Museum, Field, and Community Education Minor

The Museum, Field, and Community Education (MFCE) minor is an interdisciplinary minor designed for students who plan to work as educators in places other than schools. The MFCE program prepares future educational professionals with skills and experiences in designing meaningful learning experiences for a wide-range of audiences, built on an understanding of the cultural, contextual, and individual variables that shape human learning.

Many professionals in “informal education” fields like environmental and outdoor education, arts education, museum education, public history, and archaeology and biological archeology speak of a need for professionals who can supplement content knowledge (from a college major) with skills in communication, educational theory and design, interpersonal dynamics, and professionalism and who have applied, hands-on experience with children / learners and a variety of internships in related fields. 

Classes in this minor provide students with a strong foundation in educational theory and communication and an opportunity to deepen content area expertise. Courses are supplemented with fieldwork experiences at community education sites around the Washington College campus, and with internship experiences near and far.

This minor provides:

• Foundational coursework in educational theory and instructional design, and communication;
• Coursework to deepen student content knowledge in their area of study, or in a related field; 
• Fieldwork experiences to explore different learning contexts, and to apply content knowledge to real-world experiences.