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04.10.03
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Last
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04.10.03
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Towards the Identification of an Archival Core Curriculum
(Funded by ALISE)
Sociologists of professions cite a specific knowledge base as one of the distinguishing features of a profession. Andrew Abbott discusses this knowledge both in terms of knowledge in use as well as an abstract, formal knowledge system (1). For archivists, identifying, codifying, and teaching the archival knowledge base (in terms of both the theory and practice) has evolved slowly over the past 50 years. As recently as 1990, Timothy Ericson argued that a large percentage of so-called "archival education" was comprised of "courses that might benefit an archivist" rather than being a true archival curriculum (2). More recent research by the present researchers, Jeannette Bastian and Elizabeth Yakel, and our colleagues has led us to conclude that not only has the number of archival courses increased but also that true archival curricula have developed (3). This development may partially be a result of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) 1994 Master of Archival Science (MAS) Guidelines that required archives courses to comprise fifty percent of any MAS degree. This was a major departure from SAA's 1977 and 1988 Guidelines that promoted archives as one specialization among many within another graduate program. While we as well as others have documented the increasing number of courses, researchers have yet to examine the content of the courses within these developing curricula to see if a core archival knowledge base is emerging. The project we now propose seeks to identify and analyze the knowledge base of archival education programs through a citation analysis of syllabi from a variety of archival courses being taught in over eighty different venues (schools of library and information science, history departments, public history programs, etc.) in North America. We also will also do a comparative analysis of the syllabi in relation to the 2002 Society of American Archivists, Guidelines for a Graduate Program in Archival Studies (4). The research questions are:
Our hypotheses are that a distinct, core archival knowledge base has developed
and is being taught by multiple archival programs in North America and that
the overall venue or context of the archival courses influences that knowledge
base. We also hypothesize that the SAA Guidelines have been effective
for the larger archival programs in the core archival knowledge areas, but
that the curriculum is lacking in interdisciplinary knowledge areas.
Investigators: Elizabeth Yakel and Jeannette Bastian, SI Doctoral Student ihyun Kim and SI Master's Student Meg Glass
Notes
(1) Andrew Abbott, The System of Professions: An Essay on the Division of Expert Labor, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988.
(2) Timothy Ericson,
"Professional Associations and Archival Education: A Different Role,
or a Different Theater?" American Archivist 51 (Summer 1988):
298-311.
(3) Richard J. Cox,
Elizabeth Yakel, David Wallace, Jeannette Bastian, and Jennifer Marshall,
"Archival Education at the Millennium: The Status of Archival Education
in North American Library and Information Science Schools," Library
Quarterly 71/2 (April 2001) and R. J. Cox, E. Yakel, D. Wallace, J. Bastian,
and J. Marshall, (2001) "Educating Archivists in Library and Information
Science Schools," Journal of Education for Library and Information
Science 42/3 (Summer).
(4) Society of American Archivists, Guidelines for a Graduate Program in Archival Studies, Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2002. Available URL: http://www.archivists.org/prof-education/ed_guidelines.asp
