the parent body, many heritage education staff are working in an isolated context with no immediate colleagues, and often on short contracts. Equally, there is no organisation to bring together the staff in this sector for discussion and the exchange of ideas. This situation is in contrast to the museum education sector, where the Group for Education in Museums offers a regular opportunity for the exchange of ideas, and the role played in the archaeological sector by the Council for British Archaeology.
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