Research Underway

The process of research has really started up! With the focus of education within the National Park Service, I took to The Journal of The National Council on Public History to start. In 2016 they had a special edition for November that dealt with the Park's centennial. In this volume, a wide range of topics was discussed, including education, management, archeology, and outreach. As my research is focused on public education and interaction I read "National Parks for New Audiences: Diversifying Interpretation for Enhanced Contemporary Relevance" by Daniel E. Coslett and Manish Chalana, as well as "Resuscitating the Promise: Reflections on Implementing Innovative and Collaborative History from the Nation's First National Historic Site" by Margo Shea, Maryann Zujewski, and Jonathan Parker. I had originally been planning on doing a self-guided or ranger-led tour experience, and I still might, but "Resuscitating the Promise" has me considering creating a research question and project that relates to broader community work. In this article, the Salem Maritime National Historic Site staff teamed up with local educators to create a program for teachers to experience the park so that can integrate what they learned into the classroom and hopefully bring the class to the park. I will need to spend more time researching the near and far goals of the National Park System, and Seneca Falls especially, to determine how to proceed.

The Public Historian Volume 38 Number 4 Cover
Volume I got my articles from this week

Throughout my research, I have noticed the prevalence of case studies in almost all of the articles. I have also noticed the structure of the article is often framed around the case studies. With the end goal of writing my own thesis, I have been paying much closer attention to the structure and tone people use. It has been interesting how the tone of articles change depending on how involved the author was in the topics being discussed. In "National Parks for New Audiences" the authors were more disconnected and examining what others were doing while the authors of  "Resuscitating the Promise" were directly involved in the project they were discussing.

References:

Coslett, D. E., and M. Chalana. "National Parks for New Audiences: Diversifying Interpretation for Enhanced Contemporary Relevance." The Public Historian38, no. 4 (2016): 101-28. doi:10.1525/tph.2016.38.4.101.

Coslett, D. E., and M. Chalana. "National Parks for New Audiences: Diversifying Interpretation for Enhanced Contemporary Relevance." The Public Historian38, no. 4 (2016): 101-28. doi:10.1525/tph.2016.38.4.101.

Coslett, D. E., and M. Chalana. "National Parks for New Audiences: Diversifying Interpretation for Enhanced Contemporary Relevance." The Public Historian 38, no. 4 (2016): 101-28. doi:10.1525/tph.2016.38.4.101.

Shea, M., M. Zujewski, and J. Parker. "Resuscitating the Promise: Reflections on Implementing Innovative and Collaborative History from the Nations First National Historic Site." The Public Historian 38, no. 4 (2016): 129-48. doi:10.1525/tph.2016.38.4.129.

Shea, M., M. Zujewski, and J. Parker. "Resuscitating the Promise: Reflections on Implementing Innovative and Collaborative History from the Nations First National Historic Site." The Public Historian38, no. 4 (2016): 129-48. doi:10.1525/tph.2016.38.4.129.

Shea, M., M. Zujewski, and J. Parker. "Resuscitating the Promise: Reflections on Implementing Innovative and Collaborative History from the Nations First National Historic Site." The Public Historian38, no. 4 (2016): 129-48. doi:10.1525/tph.2016.38.4.129.