I’m coming towards the end of a six week stint teaching the basics of Museum Studies to a group of Arts and Heritage Management students at De Montfort University. It’s been a great experience. I’ve gone from thinking that maybe teaching is not for me, to desperately wanting a lecturing job. I’ve got loads out of it. I feel my teaching skills have developed and I have new work experience to add to my CV. In writing the sessions I’ve done loads of revision and re-reading, which has been time very well spent time. I’ve updated my knowledge and reminded myself of practical ideas and theoretical perspectives to benefit my independent work. I sincerely hope my students have got something out of it too. I’ll miss seeing them every week. They’re a great bunch and I wish them all the best for the future. Thanks to Megan Vaughan for getting me the gig in the first place, and to module leader Maurice Maguire for his valuable insights and support.
I can imagine that teaching at university level is so much more rewarding than in schools. The students have to make real commitments to be there and they are going to be of a certain level of intelligence and will want to engage with the process much more. It will be interesting to see if you go more in that direction in the future.